This book is well written and has good character development I just couldn’t personally get into the story and found it a little bit of a struggle to keep reading. Either way it just left a little lacking for me personally. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Black Buck follows Darren "Buck" Vendor as suddenly finds himself working at a NYC-based internet start-up and his life changes more or less overnight. This book is satire and reminded me a lot of the Sellout by Paul Beatty in tone and theme. Black Buck moves quickly and is very readable. It lost one star for me as parts of it felt a little too far-fetched--even for a satire. Overall a very enjoyable and readable debut novel.

BLACK BUCK by Mateo Askaripour is a wild ride of a novel about a salesman, Buck, and his rise to success. Uniquely he tells his story directly to us, the reader, and there’s lots of little tips for us along the way. There were definitely some funny moments and some quite surprising things that happen that I didn’t see coming. I really liked the conversational tone and dialogue and the foreshadowing. Once I got to around the midway point I just couldn’t stop reading and had to find out how it would all end. I’d definitely be interested to read more from Askaripour in the future!

Black Buck is a whirlwind of a book that made me feel multiple emotions: hope, frustration, rage, and confusion.

Darren was a charismatic narrator and dynamic character to follow. He's funny, cool, and naive. Sometimes I'm cheering for him; other times I was rolling my eyes at him. In addition to Buck, Mateo Askaripour fills out the story with other interesting characters including Soraya, Rhett and Wally Cat.

The author also does a great job exploring various topics such as startup culture, blind ambition, and racism. When Darren first starts at his new job, he experiences racist hazing from a senior sales leader. While I found myself raging about Darren's abuse, I also related to how he justified the abuse. Swallowing racism to prove that you belong at the table. The author perfectly frames the frustration that minorities experience when trying to balance ambition with their humanity.

I still don't know how I feel about the end of the book. Scarily, the racism and craziness towards the end of the book was both over-the-top and completely realistic. I still don't know how I feel about the ending, but overall an adventure of a book that I flew through. I'm excited to see more from Mateo Askaripour.

Thank you to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC.

Mr. Askaripour hits it out of the park! What an incredible read. Darren works at Starbucks, he is quite happy with his life and feels that his big break will eventually come. He is very bright, the valedictorian of his class. His friends and family think he is not living up to his full potential. One day Rhett, a founder of a start up company from several floors up in the same building walks in for a coffee. Darren proceeds to sell him on why he should try a new coffee rather than his usual. Rhett so taken with the young salesman ends up offering him a position in sales. Darren is nicknamed Buck, after Starbucks and remains Buck for the remainder of the story. He rises to success despite many obstacles including Hell Week and much discrimination. He begins to change with his success and not always for the better, at least that’s what his friends think. Many other reviewers have detailed more of the plot, I want to switch gears now and tell you about the characters and the writing.

Every single character left nothing to the imagination they were so well done. Each of them was complex and complete. I felt like I personally knew and was invested in every one of them. From Brian’s ticks, swearing and bad complexion to the brutal account executives roll playing during hell week, Ma, Jason, Soraya, Clyde and the rest of the cast. The writing is exquisite. I kept feverishly turning pages. The dialog written to express conversations in black slang was sensational, it puts the reader there. Even though I didn’t understand all the meanings, I eventually got most of it. Discrimination and reverse discrimination, it’s all here, in your face. It’s alive and well exactly as it’s written, no one can ignore it.

I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. Many reviewers have written about the books humor. Honestly, there is some funny, lighthearted dialog but I did not find this book humorous.

I won’t give away the end but I have to say it plain blew me away! This one definitely has huge WOW factor. I’d give it ten stars if I could and I’m usually pretty stingy with five. GET YOUR COPY!

A timely and well written story of ambition, greed, and racism. Entertaining yet disturbing - and so well crafted I couldn’t put it down. The author somehow creates an ‘over the top’ plot that echoes with truth. I recommend this book highly.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. I'll be posting my review on Goodreads and Amazon

***I received an ARC from netgalley***

I just finished this book and man, it was a whirlwind. It's shockingly relevant in its portrayal of the systemic racism that plagues our society. Parts of this book made me laugh, a lot of it made me angry but I think that was necessary. You should be angry when you read this. You should empathize and feel for buck as he goes through changes. I would recommend that everyone read this.

My thoughts about this book were all over the map. It’s called satire, but it’s not the traditional laugh out loud satire. Other than a running joke in which every white person thinks Buck looks like a different famous black man, there’s not much to laugh about. Instead, it’s the tale of what happens when a young black man tries to emulate a successful white man and loses his soul.
Darren is happy working at Starbucks, waiting for the right opportunity. He gets that opportunity to work as a salesman at a startup company. It’s one of those high stress sales jobs, made more so as he’s the only black in the company. Given the nickname Buck, supposedly because he worked at Starbucks, he’s initially sympathetic, but then he drinks the kool aid and incorporates the lessons a little too well. Later, he finds his purpose again, as well as his freedom.
The book is written as a pseudo memoir/self help/sales manual, filled with lessons. The style works well.
I can’t say I really enjoyed this. I think appreciate is the better word. The last part of the book got too far fetched, although maybe not as much as I’d like to think given Trump and his supporters. For every part of this book that I liked - the depiction of the saleroom and the gonzo mentality, there were other parts that just fell flat.
My thanks to netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an advance copy of this book.

Love him or hate him Buck is a fantastic narrator for this story. Many twists and turns and yes shades of Sorry to Bother You as well as Jordan Peele's Get Out. If this book's message doesn't make you at least slightly uncomfortable, you may want to check that you are not a robot.

Starting off as some kind of self help memoir this book blurs the line between fiction and reality. Found myself unable to put it down and just trying to get a hit of one more page or two before passing out.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was a work of fiction, and not a riveting self-help/business book explaining the rise of a salesman. I found myself reading "just one more page" because I needed to know how the narrator got where he was. Fantastic!

Yaaassss! Similar to Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, but, IMHO, better. The sales analogy is spot on for this satire and the twists and turns are 💯

An interesting story about a black man who has the opportunity to rise from a Starbucks barista to salesman at a startup tech company. He goes through a very difficult He’ll Week to become a salesman, but rises rapidly to become a great salesman. This book is telling us the secrets of salesmanship while revealing his own progress from Bed Suy to Park Avenue and his life during and afterwards. His friends back home think he has gotten a big head and has forgotten his upbringing. His mother is proud of him but dies leaving a letter reminding him to help others rise out of their poverty and disparities. He eventually comes to helping others and developing a company that teaches salesmanship to minorities. He has made an enemy at his original company (Clyde) Whois determined exact revenge. This novel explores racism, poverty, disillusionment, the art of salesmanship and relationships.

From the opening line, the character of Buck jumps right off the page and captures the reader's attention and imagination. You will love Buck, then you will hate him, then you will be rooting for him. Then you learn the ending to his story, and everyone will have a different reaction (not going to spoil it).

"There’s nothing like a black salesman on a mission.

An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.

After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.

Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream."

The last bit of the novel is definitely the most difficult - racism, violence, etc. But it definitely takes aim at American culture, especially the workforce and the concept of the "American Dream." I both loved it and hated it. I wish it could've ended differently, but while a tad absurd, it is an accurate reflection of the current state of affairs.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This debut has excellent prose that draws the reader in. The reader is invited into the corporate world to witness all its gluttonous debauchery and its privileged members. Askaripour is a writer to watch.

Darren works at Starbucks, providing caffeinated drinks to the busy women and men who require a fix of this simple addiction as the slave away at their jobs. Little does Darren know, after influencing one simple coffee order, his whole future is about to go through some drastic changes, altering his future and throwing him into the intense and unpredictable world of internet startups. After enduring a hellacious hell week at the company Sumwun, and walking away with the name Buck, Darren eventually has to decide if he will forget where he came from, now that he is Sumwun, or if he will work to better his community.⁣
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Full of satire and humor, Black Buck is a novel that not only entertains but has some important messages that many need to hear. Covering racism, the media, internet startups, white fragility, and the beast that is New York City, Askaripour creates a rollercoaster ride of a novel that is extremely timely. The characters are amazing--gay, straight, rich, poor, black, white, and every color inbetween--they are all so well developed and enjoyable to read about. I can’t remember a time when I have ever gone back and forth so much about a character like I did with Darren/Buck, from rooting for him, to wanting to knock some sense into him, to rooting for him again. ⁣
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I highly recommend Black Buck. I found it to be a real page-turner that entertained me while covering some serious topics. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an electronic advanced copy of Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. ⁣

This was a engaging, fast-paced read. The Wall Street/high-stakes sales world isn't something I'm interested in but the plot and writing was intriguing and I'm glad I picked it up. It had a chaotic energy and dark humor that will appeal to readers, as will the social critique.

<i>Black Buck</i> is a unique, hilarious, and devastating read. It's a satire focused on racism within startup culture. Unique in narrative and plot. Hilarious in writing: tight, witty, and laugh-out-loud black humor throughout. Devastating in its coverage of overt racism in the US. It's all written in a way that sounds too-ridiculous-to-be-true and at the same time feels completely possible/relevant in current-day America.

Darren, the narrator, has been working at Starbucks for four years; he refers to himself as the HNIC (head n**ga in charge) and is comfortable with his lifestyle. Then, on a day like any other, Darren decides to "reverse close" on a charismatic, fast-talking regular customer, Rhett. Rhett is beyond impressed, and offers him an opportunity on the spot. Darren is reluctant, but his mother and girlfriend, certain of his capacity for greatness, help convince him to give Rhett a try. On Day 1 at his new job, Darren is nicknamed Buck--short for Starbucks, the past job he prays will remain secret in his new life. Thus, Darren becomes Black Buck.

We know from the start that Darren has regrets about this decision, but the story of why unfurls in the course of the book. Darren tells the story as both history and a how-to manual on selling. He occasionally interjects notes to the reader--points he wants to drive home as important to becoming a convincing salesman. I loved the writing style and the biting humor. This type of humor helps me swallow painful truths about society and consider white privilege from new vantage points. I highlighted a dozen or so passages and could have highlighted so many more. I thought the book was fantastic and highly recommend.

Favorite quotes:

“‘Most superheroes don’t know they’re superheroes until they get caught up in a moment, just like you. Something either overcomes them, showing them a glimpse of their hidden powers, or they’re pushed so far past their limitations that they have no choice but to succumb to whatever makes them most special.’”

“In the same way Clyde claimed that all black people looked alike, I couldn’t tell one tall blond WASP from another. It was as if they were agents straight out of The Matrix. But instead of wearing black suits, they wore Ralph Lauren polos, Vineyard Vines pullovers, Easter-egg-colored slacks, and brown leather belts with matching Sperrys.”

“Believing that you can somehow prevent change is the surest way to fail.”

““Aye, I gotta piece of advice ’fore you go. I been on this corner long enough to see tens of thousands of transactions go down. And what I learned is that either you sellin’ somebody on yes or they sellin’ you on no. No matter what happens, some nigga gon’ be walkin’ away worse off than the other nigga, so you gotta figure out how tha’s never you, you feel me?’”

Reader: Pay attention to what Wally Cast just said, minus all the acronym BS. Whether you sell someone on yes or they sell you on no, a sale is always made.”

“No wonder she wasn’t getting destroyed in the role-plays. She had connections. Connections, like treasury bonds, are issued to every rich white person upon exiting the womb. Whenever one of them gets high and crashes their parents’ car, whenever they get busted for buying coke from an undercover, whenever they get caught messing with the wrong gangsters on vacation, they make a call, send a text, or whip out their AMEX.”

“Poor people and God usually go hand in hand because it’s easier to explain why some people have so much and others have so little when there’s a master plan.”

“‘...sometimes, when you run away from somethin’, you miss an opportunity to grow.’”

“‘Rule number one,’ I shouted, making them all straighten up. ‘Only friends are allowed in, and they must be people of color. We’re not against white people, but we are simply ignoring them. They’ve had a mile head start and we’re only a few feet off the starting line.’”

“Because we know that when you lift others up, regardless of their skin color, your arms get stronger.”

If you're looking for a 21st century "Rake's Progress", a gonzo Tom Wolfe satire without the racism, "Black Buck" is your cuppa joe. The tongue-in-cheek title alludes to a slavery-era term for a rebellious black man, but also to the concept of investing in one's own community (the "black dollar") to counteract racism's disadvantages. As our (anti?)hero Darren "Buck" Vender undergoes several dizzying reversals of fortune, we are left wondering whether he is best understood as huckster or hero. Cleverly written in the voice of a memoir/self-help book, the narrative ultimately frames Buck as an icon of racial uplift, but this may be the final con job of a master salesman who got his start peddling unlicensed therapy to corporate wellness programs.

At least that is my interpretation of the book's otherwise less satisfying second half, which elides the question of whether the sales jobs he secures for his black proteges are actually beneficial to society. When "Black Buck" is gleefully satirizing workplace microaggressions and cultish Internet start-up culture, it truly shines. The later turn towards a rather cartoonish adventure novel is not as politically incisive but still kept me turning pages with anticipation.

--Jendi Reiter, editor of WinningWriters.com

I was very excited to read “Black Buck” because I thought the premise was intriguing. It sounded like how it feels to be a black person in corporate America. I thought that I had a good handle on what was coming and what I was about to read, but boy was I wrong. This book reads like a thriller and had me on the edge of my seat.

Something that we don’t often see anymore is the fall from grace. We see the happily ever afters or the rise to power, even the hiccup in the story that almost brings the protagonist to their knees. In this book, there is a point where I really despised Buck and his choices. I couldn’t understand him and I didn’t know how he could be redeemable. And it was at this point that I realized that I didn’t know what I got myself into. Buck goes from hero to villain to martyr in the matter of a few pages and it was absolutely amazing.

Mateo Askaripour manages to incorporate racism in corporate America with the book not really being about racism. Darren is such a complex character and I think he is so human that it makes it hard to continue to cheer for him when he is just making all of the worst mistakes. And then the ending, I don’t think I breathed through those last few chapters. It was gut-wrenching reading the last favor he made for Jason knowing that this was the one that would make him just another statistic despite his best efforts.

I loved all of the sales advice. I thought it was such a nice touch and it never felt out of place. It was such an enjoyable book to read and it had a nice flow. The connections between all of the characters felt so authentic that you couldn’t help but fall in love with them, with the exception of Clyde. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a fast-paced thriller novel that acknowledges racism in corporate America. What a fantastic debut novel!

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book and I will be posting my review on my website and Instagram upon publication.