Reviews were posted on Goodreads and StoryGraph as of 1/11/24. Review will be posted to Amazon on release date.

The concept of this book was very intriguing to me. Kasher has lived many lives and I was interested to see what he had to say. Unfortunately for me the execution fell a little flat. Each subculture that Kasher discussed had sections that dragged where he presented research to make sure you, the reader, knew he knew what he was talking about. This would have been fine had he not randomly gotten in his own way by inserting a random jokey “fact” followed quickly by a “teehee no that’s just how I imagined it.” I wanted to see more of Kasher in these subcultures. I felt that the section on his time as an ASL interpreter as a CODA and his experience with Judaism and the comfort he found following the death of his father were the strongest. I saw bit of Kasher that I really enjoyed and wanted more of. Other sections (stand up comedy) felt like he needed more time to reflect on.
If you’re a fan of Kasher’s comedy, this book is for you. If you’re like me a reader who stumbled upon this book, proceed with caution.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Moshe Kasher is a comedian who has hung out in many subcultures, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Burning Man, and the rave scene of the 1990s. He became sober at the age of 15 through AA of which he was a pariah. He then promoted and organized many raves, dealt drugs, and DJ'ed, which kind of sort of led him to work security at the Burning Man festivals. Eventually, he worked as a sign language interpreter (his parents are deaf), reconciled his Hasidic Jewish upbringing, and ended up in the world of stand-up comedy.

It's safe to say that Moshe Kasher has had some pretty unique life experiences, and I mostly enjoyed reading about them. I appreciated the context with which he included facts regarding the subjects and subcultures related to his life in each chapter, but I wish there would have been less detail. I was bored after a while; it was information overload. Each of the chapters (read on Kindle) took over an hour or more to finish. I think the book would have been better set up as essays instead of these six parts that were long and hard to swallow as a reader.

I did think that Kasher is a comedian that I will have to do some research into in the future. I didn't know who he was, but I thought his comedic perspectives on seemingly dark topics were humorous. I chuckled several times while reading this book.

While it was an interesting read, I walked away from the book wanting to know more information about Moshe Kasher. This can be a good or a bad thing, I'm not sure, but I do feel like he missed key aspects of his life that could have helped to better gauge my interest.

I loved Moshe Kasher's first book and enjoy his comedy, and I enjoyed this book as well. He dives really deep into each subculture, sometimes I would've liked the ratio of humor to information to be a little heavier on the humor side, but I still liked this and the book has many laugh out loud moments.

This was a really fun memoir! I had no idea who Moshe Kasher was before this, but the structure of the memoir stood out to me so I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did!

Kasher lived a very interesting life that he has split up into six different "parts" - he got sober at fifteen through the help of AA, he was a raver starting in the mid-nineties, he was a deaf interpreter, he's Jewish, he worked at Burning Man, and he's a stand up comic. These aspects of his life overlap, so it's not necessarily written chronologically, but more in how each aspect influenced him differently. The biggest difficulty in this book is that it is only six chapters - meaning each chapter takes an hour or so to read. The first half of each chapter is a pretty big deep dive into the history of whatever aspect he's discussing. This was done in an interesting, and often laugh out loud funny, way. I learned a lot about these subcultures in addition to Kasher's life.

This is not one of those memoirs that really sticks it to you emotionally (other than perhaps the Judiasm chapter, which discusses his father's death). Regardless, I feel like this was really eye opening to me, and I learned a lot. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good memoir.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Subculture Vulture was one of the most uniquely structured and original memoirs I've had the pleasure of reading in the last year. Moshe Kasher has lived a truly fascinating and varied life - frankly, much, much more so than most of the individuals putting out memoirs - and this was as fun and chaotic as the wild cover art and clever title would suggest. This felt genuinely inspiring, sincere, and heartfelt, but not saccharine, only rarely tipping over into "slightly corny" territory.

Kasher paints pictures of the subcultures he's been involved with in a way that is rooted in history and meticulous research (and presented in a very accessible way where I learned a LOT of information and cool factoids without feeling that I was being lectured). Even more compellingly, all of his observations are incredibly nuanced and based on his own lived experiences, meaning Subculture Vulture is chock full of uniquely thoughtful takes on mental illness and addiction and recovery and disability and religion and so much more. Kasher was a refreshingly honest, authentic narrator, not afraid to present himself in a morally complex light and not inclined to shy away from the mistakes he's made.

In parts, I found myself feeling that Kasher's narration dragged or was long-winded. Also, the shoehorned-in anecdotes about all the women he's apparently slept with were pretty clumsy and unnecessary (Dude, we get it! You were a sexually active adult and regularly got laid despite being a total nerd!) but to be fair, I just love being a hater.

I actually found myself thinking at points that this would make a great podcast, which was weird because I generally dislike podcasts. But then I ended up watching a bit of his standup and it makes perfect sense now: Kasher is a good writer, but he's a GREAT standup comic.
I'm super excited to go to a book signing for this in a little over a month and to hear Kasher's commentary on his book in person. I'm excited to buy a physical copy of Subculture Vulture and to peer pressure everybody I've ever met into reading it. And most of all, I'm excited to get to get to say all of this to your face, Mr. Kasher (mostly the nice parts, I guess).

I really enjoyed this unconventional memoir in six parts! A mashup of culture writing and memoir, we follow Kasher through the subcultures that have defined his life. Each one is incredibly different, yet we come to understand how he fits/used to fit into each one and why. It does get very nitty gritty into some details, which I enjoyed more in some chapters than others, but overall it was really interesting, not to mention funny. It would probably be really great on audio as well!

Moshe Kasher wrote a funny and intelligent book that taught me way more than anticipated. I personally loved that a stand-up comic joker in his memoir that the most narcissistic thing a person can do is stand-up comedy, other than writing a memoir. I learned a lot about these subcultures and really appreciated Moshe's lessons. A fun book.

<I>Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved Moshe's first book "Kasher in the Rye" and was looking forward to the 'second installment' of his story, however, I found Subculture Vulture to be a bit less personal and more of a history of each of the subcultures in which he ventured into. While there is nothing particularly wrong with this, I felt a bit of disconnect and a lack of the 'Moshe' that made me love the first book so much.

I can appreciate a bit of history behind movements, AA, Rave culture, Burning Man, etc - when reading a memoir, I would rather have the personal history. While Moshe did go into this, with his trademark jokes, I still felt a bit 'eh' about it all.

The two standout chapters for me were Burning Man and Comedy, both highlight the best of what Moshe Kasher is about. His humor and passion for his 'subcultures' shine through in these two sections and these both could be expanded into their own books.

Still, it's fantastic writing, and, if Moshe needs one more subculture to explore, I'm sure the literary crowd would welcome him.

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

I enjoy Moshe Kasher's comedy, so I had a good feeling about this book. The set up of a memoir through the lens of subcultures sometimes made it difficult to follow the timeline and overlap between his experiences with them, but overall made for a really unique and engaging format. I loved learning at a high level about different subcultures, and then getting to drill down into his personal experiences. Absolutely worth the read!

Rounding up from 3.5 stars.

I actually didn’t know Moshe before reading his book. What a storyteller! It was laugh out loud at times and heartbreaking at others. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Four stars.

A memoir in which professional comedian Moshe Kasher explores his life through the prism of six subcultures that have had aparticularly momentous impact on him: AA, rave culture, Hasidic Judaism, Burning Man, Deaf culture, & stand-up comedy.

The first thing to know is that chronologically, Alcoholics Anonymous comes first. That's a curveball, huh? Bet you expected pretty much anything else to be first. But this is a guy who started recovery as a teenager & THEN got into both raver culture & Burning Man completely drug- & alcohol-free. & stayed that way. The entire book, I was screaming inside my head, "How? WHY?" The only way I've ever made sense of raves or Burning Man is by accepting the fact that drugs make people do weird things, & Kasher has gotta be the hardest working man in publishing today by trying to explain how he, as a sober person, fell in love with both of these worlds independently without the swaddling of chemical dependencies making them bearable. He very nearly succeeds, & that alone makes the book worth the price of admission.

The second thing to know is that the book is funny, but it's also a serious memoir that addresses serious topics, like the importance of providing high-quality translation services for Deaf people. (Kasher is not Deaf, but his mom is, which how he became a professional translator for a while.) This dude is not a dabbler. He doesn't just join AA & hit up a meeting once a month; he becomes part of the youth outreach team & goes to international conferences & stuff. He doesn't just go to Burning Man & ride a child's bicycle around while lighting off fireworks. He joins the security team for twenty years. He commits to a degree that is completely foreign to me. Like I'm not sure I'm as into my kid as he is into stuff he just saw a flyer for one time. I kid, I kid, but it did make me feel like a useless dilettante.

Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for the ARC!

A good comedic memoir smartly divided into different sections of Mosher Kasher's life. I did not read his previous title, but found this one a good mix of humor, honest reflection and little bits of history. A valuable insight into the Bay Area scene, Burners, AA and comedy. Highly recommended for fans and anyone else looking for a breezy (mostly) and entertaining read.

Moshe is a great writer, and I laughed out loud while reading the first chapter. I liked Subculture Vulture more than Kasher in the Rye, personally.

I found this a bit disappointing. The constant joking by the author kept pulling me out of the actual narrative.

Subculture Vulture mingles humor and real-life reflection in creative and enjoyable ways. A well-written book and fascinating/thought-provoking exploration of culture(s).

This memoir slash non fiction was absolutely brilliant. I love how this goes through different subcultures and groups the author found themselves falling into through the years. The humor has me giggling and trying not to wake up my husband, and beneath all of it is a message about the human experience.

I read his other memoir about a decade ago so I guess this is the sequel? I always find it almost hard to believe that one man could have experienced so many extremes from AA to sign language to growing up in a very religious sect and being a bouncer at Burning Man. Literally how did he fit all this in?