I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
A Novel
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4.3 • 173 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
THE INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER
A standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Strident and timely, the dark humor of this wild standalone adventure from Pargin (Zoe Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia) evokes satirists like Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams for a new age. Abbott Coburn, 26, is a product of his generation: his anxiety levels are through the roof; he finds solace online; and he feels disconnected from the father with whom he still lives. Then he has a chance encounter with an oddly dressed woman, Ether, who offers him a life-changing amount of money in exchange for driving her and her mysterious black box from California to Washington, D.C., in four days. The rules are simple: no phones or other devices, no questions about the box, and no looking inside. Their headlong flight is complicated by several pursuers: a mysterious, tattooed man; a retired FBI agent; and a wave of internet rumors represented by chat room messages interspersed throughout. The biggest impediment to success, however, is Abbott himself. The plot consists of a chaotic string of misadventures that feels even more out-there than Pargin's typical fare, but ultimately leads to some harsh truths about life in the digital age and offers a surprising amount of hope for the future. It's a raucous roller-coaster ride.
Customer Reviews
Engaging
This book did a great job of keeping my attention the whole way through. I wasn’t positive about how it was going to end. There’s some great social commentary involved. Would read again!
Stop! Read below before buying this book!
This was the most dreadful book I’ve read in a long, long time. It is supposed to be a humorous mystery but instead it was a long, boring story. But if you still think you want to buy it I want to let you know that you can skip hundreds of pages a not miss one single thing of importance.
A Biting Satire With Real Sweetness
I found myself nodding along with all the criticism of social media and how the algorithms truly are damaging us beyond what we can comprehend as much as I loved the sweetness of these well written characters.