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I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom - Jason Pargin - Jan 2025 Book Group discussion thread

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LindsD
LindsD
11 Feb
4:02pm, 11 Feb 2025
72,606 posts
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LindsD
Oh yes, and I liked the Reddit stuff and fear that it is, in fact, realistic.
LindsD
LindsD
11 Feb
4:03pm, 11 Feb 2025
72,607 posts
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LindsD
Florida Roadkill. That's the one.
LindsD
LindsD
11 Feb
4:05pm, 11 Feb 2025
72,608 posts
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LindsD
So we broadly agree and McG is a banana
Diogenes
Diogenes
11 Feb
4:07pm, 11 Feb 2025
90,657 posts
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Diogenes
banana banana banana
McGoohan
McGoohan
11 Feb
4:16pm, 11 Feb 2025
55,045 posts
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McGoohan
bananabuntingbananabuntingbananabuntingbananabuntingbanana
LindsD
LindsD
11 Feb
4:22pm, 11 Feb 2025
72,610 posts
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LindsD
:)
Little Nemo
Little Nemo
1 Mar
12:05pm, 1 Mar 2025
16,651 posts
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Little Nemo
I mostly enjoyed this book. It had an easy to read style and most of the action sections had a good flow. I also liked the various different characters that got dragged into the story and getting the story from different viewpoints. The social media bits were really funny especially the wild conspiracies being chucked around with zero evidence. It also had some good points on cancel culture and that hardly anything gets forgotten anymore. It's very easy to get sucked into doom-scrolling nowadays so this was a good reminder for me to stop doing it. There are lots of good things in the world but tbh I would Ether a bit too annoying in real life.

My biggest problem came from the misogynistic/incel rants from Abbott. Maybe it's because it really feels like the world has gone backwards on women's rights recently but it felt like too big a subject to try and tackle in a mostly humorous book. Also maybe the box itself ended up as a bit of a letdown. On the plus side I thought letting quite a few things be unresolved was realistic, not everyone got a happy ending. You can imagine the Hollywood version where Abbott and Ether fall in love and he reconciles with his father!

If I see more books by this author in the library I'll definitely give them a go. Thanks to @Maclennane for choosing it - I'd never have discovered it otherwise :-)

I gave this book a 7
LindsD
LindsD
1 Mar
12:30pm, 1 Mar 2025
72,890 posts
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LindsD
Broadly agree

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About This Thread

Maintained by McGoohan
Already taking the trophy for longest book group title we have had, this dark satire was written by Jason Pargin and has been chozzed as Jan 2025 book by Maclennane.

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