I saw a fellow reviewer relate this to Kurt Vonnegut, and I wholeheartedly agree. There are absurdities, yes, but there are a lot of pointed observations that make the reader go, "Hey! I took that personally." Doesn't matter what your life perspective is — if you have any internet presence, you'll be a target at some point in this book. This is both a good thing.

Heavy is the hand that has opinions on and about the internet.

I waffled on the rating for this book, but considering how many times its plot points, ideologies, and factoids bubbled up in my real-life conversations, I'd have to give it five stars.

2.5 / 5 stars

Abbott Colman is in his mid-twenties, but lives at home with his father. He makes his living as a Twitch streamer and sometimes driving for Lyft. Everything in his life -- his prospects and his outlook -- changes when he meets a young woman with a large black box who offers him $200K to drive her and the box straight across the country. But he has to leave his phone and laptop behind. Abbott accepts, and soon he's on the road and has no idea that the whole Internet is watching him and speculating on what is inside that box.

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom is part road-trip adventure, part recap of the very excellent book Factfulness. Unfortunately, the long blocks of dialogue between the characters while they are on the road makes for an uneven plot. The mystery of the box's contents did keep me hooked, and the third act was action-packed and quite fun.

I too am starting to worry about this black box of doom...Ironically, this book, which was about how the black box of doom can twist reality and detract from real human interaction ... and potentially blow up in your face, actually took me a ridiculously long amount of time to finish BECAUSE of my own black box of doom. Impending U.S Election doom, coupled with U.S Election outcomes (which feel pretty damn doom-centric) kept me unfocused and jittery...staring at my phone, doom scrolling through narrative after narrative. Add some real life stress and a 3-4 day read took me SIX FREAKING WEEKS TO FINISH. I feel like Pargin would appreciate that my delayed review was directly related to the insanity that he details in his book.

I appreciated the reminder that perhaps I need to look up and out and to try and keep perspective on how real human interactions can and should work. I also appreciated the demonstration of how one person's perspective might not be every person's reality. I also just really enjoyed the ridiculousness of the whole plot line and the characters themselves, as both archetypes and as fun and unique individuals that I would love to know (and sort of do).

As always, I appreciate the opportunity afforded me to have an early read by netgalley and St. Martin's Press. The opinions in this review are expressly those of ButIDigressBookClub and are intended for use by my followers and friends when choosing their next book. #butidigress #butidigressbookclub #imstartingtoworryaboutthisblackboxofdoom #blackboxofdoom #jasonpargin #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #arc #arcs #twitch #streaming #influencer

When Abbot's Lyft passenger offers him $200,000 to transport her and a large black box from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, Abbot knows it's life changing money. The catch - he can't look inside the box, ask questions, or tell anyone about the box. As Abbot and his passenger cross the United States, they unknowingly become some of the most wanted people in the country. As the general population and online sleuths try to track the two down, misinformation has the country on edge for a potential deadly terror attack.

With plenty of dark humor and a great array of characters, this is a must-read book. It's fun. It's unique. It's such an interesting depiction of the perils of social media. It's a bit far-fetched and it's best to go into the story with an open mind. I read this while driving from Texas to Iowa, and it's the perfect road trip read. It definitely made the 20hour drive that much more enjoyable. If you have a holiday road trip coming, grab this one to accompany you.


I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom is out now. Thank you to St. Martin's Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my:
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This is a book that will either work for a reader or really, really not work. I fell into the latter category as the randomness, zaniness, and general meta-ness of the book was far too much for my own tastes. However, I can appreciate what the author was doing and I'm confident there are a handful of customers at my store who will be absolutely obsessed with this one. The trouble is figuring out which ones, so the rest don't think I've lost my mind.

This book is not for me - I usually like quirky characters, but maybe I am too old to appreciate all the randomness that happens when an uber - type driver agrees to drive a slightly crazy girl with a big black box across the country. I am from the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" era of funny narratives and social commentary. Maybe younger readers will like it. I probably would have watched this as a movie, but but 400 pages is too long for this type of book.

Another one of my most anticipated reads of the year, I’m Starting to Worry about this Black Box of Doom captured my attention way before it even came out. I wasn’t expecting the story I got, but that was an awesome surprise for me!

This book was written for a specific person, and that alone could be controversial, I’m not sure. I feel like the underlining message of this book was more important than it had any right to be, and for that I consider it worth the hype.

This story follows a kid named Abbott who is just living his mediocre, stream-addicted life by doing ride shares to shut his nagging father up in his spare time. His full time job is streaming on the internet and talking to his friends. Social interactions for him aren’t something he’s good at, and this gets under his father’s skin something fierce.

As fate would have it, Abbott picks up an odd looking woman sitting on a black box that spells trouble from the get go. He second guesses this ride share, but goes through with it anyway because why not. Not only was this the worst person for someone like him to pick up, but now she’s asking him to do something he wouldn’t even dream about in a million years. What does he say? What does he do when she tries to convince him to do what seems like such a simple task of delivering her and her box across the entire country for an obscene amount of money!? What happens next is what the controversy is really about.

His life goes from zero to sixty in this action packed, satirical thriller that will leave you asking “what did I just read” long after you’ve finished it.
Kurt Vonnegut would definitely approve of this one.

Another note: this book is for anyone that has ever felt frustration toward the current societal shifts that we’ve experienced in the past ten years, but wrapped in a big red bow of a story that will probably make you smile when you turn the last page, or maybe it won’t.

"I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom" by Jason Pargin is a sharp, hilarious, and incisive satire that plunges deep into the absurdities of contemporary life and the increasingly chaotic world of social media. His trademark wit is fully on display here, balancing dark humor with insightful commentary about the terrors of technology, surveillance, and how online platforms manipulate our attention. The way the novel reaches toward cutting-edge social network scenarios feels amazingly current, drawing comparisons from real viral controversies to the uprising of influencer culture. Well-paced, Pargin moves the reader through the quickly building absurdities while providing moments for some honest reflection on the state of our digital world.

The only real flaw in the story is with its protagonist, Abbott Coburn, who comes across as being generally unlikable for much of the book. All of which can lend a somewhat off-putting texture to the narrative voice, but as minor complaints go, this one doesn't hold much water against the overall excellence of the book. Coburn's character is, however, deliberately flawed. His struggles with the black box of doom-that represents not only the chaos of social media but also the general darker aspects of human nature-add an extra layer of complexity to the story. While Coburn is not the most relatable character, the novel makes up for that threefold: clever storytelling, insightful social comments, and laugh-out-loud moments. I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom is a wondrously entertaining read that can make one laugh, cringe, and think all at once. Highly recommended for readers who love satire with a keen eye on contemporary society.

I'm the owner of a few gems from Jason Pargin's "John Dies in the End" series, though I haven't dived into them yet - the everlasting TBR list, you know? Hence, embarking on this book was like stepping into uncharted terrain.

The story unfolds at breakneck speed, each turn more original than the last. The characters? A vibrant tapestry of individual voices, each more distinctive than the next. Throughout the book, you'll find it hard to warm up to these main characters, until the final act reveals they aren't as villainous as first believed. Abbott is the lone exception – my sympathies don't quite reach him.
Dark humor and utter chaos infuse the pages, a crazy cocktail that I found utterly delightful. The laugh-out-loud escapades the characters embark on as they traverse the country with an enigmatic package in tow, coupled with the commentary from subreddit users tracking the box's progress, had me thoroughly entertained. The climax? Perhaps the only part I wasn't head over heels for. More than a riotous read, it delivers a poignant critique on social media - the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

Now, I'm not usually one to champion books for movies, but this one? I can't help but feel would translate rather well to the big screen.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for offering this book for review via NetGalley. All thoughts expressed are my own. There was no obligation for a review in exchange for an advance copy, and no commitment to provide one.

I adore Jason Pargin's books no matter what pen name he uses. Their weird matches my weird, and this one was no different. The title was the first thing that pulled me to this book, the author was the next, and lastly the premise. I will say I struggled with this one a little bit because one of the characters suffers from anxiety and you can taste it in those chapters, and it was hard for me to read those chapters. But the fact that I could feel the character's anxiety was really cool, even if I had to take a break after his chapters. Overall I liked it, but I do want to go back and read it again because I know I missed things on the first read. Pargin books are ones I enjoy reading a second, or third, time because I feel like I always miss little things here and there while I am too busy trying to unravel all the crazy.

Jason Pargin's newest novel is about Abbott Coburn, Abaddon online, who is bullied by a stranger named Ether into helping her deliver a mysterious package to Washington DC before the Fourth of July. I mean, she offers him money too, but mostly she sizes him up and realizes he's more afraid of saying no than he is of the rest of the world (and he's really afraid of the rest of the world). They leave a note for Abbott's dad, ditch their electronics, and start a roadtrip that somehow seems less nefarious to them than it immediately does to the rest of the world. Abbott's Twitch followers, including a friend named Zeke, sound the alarm right away, but the rest of the internet is more interested in what's in the box and whether Abbott and Ether are secret terrorists. There's a recently released meth dealer tracking them, an ex-Fed, Abbott's dad, and all of Reddit. Most people think Abbott and Ether are escorting a bomb, on orders from Russia or the aliens or something. Weirdly, Abbott’s biggest defender is his shithead dad, who thinks Abbott is too weak to commit a crime. The story is told from the points of view of several main characters, and interspersed with reddit posts, the craziest of which I mostly skimmed.

This Black Box of Doom gets off to a rocky start. It's so fundamentally meta that it hurts my head, and I'm a millennial whose entire life has been ruled by the internet since it was message boards and chats with perverts and cops. Since online anonymity. I'm on social media all day and I watch streamers and I've created content and I still read this and think "that's absolutely more than enough." Which is probably The Point, but I prefer to care a little about the characters before The Point crashes directly into me, and these characters are awful. Ether communicates entirely in Hot Takes (she’s the Pargin insert), and Abbott is just a whining incel mess of depression and anxiety, and when the two of them talk it makes me feel like I've spent four days Reddit and finished it off with several hours of watching Pargin monologue. It's hard to believe these are real people when they talk in vlog rants (Ow, the Point). Dick Dad and The Felon are a tag team of grounding the reader in reality and soothing that confusion. They're The Worst, but they know who and what they are and they don't care to analyze it.

What comes across very strongly is this: Pargin has a great deal of empathy for these horrible people, and wants us to feel that way too. He wants us to feel that Society and The Internet are to blame, not the individuals on this journey. And god help me, we do empathize with them by the end. As soon as they are removed from the Internet they start morphing into multidimensional humans that we can root for, or at least not actively want to see dead. The second half of the book is an enjoyable race to foil a terrorist plot and build connections with real human beings, even Dick Dad. It's genuinely good. A better editor might have advised Pargin to loosen his grip on The Point before he smacked me in the head with it, but I'm giving this book four stars because it wasn't as difficult to read as Anna Karenina.

Tracks with the narrative of the story, just keeps getting weirder and weirder and not stale yet. I understand the author's desire to use his real name at this point, but I do understand how the name David Wong was part of the storyline previously. Although I'm hoping he goes back to his previous name, I loved the connection to the narrative based on the pseudonym.

I was apprehensive about this one as it didn't sound like my typical read. It was definitely interesting but just not for me. And that's okay! I would definitely recommend this to a couple friends I think would enjoy it. I would also absolutely give this author another try in the future.

Full of unlikeable characters and hijinks, this book is understandably decisive among readers. I fell on the side of "this definitely wasn't it for me" but I can absolutely understand how people could love this book.

We follow Abbott, a down-on-his-luck Lyft driver who receives a ride request from a strange woman who is offering him $200K to transport her and a gigantic box across the country.

Incredible premise, however from the jump I could tell this was going to be a tough read for me. Abbott was incredibly judgmental (and ok fine that woman had disguised herself to look certifiably crazy so I get it but he just didn't stop) and so negative about everything, that it soured my reading experience.

In my opinion, this book dragged on and could've been significantly shorter and more concise. I would recommend it if you're looking for something different to read, or if it's available as an audiobook at your Library and you're looking for something to borrow.

What a ride. This novel had a LOT to say about internet culture in general. I think it got a lot painfully correct about how the world reflected online, while not being in any way accurate to the actual physical world, influences and hypes up the most unbelievable scenarios that get the populace hysterical. The author gives plenty of real-world examples on how off-kilter society is become from believing everything they read online.
An exciting, if maybe in the end slightly long, cautionary tale.

Thank you to St. Marten's press for my copy of I'M STARTING TO WORRY ABOUT THIS BLACK BOX OF DOOM. This one is out September 24.

This was a very entertaining read with lots of twists and turns. Pargin weaves together a fictional story, albeit felt a bit too real at times, while highlighting the inherent pros and cons of social media in the modern world. I would recommend this!

Loved loved loved this book! What a brilliant and satirical, yet genuine and moving commentary on the state of the world and technology. I have been seriously thinking about the effects of iPhones and the Internet lately, and I feel like this book put into words so much of how I have been feeling. The growing mass hysteria, the fear mongering, and the storytelling that goes on with absolutely zero proof or reason is astounding, and this story encapsulated all of it.

After the initial pages, I found myself not connecting with the story or characters, so I decided to pass on this book. Did not finish

Abbott, a 26 year old Lyft driver living in Los Angeles, lives a relatively normal, although slightly boring, life, but all that is about to change, and in a big way. As he pulls up to the curb to pick up his latest passenger he encounters a young woman sitting atop a large black box with what appears to be a radioactive sticker on it. The young woman is Ether and she has a proposition for Abbott; she wants him to drive her and the box to DC by the 4th of July and is willing to pay him $200,000 to do it, but there rules. Abbott cannot look in the box, nor can he ask what is inside; he can’t tell anyone where he is going; and he must leave his cell phone behind. Although reluctant, it seems like an easy enough job so Abbott agrees to the terms and the two begin their journey, but soon things take a turn and the pair finds themselves pursued by motley crew of individuals, including a tattooed guy, a retired FBI agent, Abbott’s father, and a community of Reddit users, and they all have their own theories about the black box and what doom it might contain.

On the surface I found this to be a very entertaining and funny tale, but underneath it all there are some rather powerful and relevant messages. To me this novel is making a strong statement through the use of satire and comedy about our society. We have what seems to be an almost desperate, addictive need for things like electronic devices and social media and the need for affirmation through those, as well as the rapid and dangerous effects that misinformation and rumor–which is so easily spread through the media–can have on people and their actions. Yes, there is a great cast of characters that are well developed and the plot is interesting, so much so that those alone made this a book I could not put down, but below the surface there is so much more to unpack and I loved going on this journey with Pargin’s cast of characters.

Fliakos did an absolutely phenomenal job narrating this novel. I loved all the voices that were used for the characters, as well as the tone and inflection which aided in the telling of story and the creation of the atmosphere. I honestly can’t think of a narrator with the ability to do justice to Pargin’s novel the way that Fliakos did; my enjoyment of the material was greatly multiplied courtesy of the audiobook.

I think I liked this... Or at least I liked the parts where we are following Ether and Abbot on their road trip from hell, as they are transporting the black box of doom. Those parts kept me interested, and I loved that I had no idea where they were going, or what Ether was going to say or do next.

However, there are a lot of characters we get POVs from, and I don't think most of them were necessary. Maybe Abbot's dad Hunter, at least towards the end when I decided he wasn't a complete tool.. and Abbot's friend Zeke, who in his zeal to help Abbot, actually ended up making things like 1000 times worse for him Abbot and Ether.