4.25/5 ☆

Black Box of Doom was one of those books that covered so many wide topics - from incels to the danger of social media to the dangerous side of widespread connection via Reddit. I think the characters bring up some good points about disconnecting sometimes and why we need to take a step back to really think about what we are consuming and how it can affect our outlook on our situations.

This was my first book by Pargin so I can't speak to if it is similiar to his other works, but I really enjoyed this one and hope to pick up some of his other works soon.

A 20-something man gets talked into a crazy roadtrip by a girl with a shaved head who calls herself ‘Ether’. She tells him that he can make a small fortune (enough to get him out from under the thumb of his overbearing father) by driving her and a large black box across the country from LA to DC for a few days, but he has to leave behind his phone and all other technology and navigate by map. What ensues is a cross-country manhunt, a thousand ridiculous conspiracy theories, a giant man covered in tattoos that will stop at nothing to keep them from reaching their destination and a giant, anime titty van.

I honestly struggled with what to rate this book. Full disclosure, I’m a big fan of Jason Pargin’s work going back to his Cracked days, but I’m also an avid reader of the JDATE series as well as the Zoey Ashe series. I was really excited to read this book and was also super psyched to get a physical copy of the ARC (side note: the reason I started reading ARCs was so I could get a copy of this ARC). I don’t know what I was expecting, but I have to say that while I really enjoyed this book, I found parts of it hard to read and others came off a little preachy even? Specifically, there is a section of this book where the main character, Abbott, goes on a long, sexist rant that gets little to no pushback from the female main character, Ether. I understand (or at least I think I do) what the author is trying to do here. The main theme of the book seems to be a commentary on how divided our world is and how easily a disagreement on social issues can become a screaming match. How we all could be better off if we listened and responded to each other with sincerity and empathy, and in many ways I agree. I would have, however, liked to see some actual resistance from Ether during this section of the book as I feel that even though the point is that we all need to listen to each other, Abbott does little listening to Ether on this subject. I also think that the “woman who is kind and compassionate even while a man is shitting all over her ideals and gender” thing just feels gross. Lying back and taking it while someone screams sexist rhetoric at you feels like a step backward and not a step forward. I’ve always admired Pargin’s ability to have really clear and well thought out ideas about societal issues and frankly, it felt like this missed the mark. I was never more aware that I was reading a female character that was written by a first-world man than I was while reading parts of this book.
*However*, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t like this book. I really liked the redemption arc that Ether’s character is going through and also somehow (spoiler alert) Malort? Crazy. Did not see how much I was going to cry when I figured out Malort’s deal coming. Truly, there were parts of this book that made me laugh so hard and parts that made me tear up so much. It’s a clichè to say, but this book was full of honesty and heart. I had a hard time putting it down on multiple occasions. After watching how people I knew got so far into conspiratorial thinking so quickly during the pandemic, I found the Reddit conspiracy sections so entertaining and realistic. That’s something that I’ve enjoyed about some of Pargin’s other work: The parts where you read it and go, “Oh my god, that’s so dumb that it’s exactly the way it would actually happen!” Is it my favorite book by this author? No, but I have to say that I feel it’s one of his best written works. I would’ve liked to see Abbott have some sort of personal growth at the end, which I didn’t really see, but seeing the others’ made for a really satisfying and touching read. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels they might enjoy it.
I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box Of Doom comes out September 24 and preorders are available now.

An anxious Lyft driver gets offered $200,000 to deliver a mysterious black box with a hazard sticker on it across the country in five days. The catch? He can't ask any questions, look inside, or tell anyone. He also must leave all his technological devices behind. The bigger catch? After he and his companion hit the road, a conspiracy theory leaks online that the box is part of a terrorist plot and it sends the whole (Reddit) world after them.

I don't know what to say about this other than it was one insane madcap adventure. Never have I been on a road trip this crazy, with characters so bizarre or borderline uncomfortable, with stakes so ridiculous I didn't know whether to snort, snarl, or scoff. It had a lot of satirical elements, especially in regards to social media and its pitfalls, and because of that, it was one of the most unique stories I've ever read.

Mind you, I wouldn't say I loved it but it was outside of the box to say the least!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.

An unsuspecting Lyft driver gets a job driving a mysterious black box with a nuclear hazard sticker.... along with its wacky handler, across the country.

I was really interested in reading this book based on the blub and the cover projected “a whole vibe” I was pretty into. While action does happen pretty quickly, I did feel some of the story dragged in some places. But The last ⅓ - ¼ of the book really made up for it. That’s really the point where I felt the characters and the crazy stuff that happens in society (mainly due to “the internet”) just really came together and it felt cohesive.

The backstories of the main, and even supporting characters were really interesting. Pargin did a great job of telling their stories and made it all very relevant to the story he was telling.

This is less of a story about disaster and doom and more of a story about people and how they get caught up in the whirlpool of division and sensationalism. It even made me think about how I look at “the internet” and media, too.

This one had a cool setup—a road trip with a mysterious woman, a strange black box, and a bunch of weird rules. I was interested at first but I quickly lost steam, and by the halfway point I was ready to abandon the book.

The characters felt flat, and I just couldn’t connect with them, which made it hard to stay invested. The pacing was all over the place, too; what started as a promising ride ended up feeling slow and a bit too absurd for my taste. I kept hoping it would pick up again, but it just never clicked for me. It’s got a fun concept, but in the end, it wasn’t really my thing.

A Lyft driver is offered $200,000 to transport a black box across the country by a young woman. He can’t look in the box. As they hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a terrorism conspiracy.

This was a really fun and unique story that I read as a parody of the perils of social media. It shows how media controls our perspective and how sites like Reddit are a modern day game of telephone. The best part of this was the array of characters, all who were so unique and different. It was a little long and could have been cut back a bit, but overall I really enjoyed it and found it a rare gem!

“The dream isn’t that the chance for adventure will come along - you can do an adventure anytime you want - but that circumstances will line up just right so that you simply have no more excuses.”

I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom comes out 9/24.

This is an easy book for me to review, I've been an Jason Pargin fan since the beginning when he was writing under the pseudonym of David Wong. I think most readers will be here to experience more JDATE style stories, at least that's what I see when I read the provocative title, but this book is so much more than those books. This book has so many emotional moments and poignant commentary about social media and the weight that has over America's youth at the moment. I think most familiar readers with Jason will be shocked at his incredible growth. The John Dies at the End series still remains one of my all time favorites, and while I do like the Zoey Ashe series they're not great for me. This new addition to Jason's line up is fantastic, it has the humor from JDATE but the story lines of Zoey, but it's so much more. I'd like to believe that if Jason and I were neighbors we'd have some great conversations about the state of America today. While at the very end Jason writes that the book exists is a very not real universe and that this is a work of fiction, that doesn't come over once for me. The book is so very real and exists right now, today, and the moments are pressing and immediate, the topics are relatable and tangible. I know that this seems like such a game changer for Jason's future as a writer and his next work is going to be the real gem.

✨I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin✨

Genre: Sci-Fi/Fiction
Pages: 400
Pub date: Sept 24

📚Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.

But there are rules:

He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.

As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.

📝This is my second book by this author. I came into it with certain expectations and it did not disappoint!

The plot takes us on a wild ride. In the midst of the absolute chaos and ridiculousness, there are some social commentary gems. I really enjoyed eavesdropping on the conversations between Abbott and Ether. They actually felt like real people with real perspectives and quirks.

Even though the book is fun and entertaining, it does a solid job of highlighting the dysfunction of our media/social media ecosystem (subtle yet very perceptive). Some of the things described in the book, I could actually see happening in real life, which gave me pause.

Finally, I enjoyed seeing the father-son storyline progress throughout the book.

Looking forward to the next book by this author!

💫Thank you to @stmartinspress @jasonkpargin for my #gifted ARC💫

Buckle the fuck up because you’re in for a wild ride! Jason Pargin newest book, and stand alone novel is one hell of a hilarious thrill. We start off strong with our forum dweller, twitch streamer and alleged incel Abbott aka Abbadon is doing his side gig as a lyft driver and receives one ride request that would change the course of his life, when he arrives there is a girl hauling a large black box that offers him a large sum of cash but with a few conditions: no phones, no questions and most importantly, can’t look inside the box. This book is like a chocolate box of different points of view, it also gives you a perspective of what happens when you let the internet spin its own web of a tale and let people run with it like it is the truth. It’s hilarious, its fast paced and you can’t put it down because you need to know, WHAT’S IN THE FUCKING BOX? I already pre-ordered my book, so this was a sneak peak for me of one of my most anticipated reads of the year from one of my all time favorite authors. I want to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this amazing ARC.

This one starts with a great premise but quickly loses its way. The setup—driving a mysterious woman and her black box across the country with a ton of odd rules—was really intriguing at first. There’s also some smart commentary on internet culture and conspiracy theories, which could’ve been interesting. But the characters just fell flat for me. I couldn’t connect with them, and honestly, I didn’t really care what happened to them.

The pacing was also all over the place. What starts as a potential page-turner turns into a long, drawn-out adventure. The initial tension fizzles out, and the story ends up feeling more absurd than thrilling. I found myself struggling to keep going. For a book with such a wild premise, I was surprised by how uneven and slow it felt overall. I really wanted to like it more, but it just didn’t click for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press!

In this fine example of slacker fiction Jason Pargin offers a wild cross-country adventure as Abbott, a 26-year-old part-time Lyft driver and full-time online presence finds himself agreeing to a deal to earn $200,000 to drive a weird girl and her black box from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. within four days. That’s the setup of this commentary on today’s fixation with instant internet feedback and diving deep into conspiracy theories. Since the girl insists on no cell phones or questions about the box, Abbott is clueless about the wild expansion of internet buzz centered on their journey. The long narrative, perhaps too long, brings to mind the craziness of the 1963 film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World. I found the story funny in places with dry humor with some outlandish situations. Not exactly a page-turner but interesting commentary on society’s dependence with social media.

This is a combination of a caper novel and a satire of social media and conspiracy theorists. I’ve always enjoyed caper novels, and it was fun to take a wild drive across the country with Abbott and Ether, as more and more people chase them, largely due to social media spinning completely out of control with increasingly extreme claims about what they’re doing. The book is semi-epistolary, with Abbott and Ether’s story—and some other characters’—interspersed frequently with social media posts.

I have mixed feelings about the book. It’s well executed and entertaining, but the social media satire feels almost too true. It’s not at all far-fetched these days to think that wild accusations can be spun up out of whole cloth, posted on the internet, and energize hordes of people, some just to make themselves part of the supposed action, but others to deadly violence. And that makes this novel both a thought-provoking accomplishment and a sobering indictment.

An Uber driver pulls up to the side of a Circle K store to pick up a fare. He finds a strangely dressed woman sitting on a large black box. This woman offers Abbott an insanely amount of money to drive her and the box from where they are in California to Washington DC by the Fourth of July, which is just a few days away. A few rules: he can't look in the box; he can't ask questions about the box; he can't take any electronic devices with him and they need to hurry. Due to circumstances that the pair do not know about the internet goes crazy when someone speculates about the trip, and the trolls go crazy speculating that there is a murdered girl in the box, or an alien body, or a bomb among other things. And to complicate things even more for the pair, a very large, bald biker guy is after them and attacks them at various parts of the trip.

This was a disjointed erratic story that I suspect was intentional in its writing. Felt myself going half mad reading it. Overall, hard to connect but also intriguing subject matters where it relates to every day society now. Made you think.

thank you Netgalley for this arc

This was a fun read. It was my first by Jason Pargin but I’ve already added a few more to my tbr. There is sooooo much knowledge and social commentary packed into the book. Ether and Abbot’s dueling perspectives made for a really introspective read. I learned quite a bit and Ether’s outlook provided a fresh take on many things that even I tend to be doom and gloom about.

At times the book does fall into the cheesy/cinematic vibe, but overall I absolutely enjoyed it. I didn’t exactly love our protagonist but he is a well thought out character and definitely one that can be found in many dark corners of the internet. Ether was amazing and I loved her story. Even the side characters avoided just about all of the typical cliches and made the story an enjoyable one.

There is some humor in this and it’s definitely not a gory book. I found myself laughing quite a bit. I’m not one who *ever* thinks they can see where the book is going, but I do want to declare that when Cammy said she “knew a place” I knew with every fiber of my being that a gas station beaver was in the near future. I don’t think some reading this book can truly understand the Buc-ees obsession in the south. It is VERY real (they even have Buc-ees themed birthday party decorations for sale!) and Pargin’s inclusion of this was awesome.

Overall I definitely want to check out more from Pargin in the future. I enjoyed it and appreciated a deviation from some typical tropes.

I’ve never read anything by this author before, but I knew based on the title and the titles of some of his other works that it was going to be zany and probably a lot of fun. And it was, for the most part! There were a couple bits that I think were supposed to be madcap antics but they fell flat for me, so they were just kind of stupid. For the most part, though, it was fast-paced and entertaining. Beyond that, though, this novel is a blistering satire that skewers social media and the outsized role it plays in society and in many people’s lives. There were some dicey political rants delivered by one of the main characters, but for the most part the person delivering them was presented as a complicated person who had been heavily influenced by the social media outrage machine, which led to their inclusion being more thought-provoking than annoying (usually.) Most of the major characters were complex, for all that they had some cartoonish aspects as a result of the satire. The out-of-control social media landscape was a character in and of itself, in which the mob mentality and sensationalist nature of the internet was both an oversized caricature and terrifyingly accurate.

Representation: POC characters, LGBTQ+ characters, disabled characters

I was so excited when I read this synopsis, but I really felt this book was lacking something. It was fine, but I couldn’t get truly into this one.

This the third or forth of Jason Pargin's books I've read and I have to say this is the one that held my attention the most.

Abbot is a streamer on Twitch and drives for Lyft.

Ether has to get a very big, black box from Los Angeles to DC in the next five days and needs a driver. What's in the box? Who wants the box and why?

Thus, with the promise of a very large amount of cash the road trip from hell begins. There is a LOT going on here. A good portion of the book is written in Reddit thread fashion, which started as an interesting concept, but got old for me after a while.

There is a lot of action from a crazy tattooed man following trying to claim the box, a retired FBI agent trying to stop what may or may not be a potential act of terrorism and about 20 or 30 side characters causing chaos online and irl.

There were some rather funny parts and it is without a doubt a brilliant commentary on the ills of social media and the toxicity of online culture. Overall I liked the premise, but think this could have been a good 100 pages shorter (with much of the Reddit thread posts edited out) and the storyline would have been stronger for it. I would give this a 3.8 stars.

Thanks to the author and publisher for this advanced copy.

Abbott is an anxiety-ridden video blogger and Lyft driver whose next pickup is about to take him on quite the adventure. Ether asks Abbott to take her all the way to Washington from LAX with a very large black box. He's given about 15 minutes to collect things from his house before the trip, but she'll pay him handsomely for getting her and the box across the country safely, only he's got to be completely off the grid while they're in transit. He makes one last video to say goodbye, just in case, and off they go. Little do they know that the video will go viral, and start an internet sleuthing frenzy, trying to decide what's in the box, why they're going to DC, who they are and whether they are part of a plot to overthrow the government...

This was such a wild ride. The book shifts between at least half a dozen viewpoints, and follows a few characters as they prepare to intercept Abbott and Ether and stop their terrible plot of destruction. During their ride, Abbott and Ether get into a few politically charged conversations, and help each other see both sides of the coin as much as possible.

There's so many twists to this because of all the different points of view. Because of all the view shifts, the story moves pretty swiftly, and just wait until you find out what's in the box.

This does definitely show an example of what can happen when a bunch of people on the internet start trying to interfere with the real lives of actual people far away from them.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

2.5 madcap cross-country trip

It starts with an intriguing premise: Abbott, a young man with an online presence but otherwise isolated because of anxiety, is also a part-time driver. He gets a request for a ride to the airport. Instead, the passenger, Ether, asks him to drive to DC with her and a black trunk.

He can’t ask what’s in the trunk; they must leave immediately and leave all tracking devices behind. The offer of a massive pile of cash convinces him. The rest of the book is a bit hard to describe. The duo somehow becomes part of an internet sensation; soon, many follow the adventure. Abbott’s online fans are convinced he’s been brainwashed to do this job.

A huge biker guy with tattoos is also chasing them. And a retired FBI agent is in the mix, convinced that the black box contains explosives and a huge event is planned for July 4th. It becomes madcap with several narrow escapes. There are long arguments between Abbott and Ether about their philosophies of the world. The piece that was scary to me was the online world conspiracy theories that came from nowhere! Guessing about what was in the box was wild.

Dark humor is hit or miss for me. In this case, it was a miss.