Black Buck

Review to come.

This was an amazing story, told from the perspective of Darren Vender, aka Buck, this is about his meteoric rise from Starbucks barista to top dog in the digital startup sales world. There is a dizzying rollercoaster of events to follow as 23-year-old Buck moves from trainee to sales leader to recruiter for other young, Black individuals who want to follow in his footsteps. But the farther ahead Buck gets, the further behind he leaves his old life, friends, and family. Buck becomes the classic anti-hero and you keep wondering whether to root for him or not but, ultimately, you just want to give him a hug.

Poised as a narrative, self-help training manual, I had to keep reminding myself that this story was fictional. It was written in a way that I could “see” the events happening before my eyes. I was so caught up in the story I found myself casting the characters as if they were in a movie. There were times I laughed out loud and many times where I cried. Black Buck played with my emotions from the very first page to the very last word, and when I was done I had to let out a long, deep breath because I was spent.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to get completely enthralled in a story where you're not exactly sure who to root for but you keep waiting to see what happens next.

Being in the customer service industry there were so many things that he spoke about that I understood 100%! I loved this book until it got to the last 15-20% especially the last chapter. I hated the twist ending and wished the author did something else with the ending. And while I hated Clyde and didn't agree with what they did to him, he got off too east and didn't get what he deserved

This didn't work for me. I hated the asides to the reader, the pacing was all over the place, the dialogue was messy, and the characters were caricatures. This book became steadily more and more absurd as the story continues, and the ending feels so rushed and nonsensical compared to the rest of the book. It's like it totally switched genres in the last thirty pages.

Mild spoiler

Yes, there are flaws here, pointed out very well by other reviewers, regarding how the few women are written; I completely agree with those observations. By the end of the book, we know what Soraya smells like. The main character's mom is basically fridged.

This being said, I still really enjoyed this book. Sometimes, it was funny, but most of the time, I was just staring in horror at the page, at all the crap through which he goes, at what he briefly becomes, and his dark ending. Parts of it are so real. The ending though...is almost a little too optimistic, in a strange way.

Still, a fun time was had by all reading this, with a fine observation of how non-white people are treated. About how white people can be so brutally tone deaf, ignorant, or just plain evil, with serious cognitive dissonance. Despite how wild some of the end is, I don't think it is unrealistic in its assessment of workplace politics, systemic racism, and white retaliation. The only thing at which I might have quirked an eyebrow in the very end was where he finds his freedom. But that would be too much of a spoiler.

Also, I'm a sucker for most anything with found family.