Unfortunately this very unique, very weird novel was way too long to keep me fully invested in the story. The many tangents and ramblings lost me throughout the book, leaving me feeling less than satisfied by the end.

I love Adam Levin and will read anything he writes, but perhaps my expectations were too high on this one after loving The Instructions. Perhaps it was hard to enjoy a novel in the new Covid reality; I will re-read this at some point to see if it hits better the second time around.

Verrrrrryyy slow start to this one, but it does eventually pick up and become worth it. Either you like the metafiction of Levin or you don't, but if you're a fan of metafiction, this is worthwhile.

A very long book, probably not for everyone but I really enjoyed it. If you take your time with the book I found the writing style to become more familiar and easier to read.
I loved the quirky characters and originality of the book.

This book was *crazy*. I've never read any Adam Levin, and I'm overall relatively new to science fiction in general, but this book was like nothing I've ever read. It's full of unique dialogue and rich storytelling, as well as allegories to our current world (which is the best kind of science fiction, in my opinion). At times I did feel that it dragged on a bit, but the plot kept me interested!

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

Clean honest lines like:
My competitive streak was the width of a noodle.

Funny on point dialogue like:
“Go assfuck a swingswt you psycho.”
That cut me a little, but I came back fast. I said, “Fetch me my cold Cherry Coke and Pringles. In the meantime, though, shut your piehole, cakeface.”

Back to clean honest lines:
I was twelve years old, wanted someone to touch me, and knew no one would.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book sounded right up my alley. Alternate universe, quirky, and weird. Life with no internet…What?!

The main character, Belt Magnet, hears voices of inanimate objects. He hears things that may not really be there.

Belt lives in an alternative America where the internet was never invented and instead robots called Curios were sold. These small companions need to be near their bonded human for most of the day or they die of heartbreak.

The narrator goes off on long ramblings and the other people in the book speak to in monologs.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. The author was just too long winded for my choice in reading.

Bubblegum by Adam Levin is a science fiction story based in an alternate, present-day world—one in which the internet has never existed and instead is dominated by a new species of "flesh-and-bone robots" called Curio. The book is told in the form of a memoir of the main character, Belt Magnet, who feels out of sync with the world around him. For starters, he has a condition which allows him to hear and speak with inanimate objects, or “inans” and while he is an adult, he struggles to perform even the most simple adult responsibilities and instead has to rely on others to take care of him. On top of that, whenever Belt speaks to someone, there is something about him that makes others drone on and on in a monologue style, which feels a lot like never ending word vomit.

What I loved most about this book is the way it uses a fictional, alternate world that’s in many ways completely absurd while also being relatable to our current world and portraying situations that really make you think critically about life. I also enjoyed the writing style immensely! I liked the way that it was written in the form of a memoir by the main character, Belt Magnet, and that it was thorough in the way it described the world and situations while also being hilarious in often a dark way. And probably most of all, I just loved how bizarre the story was. It made reading it extremely interesting and I found myself engrossed in each chapter.

While I really enjoyed the book, I did feel that it was unnecessarily long and I found myself tiring of the page after page of what felt like never-ending monologues by various characters as well as the internal dialog from Belt. The book is almost 800 pages densely packed, tiny font print which I think is marvelous when the story is really interesting—which Bubblegum is—but at times it feels like certain sections drag on for no reason. I think the story could have been told with far less pages but if you enjoy a thorough read, this might be perfect for you!

I really enjoyed reading Bubblegum. It is the type of book that you can read over the course of a month and really submerse yourself in the story and the bizarre world that Adam Levin has created. Now that the book is coming out next week, I’m so excited to order the audiobook so I can listen to the whole thing again and pick up on things that I may have missed during the first read through.

I had really high hopes for this one, as it seemed like a cool premise. But I just...couldn't really dig the writing style. And the discussion of boners within the first like, five pages wasn't...great.

There are two types of people in this world: the kind that likes books like "Bubblegum," and those (the majority of people) who do not.

The synopsis of this book, which describes an alternate world in which the internet was never created and where people have flesh-and-blood robots that fit in the palm of their hand, may make you think that it's a more or less straight-forward adult science fiction (I did). But it's not.

This is dense, full-on, experimental literary fiction.

What this book actually is, is the memoir of Belt Magnet, a grown man who still lives with his father and does not know how to do simple adult tasks like banking and driving a car. A man who is infamous for murdering swingsets as a child (because they asked him to), who wrote a book that nobody has read, and who, for some reason, people tend to spew their entire existences to in everyday conversations. On occasion, he speaks to inanimate objects (not just swingsets) but has no idea how he does this.

This book is largely written in a stream-of-consciousness style with many meandering moments, interspersed with mentions and allusions to pieces of media, only a few of which exist in the state they are described in our current world, and the rest of which are either totally made up or completely changed (like The Matrix sans internet...). Other times, we step into lengthy flashbacks, read manuals (sometimes, twice), or transcripts of odd video collages and other such works. Meanwhile, we meet the author several times and are forced to read through gruesome scenes of animal-like-creatures being tortured and killed in pretty sadistic ways with little to no consequences for the torturers (but with the intention of making some grand point...which was not always clear to me).

The story has a very frail, almost nonexistent, plot, as the book is more focused on revealing Belt’s life, and meeting the many crude characters he encounters, which babble on for egregious amounts of time about nothing in particular. Everyone in this book is extremely long-winded, unbelievably strange, and completely unlikeable...except maybe Kablanky...who isn't actually a person and never speaks.

However, this book is not supposed to be read to be enjoyed but to be understood and pondered. So, if you’re ok with not finding joy in any particular part of a book, but are still willing to hold out for the small hope that you will understand it in the least, then go forth and read "Bubblegum." I bid you well.

I kept reading this book with the faintest faith that I would come to some fundamental conclusion about whatever life-changing thing it was trying to tell me. But I never really grasped anything that substantial, and I don’t think many other average readers will either. 

This book is one of those books that comes with prior required reading (Slaughterhouse-Five, etc.) and either a classroom setting in which to discuss it (at times, I felt like I should be back in my experimental literature class in college...), a master’s degree in the subject, or a plethora of notes in order to really register what the point of it all is.

But it’s a very very long version of this type of thing and I couldn’t help thinking that at times it was trying more at the aesthetic of the genre than it was doing anything profound with all of its 784 pages....which seemed like altogether too much time to be spent in such an unwelcoming world.

I find it hard to rate something that I enjoyed so little while also knowing that it may be the best example ever of not being the correct audience for something. Although, I think it's also fair to say that the real audience for this, the group of people that it is truly accessible to, is a very small group of people. A group of very smart, slightly masochistic, people. The kind of people that like books like "Et tu, babe" (who I don’t trust in the least and who I'm unsure of the existence of to this day...). 

I rated "Bubblegum" 2.5 out of 5 stars, after involving some math; taking into account a rating of 1 for my own reading pleasure, a 5 for what I’m sure it’s doing that I don’t understand (and for those few people who like that kind of thing), and averaging them.

If anyone finds notes for this one, so that I may finally feel it was worth the many hours I spent reading it, let me know.

Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday books for an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book is weird as hell and I loved it.

Set in an alternate America, our narrator is a schizophrenic who details his life in a very meta memoir. Full of fantasy, memories, rants, and pithy commentary, this is a creative and original work of fiction.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book sounded so quirky and weird and like something that would be right up my alley. The book WAS quirky and weird. The protagonist was one Belt Magnet, a diagnosed psychotic who hears voices of inanimate objects like swing sets, playground surfaces and pillows. Belt lives in an alternative history America where the internet was never invented and instead sometime in the late 80s small "flash and blood robots" called Curios were sold. These small companions need to be near their bonded human for a majority of the day or they die of heartbreak.

So that's where we are at, right? sounds like it could be a cool story. The narrator is unreliable in that he hears things that may not really be there. He also goes off on long rambling thoughts about various things and lots of people he encounters in the world speak to him in monologs.

I wanted to like this book but it was a bit too much for me. Too long, too much rambling, too many weird asides, a bit too much misogyny.

Sorry, this just wasn't for me. I was intrigued by the alternate-world premise, but couldn't really get into it and couldn't connect with any of the characters. Thanks anyway.

I always try to finish books I review for NetGalley, but with this one I just couldn't get past about 120 pages. The blurb made it sound much different than it is. It actually advertised this as "hilarious" but it was just kind of uncomfortable. Although the premise seemed original, the characters and dialogue felt familiar, adapted from other tales of pubescent boys and misogynistic misanthropes. Not my cup of tea.

Thank you Netgalley for this advance copy.

This book just wasn't my thing. I think the writing was good, but I just couldn't connect. I might try it again. Maybe it was timing. My review reflects upon myself and not the book.

Bubblegum is set in an alternate present-day world in which the Internet does not exist, and has never existed. Rather, a wholly different species of interactive technology--a "flesh-and-bone robot" called the Curio--has dominated both the market and the cultural imagination since the late 1980s. Belt Magnet, who as a boy in greater Chicago became one of the lucky first adopters of a Curio, is now writing his memoir, and through it we follow a singular man out of sync with the harsh realities of a world he feels alien to, but must find a way to live in.
At age 38, still living at home with his widowed father, Belt insulates himself from the awful and terrifying world outside by spending most of his time with books, his beloved Curio, and the voices in his head, which he isn't entirely sure are in his head. After Belt's father goes on a fishing excursion, a simple trip to the bank escalates into an epic saga that eventually forces Belt to confront the world he fears, as well as his estranged childhood friend Jonboat, the celebrity astronaut and billionaire.

What a unique and amazing story- I am fairly new to the Science Fiction genre so I appreciated that this was more on the mild side. I laughed out loud so many times and was sad when I was done with reading it,

I read the synopsis for Bubblegum and was instantly sold. Unfortunately, I tried to read this twice and I had to DNF around 100 pages in. Slow burn plot, sci-fi, odd characters and surreal elements: I'm fine with all of those things. But Bubblegum had too much of that going on at once, plus it's a massive book. I could not connect to either the protagonist or plot, and with so much left to read after two attempts, I had to abandon it.

If you have the patience for long, strange, dense stories like this, I encourage you to try Bubblegum. It was just not for me.

The premise of this book sounds so good, unfortunately I just could not get into it. I only made it through about 20% of it. The writing was definitely not bad, but it was very dense and slow moving. I might come back to it later, but for now, I’m putting it aside.

Interesting concept but I didn't totally love this book.

It took a while to get into it and then it just fell flat for me.

I did not like this book at all. I really liked the blurb for the book, and couldn't hit request fast enough. It was slow moving, I found the misogynistic undertones upsetting.