What a fun read. I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin has the craziness that you'd expect by the author of John Dies at the End (and that whole series). But it's a bit more reigned in? Kind of? Funny and a fast read, I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I'm a huge fan of Jason Pargin's John Dies at the End and Zoe series, but upon seeing the description for this novel I wasn't sure how interested in it I was. Had the publisher not offered me the ARC without me requesting it, I'm not sure how quickly I would have picked it up. The writing itself was as any of Pargin's other books. While it had some of his patented unexpected humor, it had much less, and fewer silly-but-hilarious moments than its predecessors. All of the characters had a sort of duality to them - they had aspects that made them sympathetic, but also had reprehensible traits to counter them. The book made many much too accurate observations about the internet and modern society. While Pargin made some very astute commentary about the Internet Age, at times the truths he pointed out made the story pretty depressing. There were numerous instances of satirical Reddit posts, but as the book went on the ignorant comments stupid conspiracy theories ceased being funny as they mirrored reality too closely and I finally ended up skipping the last few. While fairly accurate, there was a bit too much philosophizing by some the characters. Overall the book was still excellent writing but more societal commentary and less comedy than I would have preferred. 3.5/5*

A slight change of pace from [author:Jason Pargin|16596547] as there are no weird interdimensional aliens or science-fictional enhancement technologies in this book, but it's still pretty madcap. Fun viewpoint characters and almost all of them end up being somewhat sympathetic. Kind of reminds me of Carl Hiassen or maybe the wackier Elmore Leonards, but for the 2020s.

I think fans of Jason Pargin's prior work will enjoy this new stand alone novel. If you haven't read anything by Jason Pargin before, this is a great place to start as this is probably his most accessible book to date since it isn't horror or sci-fi. Don't worry, it still contains some of the humor we have come to expect, although more subdued than in past novels. Jason has a real talent for unloading a lot of interesting and useful information without boring the reader. I think this book has an important message that you don't hear anyone else talking about. I believe the world would be a much more pleasant place if we could all change our perspective and have gratitude for how good we really have it instead of focusing on the negatives. I found the pacing to be great and finished this quickly and enjoyed every minute of it.

What do you do when a random woman orders a rideshare and then asks you to drive her and her mystery box across the country, for $200,000 dollars? Well, if you’re Abbott Coburn, apparently you agree. You leave behind all your electronics and head east on an old fashioned road trip. What could possibly go wrong? A mysterious box in an SUV headed toward DC could never lead to any sort of wild speculation, right?

This book was not what I expected. I tried to go in with zero expectations, but as we all know that’s basically impossible. So I expected, while this was a standalone novel, it would function much like his other works: a story taking place in our world, but not really. The John, Dave, and Amy books are cosmic horror comedies, and the Zoey Ashe series is a near future, sci-fi series, so they deal with modern day topics through the lenses and expectations of those genres. I’ve always liked that about Pargin’s work. It is close enough that the real world problems are there, but they are exaggerated by the fantastical elements the genres bring and allows for them to be talked about in really interesting ways. . . with fart jokes. This book was the most uncomfortable reading experience I’ve had reading a Jason Pargin novel and that’s not a bad thing.

With none of the trappings of horror and sci-fi through which to filter the discussions of humanity, you are left with a story, set in a very real world, that can be uncomfortable to inhabit. Every POV character has a valid point. Every POV character makes bad choices. There seems to be no good guy to root for. There seems to be no bad guy to root against. They are all just people. Making their way through life, making the best choices they can, with what information they have, in the most difficult world: ours. But isn’t that kind of the point?

This book has compelling characters, a fun plot, and a lot to say about how humans interact with each other, in person and online. And if you’re interested in discussions about online spaces and how they have been affecting our lives for the last 30 years, this is a very entertaining way to approach that subject matter.

As a long time fan, this story felt new while also staying true to the voice Jason has cultivated over his previous seven books. The ability to discuss difficult topics in a nuanced way has always been my favorite thing about Jason Pargin's work, and that is alive and well in Box of Doom.