I started reading this book and found that it was not for me. I didn't think it was fair to review a book I didn't finish.

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

I very much enjoyed this story. It was wonderfully written. I look forward to the author’s next book!

I thoroughly enjoyed Black Buck and its satirical take on race and racism, especially in the workplace. It was clever, entertaining and sharp. My only complaint would be that I did start to get confused at times with all of the dialogue and found it difficult to keep up with it all, but I enjoyed the story overall.

There are very few books I have read that do not let me describe with a weird word or maybe two or sentences. Maybe I just did that, lol. This book is nothing like anything I have read before, and I am more than glad that I did.

BlackBuck is that punch to the gut, taking the blow of I wasn’t ready, not in the slightest bit. This book is a story of twenty-two years old Darren, contently working at Starbucks and living with his mother in a closely knitted neighborhood. Only until, when he accidentally makes an impression on the CEO of a nothing-i-have-known-anything-like-this- Startup Swumwum, Rhett Daniels. Rhett sees the potential in Darren and pursues him to join his company thus turning Darren into “Buck” in an all-white Startup, taking him in for a ride of his life. A journey that turns his world upside down and then downside up.

The book explores the world of the American workforce, especially corporate. A Back salesman working in an all-white company and facing all kinds of things you can imagine is what it is, but it is not all it.

“Race isn’t popular, Buck. It’s a dirty word. But diversity isn’t”

The concept of Race is the glorification of diversity for the sake of advertising. They want to be seen as “woke” and “liberal”.

Mateo has done a wonderful job at creating the characters of this book. Their too close to reality actions, their flaws, and too much happening in life. This book was too much to take in and not in the slightest bit easy to get into. I took my sweet time getting into this book, swallowing up the blow after blow directing at me, and to be very honest this was one wild read.

I sat down and gave this book another try and let me tell you I was hooked. I would definitely recommend this book and will purchase a copy for my library.

Darren has been working at Starbucks for the last 4 years, living at home with his mom in Bed-Stuy. His mom wants him to live up to his potential, and when the CEO of a fast-growing start up asks him for a meeting, she pushes him to take it. Next thing we know, Darren is nicknamed “Buck” and is the only Black person working at Sumwun. They put him through hell week and that’s only the beginning. The story twists and turns with tragedy and with Buck hatching a plan to help more people of colour infiltrate corporate America.

Don’t sleep on this book! It’s so smart, hilarious and hits on so many salient issues in the western world. as satirical as it is, it really isn’t that far-fetched. I actually learned a lot, loved the sales tips, and have some takeaways to think about diversity in the workplace. The way Mateo Askaripour wrote this book was perfect and the performance on audio was excellent.

If you like satire, thrillers, comedy and books with twists, go read this! It reminded me a bit of The Boys Club with the corporate world, which I loved. Would recommend!

Black Buck is a witty satire and debut novel about race and work in the United States. This book is written as part sales manual, which breaks the fourth wall, and part memoir despite being entirely fiction. Mateo Askaripour successfully pulls off humor, exaggeration, and social commentary in order to create a successful satire.

Before you dive into Black Buck, you really must understand that this novel is satire and borders on absurdist satire. If you are looking for a book that takes itself seriously or is not a bit over-the-top, you should skip Black Buck.

Despite the satirical approach that Askaripour takes, I still understood his message and was left very uncomfortable at times. In fact, I became so angry, thanks to one character in particular, that I had to take a few breaks while reading it. The macroaggressions and microaggressions directed at Darren in the workplace were maddening. Even more frustrating was the other characters’ lack of reaction or action to these aggressions. While a bit exaggerated, I thought it was pretty accurate reflection of what BIPOC individuals experience in a lot of workplaces.

Askaripour is clearly a fantastic storyteller. The plot flowed well and was engrossing, although I found it predictable at times. However, Askaripour packed in a twist in the end that may shock some. I did not have any issue with the fact that Black Buck was a bit predictable, because the manner in which it is written made it feel fresh and new.

I did find the humor a bit juvenile, but that is not a new experience for me. I know from reading other reviews quite a few people found the book hilarious. I simply thought that comparisons like “sharper than Michael Jackson’s nose” or “colder than an Inuit’s titty” were ridiculous. But this did not take away from the story for me.

My largest critique of Black Buck was that it did not quite come full circle. Darren never addresses what else in workplaces need to change. Nor does Darren realize how he has internalized white America’s definition of success or the fact that he has become obsessed with “mastering” white supremist structures. Through most of the book, he defines success as the freedom that comes from winning the corporate game and becoming rich.

Overall, Black Buck is creative, engrossing, and a bit absurd. I have really never read another book quite like it. I really enjoyed the book. Both shocking and provocative, I would encourage reading Black Buck at least once.

Please, please, someone in Black Hollywood make this into a movie! I can't think of a better time, or a better story, to use this terrific twist on The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit to skewer the shrinking opportunity pool! The Economist cites statistics that show that white bros are more eager than BIPoC employees to return to the office, stop remote working. Reading this book will give you a visceral, intense sense of why that most likely is true...and what the grim consequences for diversity in the workplace could turn out to be.

Not, however, if Author Askaripour has anything to say about it.

You see, there's some truth to the old adages "be careful what you wish for, lest the answer be 'yes'" and "you get back what you give out." Darren, twenty-two and a barista with a pretty good life (he thinks; his mom disagrees), sees one of his regulars ordering the same boring thing every morning. He does what a good sales person always does: suggests an alternative, a different and more interesting drink. Without being crappy about it, he persists until the customer agrees to try the new item. Which he loves.

Darren's brewed his last latte. He upsold the founder of SumWun and now he has a high-powered sales job waiting for him. That maybe he doesn't want...or isn't sure he wants...but let me tell you, when someone who's got what it takes to grab enough money to found a viable tech company wants you, it would do you best to get your stuff out of your locker and go with him right then. There will be no rest until your onboarding process is complete and your world revolves around Selling the Widget.

Author Askaripour chose to frame this narrative as one of those metastatic "positivity/self-help/I succeeded you can too" memoirs recrudescing all over bookstores like lesions on a cancer patient. It was, I thought for about two chapters, going to make me a crazy person. "I have to bail," I whimpered to my Young Gentleman Caller. "I might get seriously ill, this is reminding me of all those years selling!"

"Read me some," he said, "just enter {position number} and let's go."
<blockquote>“Ain’ no Black people need no therapists, ’cause we don’ be havin’ those mental issues. OCD, ADD, PTSD, and all those other acronyms they be comin’ up with every day. I’m tellin’ you, the only acronyms Black folk need help with is the NYPD, FBI, CIA, KKK, and KFC, ’cause I know they be puttin’ shit in those twelve-piece bucket meals to make us addicted to them.”</blockquote>
"That was funny! You haven't got that far yet, you have to find out why that's there," I was ordered.

You rock, Rob. I took the ride, I enjoyed the whole ride, and you're the one who made it happen.

It was sometimes cringe to me how close Author Askaripour sailed to the winds of snottiness. It was often the case, however, that he found my ticklish spot right after that. I am not going to say I think everyone should read the book because the humor-deficient will be blankly confused why it's supposed to be funny or outraged that their demographic is being scored off ("He reeked of privilege, Rohypnol, and tax breaks" is one of the most memorable snorts of derision). For me, possibly for you, there's an aesthetic hill to climb in the format being parodied; but there is something so very good to gain by persevering: Belly laughs at the sheer inventive snark leveled at targets who could use some dings and scratches on their cheap veneer.

Recommended for some good, cathartic belly laughs.

3.5

"I didn't know what to expect when I began reading Black Buck by debut author, Mateo Askaripour. This book took me through a variety of emotions. Overall, I found it to be an ok read but slightly disjointed at times.

Black Buck is what happens when The Wolf Of Wall Street meets Diversity Day (you know that one episode in the first season of The Office). While I understand this book was meant to be satirical, it just didn't land for me the way it did for others. The social commentary on systematic racism in the workplace Askaripour tried to include got lost because the storyline was completely over-the-top and messy. With that being said, I have seen many other readers really enjoy this title, so maybe some of the issues are with me and not the book itself. Pick this one up at your own risk.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I wanted to love this book but felt that it missed the mark.

I did not enjoy this book as much as the description led me to believe I would, I had to DNF half way through.

Dear Reader,

Are you interested in a book that pokes at problematic white supremacist and capitalist society, sometimes using satire to do so? If you answered yes, you're in for a treat.

----------------------

Synopsis: Black Buck centers Darren's climb through the white hetero-normative heirarchy of the sales world as it's token Black American. He shares insights on the challenge of working his way to the top--from Starbucks to Sumwun to ?--as he transforms into a Black salesman on a mission.

The way Black Buck is written was brilliant, bouncing from Darren talking to reader/listener, stream of conscious with emotions, and the retelling of his journey. It read like a film! I found myself nodding in agreement at the righteous anger of Darren, cringing at the self-importance and bigoted-ness of Clyde and others. Black Buck's message is a very clear and important roasting and social commentary on the problem of the sales world (and general workforce) in the United States. It reads very close to satire with how blunt, ironic and outright ridiculous some things are, and this definitely adds to the reading experience.

In addition to reading the ARC, I also listened to the audiobook via the Libby app & my local library. I found the audiobook to be especially well-narrated--great emotional infliction and generally nice to listen to. If reading certain things triggers you, you might want to double check before reading this one. Without spoiling, loss is one for me. I found it well-written, but it no doubt affected my reading experience (-0.5 rating).

3.5/5 stars for Black Buck! Thank you to NetGalley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Mariner Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved the satire in this novel. As a high school teacher I see all the pressure placed on my students by their parents and this novel speaks to that aspect a bit. With all of the praise that this novel received, it was certainly earned.

I'll be honest - when I first started reading Black Buck, I was pretty thrown off. I didn't totally realize the book's plot and thought it was fully based on Starbucks based on tons of other reviews I've seen about it, and their accompanying pictures on Bookstagram. Sure, Starbucks plays a role, but not that major. After reading Black Buck, I've seen comparisons to Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street and YES! YES! YES! Entirely accurate.


"Life, like sales, comes with an endless amount of opportunities to do the wrong thing to win. But understand that whether you take those opportunities or not, consequences still follow. And they won't always be in your favor."


This book is intense and it's definitely satirical. I think it's important to go into the book realizing it's satire, because that was one of the things that made the book more challenging for me to read. I enjoyed it but it also felt incredibly over the top... like ridiculously over the top. What I found to be most difficult for me though was the timeline. I felt that there were weird jumps between some of the chapters/sections, and with everything that was happening, the timeline just did not make sense to me.

But really, the book is good. It's written as a book within the book itself. The main character, Darren (aka Buck) is writing the book as a guide for salespeople, specifically those of color. So it's an interesting concept, with some good advice, but it's also fast-paced, entertaining, and leaves you with things to think about regardless of race. I feel like the things I'm still mulling over may be different than the things a BIPOC may be thinking about.

Black Buck is amusing, uncomfortable, frustrating, cringe-worthy, smart, and informative. It's a hyperbolic take on the workplace and how non-White, non-straight, non-cis, non-male constituents are often treated and taken for granted. Reading this entire book is uncomfortable, but so informative and so thought-provoking. I highly recommend, and I definitely anticipate reading more from Mateo Askaripour.

I love this book because of its uniqueness and the way story unfolded was interesting. The start was great but the ending was way over the top. Rest assured, it was a good and beautiful read.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for the arc of this masterpiece.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This was a solid 3.5-4 stars for me. The first half started off super strong and the second half took a turn I wasn’t expecting. I really liked the authors writing style. Some likable characters became in likable and vice versa - I liked that. I know this story is meant to be an extreme of certain topics, but like the exaggeration in some parts isn’t far off from the truth. Overall this story has a good pace, and made me laugh out loud several times. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

I started and finished Mateo Askaripour's hilarious and deep debut novel, Black Buck. Darren lives with his mother and when he is not working as a shift supervisor at Starbucks, he is spending time with his girlfriend. Darren was valedictorian of his competitive high school in New York City, but didn't go to college. His mother wants him to find his niche, and when a start-up CEO offers Darren a position as a salesman at his company, Darren reluctantly accepts. As the only Black man at the startup, Darren has to live with the constant microaggressions (a running gag is everyone at the company telling him he looks like every Black man from Morgan Freeman to Barack Obama) and outright hostile racism. This book is phenomenal, I literally could not put it down, I can see why Jenna Bush Hager chose it as her January book club pick for the Today Show. I love a book when I don't where it's going, and it suprises me. I give it my highest recommendation.

What a journey this novel is! It was so beautifully written! I recommend this to everyone I meet! I loved it so much.