Spoiler free review

So, this nook is a hard one to review... I enjoyed it enough to finish it. However, I felt it was lacking.. something. The characters didn't have much growth or depth to them. The plot was good, a little slow at times.

I would recommend this book to my followers because I know there are people who will thoroughly enjoy this novel.

The cover is BEAUTIFUL!

Thank you net galley for the arc in exchange for a honest review.

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin may be the weirdest book I've ever reviewed. And thats saying something! I received this book early from Net Galley and the publisher. I just finished reading it and as always, here are my thoughts on the book as spoiler free as possible.

This book, I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, is about a young woman who gets a young man driving for Lyft to take her across the country to Washington D.C. by giving him a bunch of money. She has with her a big black box. He can't ask whats in the box and no she won't open it either. And off they go on the wildest road trip ever! Yes, wilder than Thema and Louise.

And thats all I'll tell about the story. The road trip is head spinning though, with so many bizarre things happening. Sometimes its funny, sometimes its just plain weird. Its also a very thought-provoking book. It has a message and its not subtle about it at all. Some will agree with what the book is trying to say and others might think its being a little too heavy handed. The book will make you think and it'll keep you very entertained.

This is a really good book. Once the story gets fully into the road trip, you won't want to put it down. Things get especially insane near the end of the book.

Jason Pargin does a great job developing the characters along with all of the insanity. I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom would make a really great, crazy movie!

I liked this book a lot overall. I think if you want something weird and totally different, with a lot of heart and a bit of humor, then you need to read this book.

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom comes out on September 24th, 2024. Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.

First, as always, a HUGE thanks to Jason Pargin, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review (as if I'd give anything but).

Being a fan of Jason Pargin, it was a no brainer that I wanted to get my hands on this one as soon as I could - especially since it's a stand-alone novel; and it didn't disappoint.

In “I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom”, Jason forgoes his usual cosmic horror and sci-fi, and wrote a terrifyingly real story about how social media controls our lives. Bear in mind that while there isn't a boogeyman, or demon, or limbs getting hacked off, or any of the other things one might associate with horror, this book has that psychological horror that can only come from the realism of "Damn, I could actually see that happening."

Of course, Jason's rapier wit, as well as his stellar story-telling ability, shines like it always does - although it is much more subdued than in his previous stories.

On the surface, it's a story of a boy driving for a ride-share, and picks up this strange woman with a box that wants him to drive to Washington DC for specific delivery by the Fourth of July. Abbot (the boy) is way outside his comfort zone, but is constantly convinced to take an additional step by this woman. In the background, is everyone wondering what's in that damn box and why it's so important to get to their destination.

However, that's only - as I said - the surface. What lurks below is just how dangerous social media can become when "mob mentality" takes hold. It only took one post "suggesting" a bomb to make Abbot's cross-country trek a nightmare. But of course, in true Pargin fashion, we also have terrorism, explosions, references to real events, and aliens (sort of).

If you haven't read anything by Jason Pargin (aka David Wong), I can't recommend this book enough as a great starting point. In fact, I can actually see this book being used in a World History, or Psychology class sometime in the future - to study just what effects online interactions, social media, and mob-rule have/had on the population.

It's taken me some time to figure out how to summarize my thoughts about "I'm Starting to Worry about this Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin. On a small scale, the characters are well written and have interesting dialogue, but this book on the whole felt a little disorganized to me. New characters are introduced constantly, and we see a lot of different perspectives, without spending enough time with characters to really get to know them. I spent a lot of this book unclear on what was going on, who I should be rooting for, and where this story was going.

Even after finishing the book, I don't understand what it was trying to say, because it shopped around for quippy things to say about a lot of various topics: tech, social media, cryptocurrency, war, streaming, privacy, gender, and policing are a few examples. Some parts made me feel like this is a person writing witty retorts to win fake arguments and competitions that he was never in.

There were several scenes that seemed to be in essence saying "by the way, the cops are allowed to take all your money/other terrible things that cops are in fact allowed to do" but it doesn't even feel like it was done to educate the reader, more like the author is proving he knows something. The former FBI agent character monologuing in her head about how people should know their rights is an interesting approach to tell the reader something. Not sure I loved it or felt convinced that this was a real true character trait, but I found it intriguing.

It felt like things kept coming up out of left field so that the author could make sure we know where he stands on a topic, and how he feels about the people who support it. For example, one of Hunter's coworkers saying "I just watched a tiktok about it, but I wasn't giving it my full attention, as I was driving and eating at the same time" tells me everything I need to know about Pargin's thoughts on the app, and didn't give the story much. These are not even necessarily opinions I disagree with! It just felt like the story was packed with signals of political and social things.

Hunter also makes a comment early on about hoping his son doesn't get a contact high from fentanyl and die—which is not possible. I took a note when this happened, and was pleasantly surprised to see the author address this point in the acknowledgements section at the end of the book. Those kinds of notes help me better understand where an author is coming from with their writing.

This book reminded me of the experience I had reading Ready Player One- the humor and approach seems similarly millennial, in a way? I didn't hate reading it by any means and was intrigued by what was going to finally be in the box, but I found my interest flagged a little towards the last third of the book. Overall it just wasn't the right read for me, but I think there are readers who will really connect with this book.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for access to an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Pargin takes the maxim “It’s funny because it's true,” and pushes it to “It’s absurd because it's true.” This is the book we didn’t know we needed to serve as an interpreter of the current reality: a thrilling road-trip tale that both exposes and extols the modern-day golem of digital culture. The hapless, Type-B Abbott is the perfect dupe for a mysterious damsel in distress who enlists him in a cross-country quest that will challenge his hermetic tendencies and ingrained lack of social intelligence. Throw in some outlandish characters, madcap situations, misunderstandings, and mortal peril - and nonstop hilarity ensues. The familiar tropes borrowed from the classic pilgrimage story allow the characters a forum to philosophize in dramatized versions of internal debates. These diatribes might have become exasperating if they weren’t so astute, inventive, and mercilessly entertaining. Do yourself a favor – grab a copy of Pargin’s latest, strap yourself in, and join his mind-opening, wild ride.

I was fascinated by this book. I may not have understood what was happening at some points but it’s just such a great journey that the road getting there was quite interesting to say the least.

What a great story. A simple situation of transporting a box across the country turns into the most insane series of events that are definitely fictional but… could also absolutely happen thanks to the garbage fire that is social media.

The themes and messages are clear, well defined, and thought provoking (in a sense of the beginning of a conversation, not a conclusion; you’re welcome, Jason). The story is break-neck (sorry for the pun) from beginning to end, full of humor, action, and heart. There is so much to say and so much to discuss but the risk of spoilers is also way too big, but, suffice it to say, I think Jason has hit right on a growing feeling and a growing trend that people are going to become more aware of and in tune with in relation to the internet.

I haven’t read a Jason Pargin novel before, but I can say that now I’ve finished this book, I will be rushing out (okay, searching on my kindle) for John Dies at the End to carry on Pargin’s storytelling. It takes a lot for me to read a single author back-to-back, but that’s the level of enthusiasm this book has instilled in me. Highly recommended.

Jason Pargin has done it again. In this delightful commentary on the society that we all hold so dear, Pargin offers criticism of the social and cultural phenomenon that permeates our lives, social media. This narrative shifts between multiple character POVs & imagined reddit posts. The main protagonist Abbott and his "green sunglasses girl" make their way across the country to deliver a mysterious package. This novel can be harshly critical of worldviews and the actions of people, but this eye opening text is well worth the read.

I read John Dies at the End ages ago. And it seems, upsettingly, that Goodreads has lost my rating and review of it. Anyway, I liked it. Then I watched a movie adaptation and liked that too. But I never read any more Wong/Pargin until now. Largely because his books, as fun as they are, seem like a lot. The fact I was very much reminded of reading this book.
Why this? Why now? Because it’s a standalone and looked like fun. And sure enough, it was. Oodles of fun. Pargin’s writing is very hip in exactly the right way, very funny, very clever. Does he go over the top with it? You bet! His characters tend or talk in either witty quips or (more often) in protracted soliloquys so seemingly well informed and convincingly presented that the author spends pages of his afterword convincing people he made it up.
The novel is essentially a sort of wacked out road trip that starts with a strangely dressed and mannered, progressive-minded woman named Ether recruiting a pale, anxious incel named Abbott to be her driver. It’s an odd pairing for an arrangement that seems oddly impractical, and it goes off the rails almost immediately, with the internet trolls pouring fuel onto what soon becomes a fire.
On a basic level, it’s sort of a comedy of errors, and it works well enough as such, although it’s very long and occasionally self-indulgent. And Ether’s Pollyanna-like views clashing with Abbott’s paranoid (although shockingly well presented, no wonder Pargin had to spend so much time self-explaining afterward) does get tiresome.
But what the novel really shines as is a clever and viciously scathing opprobrium of the internet and specifically social media culture and the black box of doom it perpetuates. There, Pargin hits all the right notes.
All in all, an entertaining (if somewhat manically so) read. Fun was had. Thanks Netgalley.

Have you ever been a ride-share driver or taken a roadtrip where everything goes wrong? It certainly does for Abbott AKA “Abbadon” as he is hired to transport the desperate Ether cross country with a mysterious box. If it can go wrong-it does. From wrong turns to being hunted by the mysterious tattooed Malort, to internet rumors being spawned that lead to people trying to track them down. Every page keeps you asking “WHAT IS IN THE BOX!?” There is no better wild ride than one that Jason Pargin takes his readers on. Filled with his cynical humor and real life reflections on society “I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Doom” keeps you on your toes while also making you reevaluate everything you know about human interaction.

Not My Kind Of Story

I made it almost halfway through this book. That was all I could take. It was totally boring to me, I couldn’t see the humor that everyone else was talking about. The endless banter finally got to me so I skipped over parts of it and ended up reading about some nut who ended up in the creek with his hundred year old cactus. That was it, I’m done reading.

I received an advance copy of the book from Net Galley, this is my unbiased review.

This book was fantastic! It was the perfect mix of irreverent humor on the human condition and the ridiculous. It took the premise of a black box and its journey cross country and made it a surprisingly salient exploration of the current human condition. It commented on humidity without falling into the pitfall of preaching. Overall, a great read and I would suggest this book.

Maybe I’m missing something big here? But this is the worst book I have ever read and I read a lot. It was painful. I have no other words to describe what I thought of this book except my waste of time reading it. Why did I finish it? I cannot post “no stars” so I’ll just have to post one star. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

4.5 stars

Not gonna lie, I kind of like this book better than his others. That’s saying a lot. This was laugh out loud, and fun as we’ve all come to expect from Pargin, not so heavy on the Sci-fi/fantasy though. I think that’s why I love it so much,

This was a very fun road trip book that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through trying to figure out exactly what was going on the whole time. Not nearly as silly as other novels from Pargin but still a fun read.

Excellent book! This is fast-paced, humorous, and action-packed, but is also laden with through-provoking ruminations on the state of the world and how people interact. I could not put this down, and when it ended I was upset because I wanted to keep getting to know these characters and to see where they were heading next in their lives.

Thank you to Jason Pargin and St. Martin’s Press (through Netgalley) for an ARC in exchange for my honest review! It's been an absolute pleasure.

Abbott’s average day as a Lyft driver is thrown out the window when he's offered $200,000 in cash to drive a sealed black box from LA to DC, no questions asked. It will take five days max. What's the worst that could happen?

“I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom” is a doozy of a title that completely sums up how I felt throughout the entirety of this book. Worry would be an understatement. The anxiety that accompanied the NEED to know what the heck was inside the box is maddening. It's what drives you to turn page after page.

At the core, this is a fantastical story. There is absolutely no way a situation could spiral out of hand so quickly… right? Absolutely no way a tidbit of information could be blown out of proportion on the Internet… right??

But it's really hard to remember that this is a FICTIONAL, FANTASTICAL STORY when Pargin is dropping bombs of insight left and right. It's like all your deepest darkest insecurities about the world we live in right now were ripped from where you repress them deep inside you and are plopped into a parallel universe where something wacky could, in fact, happen.

But I digress.

This book was great. Five stars across the board. I was entertained, which is the number one reason I love to read. “I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom” was chock full of hilarity, even if it sometimes felt a bit too on the nose. You have a cast of characters who are unremarkable and recognizable. They make mistakes, and sometimes they learn from them. They adapt, get overwhelmed, overcome obstacles, and because they're human they're innately stubborn as hell.

If you're already a fan of Pargin's previous works you won't be disappointed. If you're new to his writing, welcome, I think you'll enjoy this stand-alone. It will probably help ease you in a bit.

What a fun read. I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin has the craziness that you'd expect by the author of John Dies at the End (and that whole series). But it's a bit more reigned in? Kind of? Funny and a fast read, I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I'm a huge fan of Jason Pargin's John Dies at the End and Zoe series, but upon seeing the description for this novel I wasn't sure how interested in it I was. Had the publisher not offered me the ARC without me requesting it, I'm not sure how quickly I would have picked it up. The writing itself was as any of Pargin's other books. While it had some of his patented unexpected humor, it had much less, and fewer silly-but-hilarious moments than its predecessors. All of the characters had a sort of duality to them - they had aspects that made them sympathetic, but also had reprehensible traits to counter them. The book made many much too accurate observations about the internet and modern society. While Pargin made some very astute commentary about the Internet Age, at times the truths he pointed out made the story pretty depressing. There were numerous instances of satirical Reddit posts, but as the book went on the ignorant comments stupid conspiracy theories ceased being funny as they mirrored reality too closely and I finally ended up skipping the last few. While fairly accurate, there was a bit too much philosophizing by some the characters. Overall the book was still excellent writing but more societal commentary and less comedy than I would have preferred. 3.5/5*

A slight change of pace from [author:Jason Pargin|16596547] as there are no weird interdimensional aliens or science-fictional enhancement technologies in this book, but it's still pretty madcap. Fun viewpoint characters and almost all of them end up being somewhat sympathetic. Kind of reminds me of Carl Hiassen or maybe the wackier Elmore Leonards, but for the 2020s.