Zee Carlstrom’s anarchic literary thriller may have one of the best titles of any book published this year. It follows a nameless nonbinary corporate burnout as they drag their “garbage goth” (their words not mine) roommate on a cross-country roadtrip to look into the disappearance of their far-right conspiracy theorist father. Make Sure You Die Screaming is an acerbic novel written about an aimless and traumatized person who is intent on burning themselves and everyone around them to cinders. Carlstrom crafts a narrator whose voice is caustically hilarious and biting in their frustration and anger at the absurd injustices of contemporary American capitalism. It would be easy for Make Sure You Die Screaming to come off as nothing more than a drug-fueled bender of queer cynicism, but Carlstrom writes their characters with nuance and empathy. It dares us to truly look at the human heart of the darkest, most destructive parts of America and ourselves without letting either off the hook.

TW/CW: Language, drinking, toxic family relationships, abusive relationship, domestic violence, blood, drug use, drug addiction, death by suicide, alcoholism, homophobia, guns, death of parent, anxiety, depression

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
The newly nameless narrator of Make Sure You Die Screaming has rejected the gender binary, has flamed out with a vengeance at their corporate gig, is most likely brain damaged from a major tussle with their now ex-boyfriend, and is on a bender to end all benders.

A call from their mother with the news that their MAGA-friendly, conspiracy-theorist father has gone missing launches the narrator from Chicago to deep red Arkansas in a stolen car. Along the way, the narrator and their new bestie—a self-proclaimed "garbage goth" with her own emotional baggage (and someone on her tail)—unpack the narrator’s childhood and a recent personal loss that they refuse to face head-on.
Release Date: April 8th, 2025
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 224
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Queer rep
2. The craziness of the characters actions
3. The emotional ending
4. Characters growing with and for one another

What I Didn't Like:
1. Characters got annoying after a while of reading
2. Do Apple phone owners have to mention their phone is an iPhone everytime a phone is mentioned... (12 uses of iPhone)

Overall Thoughts:
{{Disclaimer: I write my review as I read}}

For God's sake I hate Yivi. She annoys me. She keeps bringing more problems than helping to solve them.

When the narrator needs booze they sends Yivi into the store for food and alcohol but she comes out with a cashier that's 17 and let's her steal so she can party at her boyfriends hotel he works at. First of all it doesn't feel like a fair trade for the cashier because she gives away free stuff and a hotel room just so she can drink, which we find out she's been drinking anyways, so this scenario isn't even needed. She's clearly been able to get her own alcohol this whole time. I guess maybe Becky was lonely. When the narrator yells to her about this she responds that they needed friends and Yivi was worried they'd feel lonely.

I guess for me its frustrating because Yivi just takes over, cries, guilt trips the narrator, and then narrator apologizes. Is this how the author sees women? I did not care for the tone of gaslighting on either end.

Omg Yivi robbing the gas station while having money... Ah!

So I get the narrator has gotten rid of their debit card but can't they just use Apple pay? Why are they struggling when they could use their phone?

I hate Yivi keeps calling the narrator babe. So annoying and like nails on a chalkboard. The nicknames in this book are driving me crazy.
• Babe
• Bud
• Buckoo
I get having a nameless character but what's the point then of giving them a new nickname for every new character that pops up?

Omgosh Yivi threatening the randos in the woods and demanding they do what she wants. This girl is going to get herself killed one day.

The narrator is such an idiot to Yivi. They treat her like dirt and go out of their way to say mean things and then when she reacts they act like she shouldn't be mad. I know they came from an abusive family and they are using gaslighting tactics to get her to stay but it's horrible to watch her get beaten down over and over.

Final Thoughts:
So fun fact with this book BUT I had to stop this book twice because there were moments where the characters drove me insane. I was finding myself rage baiting over their actions and huffing.

This is a complex book that has a lot of trauma to build up from. A father that was abusive to his family. A mother that wasn't the best to her child. A person dealing with childhood drama, their sexuality and identity, death of their best friend, and then their addiction. A girl running from her father to find a mother she doesn't know. It's so much.

Yes the characters drove me crazy at times but the ending brings it all back together. You can't pick your family but you can choose the people that you surround yourself with. Yivi is annoying and childish but she is a child in the same breath. She hasn't grown yet so she's naive - she always thinks the world will bend to her and she's invisible to any real danger. I can relate. Even as adults we can act the same way.

I felt bad for the narrator finding out that their dad had died just a few weeks before their arrival. I don't know how they will deal with that trauma but I hope they can find support in those around them. PS - the ending reminded me a lot of the ending from 28 Years Later.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Make Sure You Die Screaming was a super interesting read. I loved the character study and the writing felt propulsive. I'd read more from the author.

I thought this one was really fun and chaotic and creative - found the characters endearing in a kind of unlikeable way, laughed a handful of times, felt occasionally overwhelmed and frustrated by the decisions being made, but I can appreciate a story that spikes my adrenaline. I also liked some of the deeper themes explored and wished they went a bit further. I also appreciated the bits of tenderness amidst the chaos.

this sits somewhere around 3.5 stars for me, rounded down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for providing an ARC for review.

Make Sure You Die Screaming feels like an acid trip fueled by alcohol, trauma, and brain damage. The plot is that the newly nameless, genderqueer main character leaves their job and toxic relationship behind in Chicago after the untimely death of their work partner and best friend. They travel with the garbage goth girl that they met through the Airbnb that has been the site of their tailspin, until the main character receives a phone call from their mother, urging them to go home to look for their wayward father.

The book tackles topics like gender, class, capitalism, and family dysfunction. The main character is filled with rage: towards themselves, their friends and family, and society as a whole. Alcohol-fueled hazes are juxtaposed against biting social and internal commentary.

I will say that I wish these topics were delved into more deeply. There are moments when the narrator is able to look at themselves and the world around them with vicious clarity; however, these moments are brief between dysfunction and kleptomania. I wish some of the internal revelations the main character undergoes were explored more thoroughly, particularly towards the end of the book. I guess I wanted to spend more time with the character as they dig themselves out of the mess they made, but perhaps that would be a different book entirely.

Weird, interesting, unhinged. 3/5 stars

I truly, truly loved this book. It was chaotic and disruptive, and at times, it made me wonder, "Where are we going?" I will be following this author for future releases.

This was a quick and entertaining read that I finished in a few hours.
A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
The characters were all realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.
A great debut title.

The cover of Make Sure You Die Screaming immediately caught my eye. This book follows a nonbinary corporate burnout who goes on a road trip to find their conspiracy theorist father. Reading this book was a wild experience. The first sentence is truly an amazing introduction to the story and immediately draws you in. It’s a fantastic debut, and the author is definitely on my radar for future books. I highly recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Rushing home to Arkansas in a stolen car, told in a first person narrative, the main character is cruising along in their sporadic thoughts but with one focus on their mind- finding their conspiracy theorist father.

In the getaway, is also semi air bnb roommate Yivi, and way too many generational slang sayings and cliched statements. Like a walking billboard of cheesy one liners. About 10 pages of Yivi and I needed it to stop. This is chaotic for the most part and falls into quite a few southern Midwest stereotypes.

A lot of interesting elements and ideas but a lot of it jumbled together in a not always cohesive way; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. What didn’t work as well for me, was the zero to 100 mentality all the characters seemed to have. Like maybe a stronger edit in transitions. The main character experienced so much change, growth, and emotion for such a short novel, and the growth of the main character was executed well.

What a trip! A very cathartic book about someone going through a horrible time, seasoned with a lot of substance abuse and a cluster headache. This author is a gifted weaver of paragraphs that made me laugh, look up many words and feel emotional at times. I was particularly touched by the eloquent descriptions of the generational divide among parents and children in the political context we face. The end was not what I expected and I still don’t know how to feel about it. Overall, reading this book was an intense experience.

What an insane, wild ride (can a wild ride be too insane?). There is so much going on here, which is sometimes fun and exciting, and otherwise overwhelming. I feel like I got whiplash reading this, things happened so quickly and so chaotically. I thought the exploration of gender was fun and felt realistic to a typical dysfunction queer too!

Nameless nonbinary unreliable dysfunctional narrator that causes inner chaos and mayhem on a road trip where they drink alcohol like water and believe they are running from the law because of a boyfriend’s stolen car and the drug fueled death of their work friend/sometime lover. Make Sure You Die Screaming by Zee Carlstrom is a fast-paced wild ride in which the narrator tries to outrun their problems and realizes sometimes that’s not an option. ARC provided by Flatiron Books via NetGalley. I received an advance reading copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

"Make Sure You Die Screaming" by Zee Carlstrom is a gem that doesn't come across often. In the midst of personal, work and relationship turmoil, our nameless narrator receives a call from their mother that their MAGA, conspiracy-theorist father has gone missing. Now, they must make the trip from Chicago to Arkansas in an effort to track their father down. Along the way, they are joined by an unlikely and unpredictable new friend. Their chaotic journey induces the narrator to unexpectedly revisit and process childhood and recent events.

Going into this, I thought it would be a whacky and fun read but it ended up being so much deeper. There are several dark themes such as substance abuse, domestic abuse, and childhood trauma but Carlstrom was able to bring all of these elements together in a way that truly allowed us to see and understand our main character. I also appreciated the way Carlstrom presented gender identity and how our narrator explored and came to terms with their nonbinary identity. Modern politics are also sprinkled throughout the book, especially in how the narrator's father bought into radicalized, far-right ideologies and conspiracies Overall, this book kept me on my toes and took many unexpected turns. It's definitely a book that I would like to revisit again in the future.



Possible spoiler ahead/inquiry:
I don't know how to explain it just yet but while I was reading I kept getting the feeling that this felt like a "modern/adult" version of "Catcher in the Rye." Maybe because the events both of the main characters encounter keep getting more bizarre? Perhaps the themes of self-exploration while everything around you is either chaos or against you? About half way through, we learn Holden is our narrator's deadname when used inappropriately by their mother. This only made me more curious if the author had some intention of making a connection between the two works.

if you like a gonzo roadtrip story in the weird vein of melissa broder's writing, you may love this one. our main character is on the run after a violent interaction with an ex. specifically, they're running back TO their old home in arkansas because on top of everything, their father has gone missing. our roadtrip includes their best friend, as well, who it turns out is an underaged kid our protagonist has taken across state lines in a stolen vehicle. madness.

there's a lot of commentary in this about the current political climate and the ways that people are manipulated into voting against their own interests. personally, i wish the book had skewed more into those themes as i think those were some of the most memorable parts of the book but could have been fleshed out so much more.

nearing the end, i could tell you that i had a good time reading this but there's no really cogent way to describe the plot. this one is for the just vibes kind of reader -- most of this felt like a drunken fever dream, probably because our main character spends their time grappling with an untreated head injury and drinking away reality. relatable.

Thank you so much to author Zee Carlstrom, Flatiron Books, and NetGalley for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Upon reading the summary for this novel, it soon became a must-read for me. I believe this was probably the most relatable read I have had in a while actually. Well, to an extent. Though I am not quite as full of rage as Carlstrom, I am not sure of the author's background, but do find common ground with the main character that they have created. One with a schizophrenic Trump father, which I happen to also have--I wonder how common this type of father actually is these days.

Make Sure You Die Screaming is Zee Carlstrom debut work, and they really did debut with a BANG. It was really chaotic from start to finish, as the summary promises. This novel follows our chaotic nonbinary main character as they embark on a road-trip of their lifetime with their current new bestie and an abundance of mind-altering substances and bad decisions. Mayhaps a little bit of police action as predicted by our resident alleged psychic as well.

Throughout the story there is an overwhelming sense of foreboding as the main character makes the absolute worst possible decisions as they hopelessly crash out after quitting their job and evading police on the road. It was quite funny, albeit in a bit of a sad way. This is not really a happy-go lucky read. I will note that the pacing of story is a little bit all over the place. Since this story was relatively short, I do wish more time was spent tackling more of the difference in characters' politics and general values rather than starting off with a primary focus of the events on the road. Especially with our main character's parents. While I loved that our main character somehow(?) went on a journey to find themselves and confront their traumas, I did find this quick little book a bit repetitive in its initial story arcs.

Overall this is a nice little short read for the cynics of this world, with a dash of unhingedness with light themes of ones past catching up with them no matter how far they go.

This is a bizarre whirlwind of a book. The MC’s commentary is very cut and dry but modern for the weird ass times we are living in... I think it’s a fresh a new read. It’s reminds me alot of Invisible Monsters (one of my favorite books) and I love a good road trippin’ (and that they were, ha) story. I do think only a certain kind of reader will really love this book but definitely an interesting read!

Zee Carlstrom has created a fast paced, high intensity road trip story following two characters that you cannot help but love to hate. I thought the pacing was good and the characters were both compelling enough to keep me engaged while also being so angry about their choices. While high and drunk throughout the story, our characters make every bad decision they could on their road trip to Arkansas. I thought the commentary about our political system, MAGA, LGBTQIA+, and the hustle of American culture was very timely and insightful.

3,5 stars

I really enjoyed this and read it in two days, which hopefully gets me out of my current reading slump lol.

At first I wasn't so sure because it starts out with our main character drunk driving and I was worried it was going to glorify it, but I didn't really get that vibe. I also didn't fully get the vibe that they shouldn't have been doing it or that it was dangerous (at most times) for them or any other people around, but the narration is also from their perspective and it would be fair to say that they were unaware of such things.

only other critique is that the political commentary felt shallow to me. overall, I did really like where this political commentary left off in the end and how to seemed to be a big part of our narrator figuring out where they fit in the world (because no one exists outside of their context), but I do kinda think it is a stretch to call the whole novel a commentary or say that the critiques it makes are not rooted in the specific context of the character. the way this weaves into the narrative though felt the way literary fiction feels, so take that as you will lol.

I loved the main character and their unreliability as a narrator. Not only is this person drunk and clearly going through some sort of mental collapse, they also have a pretty bad head wound that they have yet to have treated. I had an inkling as time went on that maybe things were not exactly how they were experiencing them, and I loved how the other characters around them helped them get to a better understanding of what really went down. The language that they use sometimes is bizarre, but I also think that lends to all of the things that they are going through at any one moment.

even though it talks about and faces real events that suck to talk and think about, it was somehow cozy, at least in the end. I would recommend, though it is definitely bizarre.

I was unsure about this book at many points, but it really grew on me. I appreciate an unreliable narrator and enjoy messy stories from time to time. I loved the direction this book ended up taking, even if I did find myself frustrated with the narrator at times.

This was weird and stressful, but ultimately very captivating. We watch our main character completely crash out and tank their life in a drug and alcohol induces spiral on a mission for honesty.

If you enjoyed Kittentits or Rainbow Black, I think you'll also appreciate this!