This book has been a great listening experience. Thanks to the author and the publisher for bringing this book to life.

This is a very interesting love story in which a forbidden romance plays out in the exotic and dangerous setting of pre-revolutionary Iran.

I have not laughed this hard while listening to a book in years. <i>Years.</i> I'm talking about laughing out loud with real tears in your eyes and that kind of sharp, in-your-sinus nose pain where it actually hurts because you can't stop but you need to breathe.

Mallory, the "hero" of this book is your archetypal Joe Rogan stan. The kind who actually believes in being a dominant alpha male but has no idea how to talk to real people or handle any type of real-life problem they encounter. A product of the more toxic end of the manosphere. And this novel is about the hilarious nonsense that ensues when Mallory steps outside his comfort zone, falling in love with a woman who doesn't respect or like him at all and also befriending his new black neighbours.

Ferrets, stolen cats, a racist lesbian party planner, police, tactical squads, exploding guns, pirates... Keep your witty banter, I want more dark comedies like this that just spiral downwards into sheer absurdity. To call it politically incorrect would be an understatement.

And yet, it still managed to have some heart underneath it all. It's not perfect, but the five stars were earned. It was funny and I dearly love to laugh.

There were some tense moments of genuine darkness for a beat or two and then it would be like

<img src="https://media3.giphy.com/media/ZRrDxmYBhA5jOxhYqJ/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47hgxieyafzbgxkgfj01psowu5dfny29ssci0lpraz&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g"

Loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an audiobook ARC. All opinions are my own.
I can't handle this narration. I don't know if it's the way that he is narrating or the content of the book or some combo of the two but I really need a break. Maybe I will try this again a bit later.

It's a big fat no from me!
I have tried and tried to give this a go but Mallory is a hideous character (Yes I know, I know we are meant to feel this way) but I just can't carry on.
I've had enough of sexist pigs in my life that I don't want to spend my happy escape time choosing to engage with men like this. Even the narration was making me angry!
Sorry, Im sure some people will enjoy this type of 'humour' but its really not for me.
I didn't finish this book so it may have got better?!
Thanks to NetGalley & the publishers for the advance copy of this audio book.

An advance copy of this audiobook was provided with courtesy of NetGalley, Real Nice Books, and the author Thomas Keech for a review purposes. It is narrated by John Hampden.

I originally thought this book was a non-fiction book, given it's plain cover. I later realized that it's a novel, with some reviewers likened its main character Kevin Mallory as Ignatius J. Reilly from my beloved "Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. I must say that I was highly disappointed with that comparison, as well as this book. Unlike Ignatius, Mallory is lazy, misogynistic, and highly unlikable character. Somehow we are expected to find him funny, but he is so out of line that there is very little to be able to relate to him. He is awful to his colleagues, and not a person I want to be around personally - even as a reader of his book. The narration was not great either, and unfortunately I wouldn't be able to recommend this book.

I kept trying to give this a chance, hoping it would get better; it didn't. I've never before read a book that I disliked so much. The writing wasn't good, the story wasn't good, even the voice performance on the audiobook wasn't good.

You're not supposed to like main character, I understood that before I started, but my dislike was more than that.. seriously if I could give no stars I would.

Unfortunately, if I could give this audiobook a zero I would. Definetely not my kind of book, very boring in my opinion. I gave up after 20%

I think a lot of people will find this book funny, but unfortunately I am not one of them.

In writing this book, I think Thomas Keech set out to create a character that is as absolutely detestable, and he certainly accomplished that goal. Kevin Mallory works in customer service at a cable/internet company, and if you have ever called a cable/internet company customer service line, you know how terrible that experience is. Every single thing about Kevin Mallory embodies the experience of calling a cable company customer service line - that is to say, he is the worst. A racist, sexist, animal abusing, apathetic jerk.

Unfortunately, some spoilers are necessary to explain why I've given this book only one star. Throughout the book, Mallory begins to be less of a deplorable jerk, and seems as if he's going on a redemption arc, only to then have that come crashing down and going back to his old self. Instead of leaving the reader thinking about the complexity of human nature, or about why it's so hard for people to change though, it just left me frustrated and angry. Maybe the takeaway was supposed to be that not everyone can be redeemed, or that some people just choose to continue in their ways, but due to the lack of strong plotlines, the takeaway just ended up being flat.

I think if it had been 50% shorter, if the characters had any depth or development outside of Mallory's point of view of them, and there had been any kind of growth or resolution, it could have been a fun book, but alas, that was not the case.

I am honestly struggling to think of things I liked about this book; I listened to the audiobook.

Mallory's Manly Methods tells the story of Kevin Mallory, a man who is both sexist and racist as well as being a narcissist. For these reasons, amongst others, he was not a likable main character. There didn't appear to be much of a story, simply following a period of time in his life. The writing was fine, I just wasn't a fan of the content.

The narrator spoke so incredibly slowly, that I was able to listen to this book on x2.5 and still hear it perfectly well. It was also very long, at something like 11 hours; personally I felt that this was really too long for this kind of story.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me an ARC in return for an honest review.

I recognize the use of satire. But after spending two days in Kevin Mallory's head, I just couldn't do it anymore.

His racist, misogynist, narcissistic ramblings and attempts at logic started as being so over the top that is was humorous. But after awhile, it was overwhelmingly too much. I'm sure he will be redeemed by the end. But the threads of redemption were too slow in coming for me.

Did not finish. Stopped at 35%

So some books are just not for you. You have to acknowledge that. This one was simply not it for me.

I love an annoying main character – make them just delusional enough, just narcissistic and selfish enough, and I’ll think about them forever (I’m on my 200000th rewatch of Veep, for example).

But what I didn’t like about this book was just how simple the main character was portrayed to be (at least to me this is what it felt like). It almost makes it seem like every person who is a horrible person is horrible because they are ignorant. Maybe the author did not have this intention – but that’s what it seemed like to me.

I inherently abhorred the main character – this dude had NO self-awareness, and he was so narrow-minded (especially in the beginning) that I just couldn’t get myself to be interested in the book, and it felt like a slog throughout. I guess the main character needs to be at least somewhat reedemable for me to read it.

I also wished the cover was better, but it may change!

So, like I said, some books are just not meant for some people, and this book was not meant for me.

Wow…not sure if I was the target audience for this book. In fact I am quite sure I am not. The main character Mallory was quite the narcissist, lacking all social cues, and just horrible. The narration didn’t bother me as much as it did some people. But the fact that it was over 9 hours long kind of made it difficult to listen to. It was like listening to your creepy coworkers personal diary. But I am sure part of the point of this was satire. The writing is not bad at all… I just think because the main character isn’t very likable, it affects how people view the entire book.

When Mallory's friend needs help confronting some serious life problems he may have to make some decisions that change the man he thinks he is forever. This isn’t a bad thing considering that currently Mallory is an absolute narcissist, sexist, misogynistic, and even racist individual. His disconnect with reality is mind blowing! While readers see the truth of his minimum wage job and meagre existence, He believes he’s living the dream.

This late coming-of-age novel shows growth and change in the protagonist but for me I just couldn’t get over the man I meet in chapter one, yuck!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars for this well written but grating novel about a man I just couldn’t learn to love.

The story was good. Mallory is such an absurd person - narcissistic, racist, and delusional. He has convinced himself that he is living the best life. He loathes work. He hates the people around him. He is afraid of his Black neighbours.

But when his friend faces a problem, he has to take some decisions that might change his whole life.

While I liked the story and the writing, the narrator didn't work for me at all. He read as if he was just learning to read. There were differences in the sound as well.

2.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Kevin Mallory is an Ignatius J Reilly for the modern day. Though at times I hated him, I found his character to be constantly engaging and entertaining. Ridiculous fiction at its finest.

An Intimate Portrait of a Despicable Character

🧡 Full credit to Thomas Keech for creating Mallory, the focal point of the dark comedy. He is truly the worst character I’ve ever spent so long listening to. I’d say a bit too long. Because really, he is awful. Misogynistic, narcissistic and about as bright as a blown bulb. He’s an absurdist embodiment of the worst of modern humanity. And all the worse because every now and then I saw a glimmer of good only for it to be decisively extinguished.

💚 If this was half the length, I might have given it four stars. It’s funny and dour. But there’s only so many times you can give me hope only to drag it away kicking and screaming.
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SOUNDBITE

🎧 From a technical standpoint, the production was fine. I felt however that the narrator wasn’t suited for the part.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Keech for providing me with an ALC in return for an honest review.

Narrator minus 5 stars
This book could have been 5 stars if it wasn't for this narrator. He was really horrible. The best thing about an audiobook (if you get a good narrator) is the way they suck you into a book and it plays out like a super long movie in your head. But with this narrator is sounded like someone learning to read the way he spoke.

Stroy 3 stars. I think if I have read this instead it would have been 5 stars. The story is quirky and very different which I loved. Would definitely try this author again in either kindle form or by a different narrator