
Member Reviews

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley for review.
Spent Bullets is that rare book (these days) that can provide a unique reading experience in that it plays with form and structure and really insists that you *experience* it. A series of connected short stories (many of which read like prose poems) follows a group of Taiwanese tech geniuses in Taiwan and Silicon Valley as they navigate relentless competition and career paths with the drive to be the best eroding their inner selves. Though the stories feature several recurring characters, Jie-Heng, a suicidal prodigy, is the book's dark heart. His struggle - and preordained end - propels the stories. The first-person narrators of the stories are never identified so it is up to reader to pay attention - to read carefully between the lines. Not everything about this book is that subtle. There are multiple references to self-harm, suicide, and BDSM which are, at times, genuinely shocking. But Spent Bullets is worth the effort and the discomfort. It's a book I'll be thinking about for a long time.

Was way more vulgar than i anticipated, not a bad thing inherently, i think it just wasnt what i was looking for in that moment.

Thank you to Net Galley and HarperVia for the ARC. I really wanted to like this one because I like the concept of figuring out the common thread and piecing the larger story from a set of linked short stories. Unfortunately this was just too gross for me.

I hate to say this was a nothing burger. But for me it was a nothing burger. The stories are disjointed and loosely connected. It took a few chapters for me to realize the same characters were involved throughout. Third person combined with the haphazard writing left me very disconnected to the characters and what happened to them. No real plot to speak of and very little substance to any of the characters. Not for me.

What an intriguing mode of storytelling, and such interesting narrative. This book was a perfect look at capitalism and what it takes to survive in a world that pushes you to preform.

A perfect encapsulation of the toxic and grueling environment of a capitalist society.
This was such a chaotic read, and while I know this was intentional, it also made the book kind of hard to read. I found this took a lot of focus to read, and that took a way from my enjoyment at some points.
Overall, this is a good moody and dark read, but be mindful of the trigger warnings, because they are not just lightly mentioned in the book... it's a lot...

This book follows the same vein as the movies Black Swan and Whiplash. Highlighting the characters desire to achieve more, no matter the cost. The structure is also quite disorientating. We jump around to different characters each chapter with no indication of who is narrating or when in the timeline the chapter is occurring. I kept thinking that just wasn't paying attention enough to catch onto who was narrating, but it was explained in the afterward that this was intentional. I feel like this is the kind of book that would get better upon each reread, as the structure would likely start to become more clear.

3.5 stars - "Spent Bullets" chronicles the lives of Taiwanese intellectual elites in both their homeland and Silicon Valley, ultimately asking whether the seemingly endless pursuit of success is worth the brutal emotional, mental and physical tolls.
I think this theme is ever relevant and Tetsuya (still weird to call a Taiwanese author by their Japanese pen name) explores it quite deftly through the narrative, stylistic choices and structure. The latter is particularly compelling with the author's intentional obfuscation of who each chapter's narrator is. I also enjoyed the book's melancholic yet chaotic tone, and how unpredictable the story and characters can be through a single word or action.
Overall, this was an interesting read, though readers should be warned that its content features a whole host of trigger warnings.