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vantasmagorical's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I adore this author and many of his books, but this was an absolute slog. And for such a short story, that is saying something. To me, it utterly lacked nuance and I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop on this commentary ... But it never came. I appreciate the intent of the message, but I felt like I was being bludgeoned with it. The only reason this wasn't a DNF was because of how short it is..
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
simbsky's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
shredrexx's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jadom's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
yevolem's review against another edition
4.0
This novella is a satire about producing mass shootings for the purpose of profit and propaganda. This is a very American book, so I do wonder if non-American readers would be anything other than utterly horrified by how bleak it is. It's intensely political from start to finish and is without a doubt one of the most political works of fiction I've ever read. As to be expected from that, opinions will extremely vary depending on personal beliefs. I think anyone who tries to read this seriously rather than as satire will have a bad time regardless, though in different ways depending on how they interpret it. It's absurd, ridiculous, over-the-top, nonsensical, cynical, pessimistic, and by the end, melodramatic and unbelievable. It's very easy for me to see how this could be rated from being one of the worst to the best a person has read, or why they'd absolutely refuse to read it. There are so many different probable emotional responses.
Active shooters are recruited and paid to livestream their massacres. A bit more than a year after this was published the Christchurch mosque shootings were livestreamed. Those being shot are paid many times more if they kill the shooter. Basically everyone has a gun on them at literally all times because they know at any moment someone could try to shoot them. If the shooter kills everyone, they are paid many times more.
Mass shootings aren't defined within the text, though it notes that "It was the 514th mass shooting of 2026 that had spawned the idea". According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of today, December 13th 2021, there have been 667 mass shooting in the United States in 2021. So, depending on the definition, the author may have undershot his target projection. Mass shootings were only a bit more than 1% of the gun deaths in the US in 2021, which is estimated to be around ~42k, more than half of which are suicides. Their salience comes from how public they are and who the victims are. The primary purpose of a terrorist attack is to create terror and they do that very well. That being said, gun deaths aren't even half that of drug overdose deaths, which exceeded 100k in 2021 in the US. And drug overdose deaths are only a small fraction of...but I digress. Many of these deaths can be categorized together as "deaths of despair". If nothing else, that's what this novella is about, deaths from despair wrought by fear.
By the time I was 15%/~20 pages in I was already laughing so hard that I was crying. I was thoroughly amused from start to finish. A typical reaction seems to be to feel disgusted, queasy, even nauseous, and quite disturbed. If I could take it seriously, maybe I would've felt like that, but as it was, I didn't at all. It was easy for me to overlook all the narrative flaws because this is about the author's raw emotional distress being used to portray a certain mood and worldview rather than so much a story.
Active shooters are recruited and paid to livestream their massacres. A bit more than a year after this was published the Christchurch mosque shootings were livestreamed. Those being shot are paid many times more if they kill the shooter. Basically everyone has a gun on them at literally all times because they know at any moment someone could try to shoot them. If the shooter kills everyone, they are paid many times more.
Mass shootings aren't defined within the text, though it notes that "It was the 514th mass shooting of 2026 that had spawned the idea". According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of today, December 13th 2021, there have been 667 mass shooting in the United States in 2021. So, depending on the definition, the author may have undershot his target projection. Mass shootings were only a bit more than 1% of the gun deaths in the US in 2021, which is estimated to be around ~42k, more than half of which are suicides. Their salience comes from how public they are and who the victims are. The primary purpose of a terrorist attack is to create terror and they do that very well. That being said, gun deaths aren't even half that of drug overdose deaths, which exceeded 100k in 2021 in the US. And drug overdose deaths are only a small fraction of...but I digress. Many of these deaths can be categorized together as "deaths of despair". If nothing else, that's what this novella is about, deaths from despair wrought by fear.
By the time I was 15%/~20 pages in I was already laughing so hard that I was crying. I was thoroughly amused from start to finish. A typical reaction seems to be to feel disgusted, queasy, even nauseous, and quite disturbed. If I could take it seriously, maybe I would've felt like that, but as it was, I didn't at all. It was easy for me to overlook all the narrative flaws because this is about the author's raw emotional distress being used to portray a certain mood and worldview rather than so much a story.
zzazazz's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.5
debchan's review against another edition
4.5
4.5 stars
you know what's the craziest thing about this book? the fact it's set in 2030 like omg that's SIX (6) years away and yet it's also entirely possible. like despite this being dystopian and scifi and out of left field it's that the logic holds soundly.
bennett is a fellow texan and it's felt so intimately here. wherever you go even in the big cities of dallas and houston. even though we're consistently blue. there's always gonna be those gun shows, those "prayers" after a mass shooting, those who want to arm teachers instead of choosing to target the gun laws at the root of the problem. but no, widespread guns means more danger means more guns means more danger. if only they were vigilant.
i think bennett developed the narrative pacing extremely well. he throws us in a world that's familiar. and when he explains the rules of the game, it's absurd. surely people would object; surely this can't be allowed? but america is not a place to live, it's a place to survive and how better to do it than setting civilians up for mass shootings and blaming them when they die. the numbers, the demographics for targeting ads etc. idk it somehow felt ridiculous but completely real at the same time.
probably the only reason i'd deduct .5 stars is because of the cheesy villain explanation at the end. i know it had to be done. we had to know how it happened and was able to sneak through but it felt a bit too on the nose. china hackers and the like. speeches about the decline of american civilization. books like farenheit 451 or 1984 leave you with the burden of interpretation. but i can see why bennett would include it bc people need it. viewers of the show The Boys idolize homelander and spew their conservative politics not even realizing that the show is about them. i wouldn't be surprised if someone read this book and was like "actually great idea!" so yeah while i thought it was obvious and unneeded, that ending might be necessary to the agenda grabbers out there.
being in the head of john, the creator was so fascinating. he's not the one who wanted this of course. he just played the cards and america's hand was dealt like this. the Ideal Person was just someone to exploit. he had the money, the resources, and he just tuned into the population like a dial, turning it up and up and up until the ad revenue poured in and AI forced viewers' eyes onto the screens permanently. (it's wild bc i heard that a new tech is coming where an ad will pause if it senses your gaze looking away from the screen. absolutely insane)
delyna was our woman on the ground, our average american citizen. except for her it's not a game. it's her reality as a black woman. she isn't the target audience for the show and so she's sick to her stomach about it. it was the perfect choice to have a POV of a normal person watching this unfold. the way mr oklahoma (as a texan i lowkey dislike them too) couldn't even form a real argument. he could have walked away but he didn't. and then everyone played into the game themselves without prompting, without it being part of the game show at all.
the ending, spoilers.ofc john managed to survive while delyna was shot. of course it happened that way. bennett isn't writing a happy ending here. he's writing a realistic horror story about just how easily everything can go south and how the american population is so ready, so eager to jump onto this train. i'm usually a sucker for bennett's fantasy books, but this once was so well written i'm gagged.
you know what's the craziest thing about this book? the fact it's set in 2030 like omg that's SIX (6) years away and yet it's also entirely possible. like despite this being dystopian and scifi and out of left field it's that the logic holds soundly.
bennett is a fellow texan and it's felt so intimately here. wherever you go even in the big cities of dallas and houston. even though we're consistently blue. there's always gonna be those gun shows, those "prayers" after a mass shooting, those who want to arm teachers instead of choosing to target the gun laws at the root of the problem. but no, widespread guns means more danger means more guns means more danger. if only they were vigilant.
i think bennett developed the narrative pacing extremely well. he throws us in a world that's familiar. and when he explains the rules of the game, it's absurd. surely people would object; surely this can't be allowed? but america is not a place to live, it's a place to survive and how better to do it than setting civilians up for mass shootings and blaming them when they die. the numbers, the demographics for targeting ads etc. idk it somehow felt ridiculous but completely real at the same time.
probably the only reason i'd deduct .5 stars is because of the cheesy villain explanation at the end. i know it had to be done. we had to know how it happened and was able to sneak through but it felt a bit too on the nose. china hackers and the like. speeches about the decline of american civilization. books like farenheit 451 or 1984 leave you with the burden of interpretation. but i can see why bennett would include it bc people need it. viewers of the show The Boys idolize homelander and spew their conservative politics not even realizing that the show is about them. i wouldn't be surprised if someone read this book and was like "actually great idea!" so yeah while i thought it was obvious and unneeded, that ending might be necessary to the agenda grabbers out there.
being in the head of john, the creator was so fascinating. he's not the one who wanted this of course. he just played the cards and america's hand was dealt like this. the Ideal Person was just someone to exploit. he had the money, the resources, and he just tuned into the population like a dial, turning it up and up and up until the ad revenue poured in and AI forced viewers' eyes onto the screens permanently. (it's wild bc i heard that a new tech is coming where an ad will pause if it senses your gaze looking away from the screen. absolutely insane)
delyna was our woman on the ground, our average american citizen. except for her it's not a game. it's her reality as a black woman. she isn't the target audience for the show and so she's sick to her stomach about it. it was the perfect choice to have a POV of a normal person watching this unfold. the way mr oklahoma (as a texan i lowkey dislike them too) couldn't even form a real argument. he could have walked away but he didn't. and then everyone played into the game themselves without prompting, without it being part of the game show at all.
the ending, spoilers.
megaco's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5