Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Yay, I had time to plow through the last 3 hours of this today! My interest level varied throughout the first 40% of the book or so, ranging from “this is freaking amazing” to “hmm, is this going somewhere I care about?” But once the key conflict was established, I was hooked.

A lot of the “drag” came from something I think is actually pretty admirable - Zoey is a fish out of water who remains totally out of her depth for a believable amount of time. Her utter failure to grasp her situation results in some painfully bad decisions, but on reflection this is thoughtful character-building. Zoey isn't a Strong Female Character or Chosen One who miraculously rises to crafty politicking and ninja skills in an improbable span. She's a barista who grew up in a trailer park and that point of view credibly drives her actions.

The other characters grow more interesting around the halfway point as well. Zoey's interactions with Will are compelling, and Andre has some great lines. I got to a point where I'd love to see Echo developed more if there's a sequel. And what I wouldn't pay to see a movie adaptation with Stephen Fry as Carlton!

On occasion an attempted witticism lands with a thud, but there's ample compensation in the bits that do work, and in some golden life advice Will delivers.

Take one of those cyberpunk books of the '80s and '90s and make it faster, funnier, broader and a lot more shallow and that's the recipe for FV&FS. Be sure to update it with social media/Black Mirror kind of satiric commentary with the Blink channel substituting for TikTok, YT, whatever. (“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”)

There is tons of action, a few laughs, and an underdog character—one of my personal favorite character types.

After a few exciting opening chapters FV&FS became intermittently boring and annoying. There were still a few good moments here and there.

First of all, the satire is warmed-over. Rich people spend their money on ostentatious displays while people are starving blocks away. Social media/constant phone cameras create a lack of privacy, lack of humility, and narcissism. Toxic masculinity is bad. Pargin isn't stunning me with his insight and he certainly isn't making the criticisms in an innovative or subtle way.

Zoey comes off the best; I love a good underdog character and she had potential. In the beginning, she seemed resourceful, shrewd even, and rightly reluctant to trust. Soon after, she gets run over by the plot, starts trusting people immediately (like the bodyguard who shows up at the exact right time), and passively acquiesces to schemes created by her father's business associates. Worst of all, Zoey becomes a sort of offbeat fairy tale princess. I'm guessing this was also part of the satire. We all secretly hope we have rich daddys/godfathers/fairy godmothers somewhere who will transform our existence, even if we hate them and what they “stand for.” Still, she did get a few good moments of humor and insight and gets to own climatic moments. Not a complete waste.

More frustrating are the supporting characters. Will's role is “the stiff,'' and the Pargin tries to squeeze some sympathy by giving him a tragic past, mostly through awkward dialogue. There's no way a control freak would reveal such things about himself to someone like Zoey. We know even less about the others. Andre is a sharp dresser and gets the funniest lines. Echo is the token (hot!) femme and the joke about her is the assumption she's Chinese but she's actually Filipino. Hilarious. Budd is...an aging cowboy?

Then there's Molech, the antagonist. He's a cliche insecure sadist. I was mildly impressed with the relentlessness, but ultimately, he's one-note.

The book is just for fun but the bubble bursts when I can't maintain an interest in the characters.

I really enjoyed this book for the most part. Yes it was violent and I was cringing when I thought the cat was going to be torn apart but so glad it didn't happen . But then again I enjoy “Walking Dead”. But I never wanted to put it away and read something else. I looked forward to finding out what was going to happen. I got a kick over Zoe's attitude to her father's excesses. The hologram Candy was a silly plot device but still funny. The irreverence is just what I expected from the description of it.

Maybe I was simply not feeling it, but the story had one stupid reaction from Zooey after another.

From deciding to just go to poor zones instead of agreeing to go to the Livingston tower, to the constant whining about her dad having everything and his poor taste.

Also come on... 4 very intelligent people, and none figured out that Molech would take her elsewhere the moment she set foot in the building?After the first kidnapping, not one of the brilliant minds could have figured out that Zooey's mother was her weak point and protect her?

The constant reminder of Arthur's terrible taste in decor and all the things he decided to have exposed in his house got old quick.

While I'm not one to jump on the feminist critique bandwagon, the book does lean heavily into sexual content and objectification of women. It's possible this fits the overall vibe of the book, but the exaggeration of these elements, including hints of potential rape used as mere page-turners at the end of chapters, feels unnecessary.

Here and there, the book presents the readers with some clever social critique but it quickly fades away amidst all the exaggeration of the story. I compare the humor in this book to the one from comedians who make jokes about farts. It's fun the first time, not for the 19872367 time.

The end of the conflict also seemed anti-climatic and convenient, considering all the building-up until that moment and the overall tendency to multiply everything by a thousand.

Considering the reviews for the book are generally good, maybe I'm not the target reader for it, but I also can't recommend it to others.

I've had some David Wong books on my to-read list for a while, but luckily the Sword and Laser picked one for the monthly read so I can finally cross one off. I'm a big fan of the Cracked website, and was excited to see what that style looked like as a novel. In short, it's pretty insane.

The book is as bizarre as its title, taking place in the no rules, no government, no consequences sity of Tabula Ra$a, Utah where trailer park barista Zoey Ashe suddenly finds herself heiress to her estranged father's fortune, debts, and messed up life. Life in this near-future world is all recorded and broadcast on the voyeuristic “Blink” network, and billions of people subscribe to watch super-powered serial killers hunt people down. All she wants is to go home with her cat.

The story is frenetic, sarcastic, and as creatively violent as the title warns. It definitely gets a little harder to read at the end, but most of the time, it was a darkly humorous adventure, not too heavy on the moralizing. The characters are a bit flat (though Zoey is a wonderful change from a traditional SFP or damsel in distress) and the cat behaves like no cat I have ever known in my life (I care a lot about realistic cat portrayals. Cats aren't dogs!), but if you're just looking for a fast, exciting read and don't mind a LOT of blood, you'd probably enjoy this book. I don't know that it's one I'll remember well in a few years, but I enjoyed it while reading it.

This is a fun story about a girl inheriting a fortune and villains who have technology that grants almost comic book powers. The ‘science' is a bit ridiculous, but the tongue-in-cheek humor makes this book well worth reading. I'm a bit disappointed with the final couple of pages, where the author shamelessly throws in a reason to write a sequel.

Executive Summary: Do you enjoy sophomoric humor and the victimization of women by cartoon villains? If not, you may want to give this book a pass.

Audiobook: Christy Romano was the bright spot here. I really enjoyed her narration. She did a good job with voices and adding something to what was often at times an overly melodramatic and downright infuriating. I would definitely listen to another book read by her again.

Full Review
This book started out pretty strong for me. I should have been tipped off by an early scene, but I was enticed by the book's description and the thought that this book could be a cross between Blade Runner and maybe the Godfather.

Instead what it turned out to be was an excuse to subject the protagonist to repeated victimization at the hands a variety of boring/cartoonist antagonists. To me the best characters are always much more nuanced than this. Everyone is the hero of their own story, or so the adage goes. Not so here, as Molech and his followers know they are the villains, and they relish in it.

There were parts of this book I enjoyed, especially early on. The ideas of the city of Tabula Rasa and the technology it contained kept me interested for awhile. However once it became clear that their was really little depth to the plot and just a series of cartoonish confrontations, I started to check just how much time I had left in the book.

I feel like there could have been a good book in here, but the story I got instead fell far short of my expectations.

This is a dystopian-ish pulpy novel that reminds me of the bad guys of Grand Theft Auto but if they were jacked with sci-fi villain juice. Note that I've never played GTA, but just like who cares if someone gets hit by a car while trying to do villain things. This is about Zoey Ashe, who lives in a trailer with her mom and works as a barista. She has to go to Tabula Ra$a, a young city in Utah run by millionaires, after a serial killer tries to kidnap her (and wants to eat her fingers while streaming it to his many fans). She finds out there's a kidnapping order on her that went out when her billionaire dad died and she became heir to his estate. Typical violent shenanigans ensue for Zoey while she tries to keep her cat Stench Machine alive and safe.

DNF.

Its a fun time, the world building (especially the Blink network) is fun and there are some good lines, but once the world is built and it's time for the characters and plot to shine there wasn't much hooking me to continue. From some quick scanning of comments on here it seems like that wasn't going to change.

It would be good for a light easy read, just wasn't in the mood.

Pretty good book but def can tell it was written by 2 men. Rape jokes, constant violence (the title delivers) and the plot being a glorified dick measuring contest.

I'm glad the main protagonist is a woman. She's really funny and I like her personality. This story reminded me of Scott pilgrim a little bit.

Sci-fi isn't my genre but I'm reading this series for my 2024 book bingo. I will continue to finish it out but don't expect anything intricate or amazing.

When the plot is about a bunch of rich people trying to one up each other you get a lot of things that don't make sense. Like random tigers in combat? Or people living through stuff because of super advanced medicine/ cyborg technology even though they should be blown to bits?

Very Blake crouch-esque in the writing style. And now I know why I subconsciously always divert to female writers

I read John Dies at the End and really loved it. There is a time and a place for funny, off the wall, absurdist lit. I just quit smoking. This is that time for me. I'm not quite sure how I missed this book. It came out in October? Why are there not more reviews????

Maybe this fell through a wormhole and landed on the library shelf the exact instant I needed something like this. It's like an action movie in book form. Everyone is larger than life or lives up to the stereotype you expect them to (the butler running in with a mop to clean the blood off the floor during an all-out gun fight-before the fight is even over), and the pages flip fast. I like Wong's writing, although I admit I don't know anything about his website or really care. He is a solid storyteller. This has cult favorite written all over it.

Well done.