How can I even describe this book except for saying it was one hell of a ride?! From the most basic of synopses, I was intrigued by the story, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s to come. I love how many wild turns this book takes, especially when it comes to how the internet and social media can have minds of their own, and how quickly things can get out of control. It was so interesting to have such a wide cast of characters, but pretty much all of them were unlikable, or at least morally neutral. I never knew who to trust, but it kept me fully engrossed in the story. I do feel like the story wrapped up a little too easily, but I had such a fun time reading this, and would absolutely recommend it!

The storytelling style wasn't my cup of tea, and the characters didn't resonate with me. Nonetheless, I can see others enjoying it.

If you find yourself at the end of your rope with the way that social media and technology have taken over our society and mental health--you will find your voice in this novel. Honestly, I think this should be handed to all high school graduates as it provides a stark reckoning of how social media is programming our passions and values. This isn't accomplished through lectures, but rather the wry and cynical observations of one character discussed and balanced by the more optimistic and hopeful character's insight.

This novel explores what it takes to make it in today's world amidst the pressures of both social media and our social structure at large. Beyond that, it's an action-filled, ultimately hopeful, fun ride.

This advanced reader's copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

⬛️ This is one of those unique books that will stay with you a long time. It is unusual and surprisingly eye-opening regarding American culture. It is also surprisingly hilarious at times.

⬛️ Abbott and Ether are unique characters. Abbott is an adult male who lives with his Dad, suffers from anxiety, and his only real human interaction is through his Twitch channel. Ether is the opposite. She is spunky, brave, and amazingly optimistic about literally everything. Because they are so different, their conversations during their cross-country road trip were quite interesting.

⬛️ Ether’s relentless challenge to Abbott’s cynicism is a highlight. She systematically dismantles his bleak worldview, revealing that the world isn’t the dumpster fire he thinks it is. Instead, it’s a great place, often obscured by misinformation from politicians, media, and keyboard warriors designed to pit people against one another. In some ways, the dialogue reminded me of Hans Rosling’s book “Factfulness,” which scientifically demonstrates that the world is far better off than our biases lead us to believe.

⬛️ Speaking of keyboard warriors, the novel also delves into the treacherous realm of social media. Reddit users, portrayed with both absurdity and chilling realism, propagate outlandish theories about the “black box of doom” that gain traction. The narrative underscores the dangers of misinformation and the impact of false info presented as fact.

⬛️ This crazy book is not only a fun ride, but it challenges the reader to listen to and understand viewpoints that differ from their own.

⬛️ If you enjoy conspiracy theories, road trips, banter, Reddit, dark satire, and/or really crazy plots, then you will love this book.

Thank you @Netgalley and @stmartinspress for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

How do I even begin to sum up the insanity, wisdom and mind blowing-ness of this book?

It is a book of contradictions. It is hilarious, it is serious. It is hopeful, it is cynical. It is both sides of the argument. It is empathetic, it is self centered. It is a study on humans with the internet. Humans *on* the internet. Humans living within the internet. It was humbling. Mind blowing. Gut busting.

I am an over-thinker, a pro at catastrophizing, who lets the bad news feed the curse that is my empathy, so this book was honestly a breath of fresh air and a whiff of hope. Maybe humans aren’t as bad as I thought.

What was most hilarious, though, was how quickly a road trip across America was highjacked by the internet (looking at you, reddit). How quickly a box in a backseat with stickers snowballed into this avalanche of chaos. It was a cracked out game of telephone. And the commentary! My god. It was wonderful. Witty, spiteful, freaking funny.

I definitely enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a great, fun, humorous book. The story follows a young man who is hired for a rideshare job, and ends up taking a woman cross country with a mysterious box. The story is at points interesting, poignant, exciting, and extremely timely. I absolutely am recommending this, because it takes the issues we are currently experiencing in our country and turning it into an interesting fable. The story is so well though out, insightful, and with the right amount of sarcasm that makes a book engaging. Seeing a book by Jason Pargin that is not from the John Dies At the End universe is so awesome because it shows his talent and storybuilding. Highly recommend!

2.5 stars rounded to 3.

This book started out so great and had me laughing out loud and sometimes on the edge of my seat. But it devolved into something I greatly disliked with the grossly unlikeable cast of characters and the meandering plot that left the story entire too long with no real payoff. I wish I could offer a more positive review.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A nearly-agoraphobic young man and mysterious woman go on a cursed roadtrip to deliver a box (of doom?) to an unnamed but powerful recipient.

I am a long time Jason Pargin fan. This book is less bonkers than his horror/speculative fiction work but it still offers wit, humor, and a complex plot that absolutely pays off. It is an ultra of-the-moment story that captures social divisiveness, algorithmically determined points of view, and echo chambers presented by today's online life and offers a powerful counterpoint that feels like a ray of hope.

This book is perfect for cynics, doom scrollers, hyper online anxiety riddled millennials (me), and anyone else who could use a dose of perspective about our society and it's trajectory.

Many thanks to St Martins press, NetGalley, and Jason Pargin, for this ARC.

Uh…where to begin. First off, and this is likely very important to readers like myself, this book is so far removed from the John Dies at the End series that you’d be forgiven for thinking it might have been a different author. By that, I mean the irreverent, stupid, laugh out loud humor of JDATE is nowhere to be found in this book. Any and all humor is the kind that makes you laugh internally as you say “ain’t that the truth” after Pargin has made yet another accurate comment on society in 2024. Once you can reconcile that fact, the book becomes markedly more engaging, as the expectation of lol humor is gone and not weighing on your mind.

As for characters and the plot, I will say this: as ludicrous as this novel feels at points, that lunacy is largely in part due to how close to reality it could be. This novel paints a nearly perfect picture of 2024 in the age of the internet, for better or worse, and how people like this, even if they aren’t based on real people, could and likely do exist. Reddit is an important setting/character combo, as it has such a presence in the novel that it feels like it’s an actual character, but it’s the setting in which so much of the embarrassingly accurate internet discussions and dialogue occurs. For actual characters, we’re treated to quite the mishmash of personalities, our two primary characters Abbott and Ether both insufferable and genuine at the same time. There are points during this novel where you will have a visceral dislike of Abbott, but enough happens before and after that by the end of the book, you’ve sort of forgiven his idiocy.

What made the book difficult, for me, and part of the reason it only gets 4 stars from me, is that the constant shifting between characters really impacted the flow of the plot and getting myself sucked into the story. Once the storylines started to make more sense as to why they were relevant, the flow greatly picked up and, by the end of the novel, it sort of feels like you’re leaving behind some friends you’ve gotten to know on this cross country journey.

Jason Pargin knows how to write, there is no doubt, and as a darkly accurate portrayal of the world of the internet as we speak, this novel does more than succeed, it sometimes feels like you’ve read this kind of lunacy somewhere else. Despite the lack of laugh out loud humor, though there are a couple of points where he got me, if you’ve grown to love Pargin based on his JDATE series or Zooey, perhaps both, I highly recommend checking this one out.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ether hires Abbot, a Lyft driver, to drive her and a large black box across the country. She will pay him handsomely, but he can’t bring his phone, or anything else that will allow them to be tracked, and he can’t know what’s in the box. For the next 5 days, rumors about what’s in the box explode across Reddit, and Ether’s and Abbot’s job becomes a lot more difficult to complete.

Despite not liking the majority of the characters, the book was entertaining. It did take me until about the 30% mark to get into it, but once I did it went quickly afterwards. The story is told through MPV, and honestly, the only people I kinda liked were Ether and Zeke. Everyone else was just horrible. Including the background characters of the Reddit posters.

This is more than just a story about a cross country adventure. It also explores the way “news” travels on social media, and what could happen when you have a large group of people who can’t, or won’t, use critical thinking skills and live their lives through a screen and keyboard. Everything becomes entertainment, and people’s humanity becomes lost in the process.

3.75 ⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for an advanced e-copy of this book for review.

I worry a bit, in the middle of the dumbest year in living memory (so far), that the people who most need to read Jason Pargin's I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, as well as those who are most going to appreciate it, are not going to bother finishing it because of its singular flaw, one that has been creeping very slowly into Pargin's work from the beginning: it's a bit didactic at times. As in there are some scenes that all but descend into Socratic dialogues.*

And there are no elements of hilarious supernatural horror (like in Pargin's John and Dave and Amy books), nor of over-the-top plutocratic science fiction (like in Pargin's Zoey Ashe books) in his latest novel. Pargin would seen to have concluded, like, say, William Gibson did before him (at least for the Bigend/Blue Ant trilogy) that the real, mundane world that we actually live in is plenty weird a setting for his brand of horrifying comedy and searing pathos, thank you very much.

Which makes the fact that I was reading an ARC of I'm Starting to Worry... at the very instant the news first broke of the shooter at the Trump Rally in Butler, PA on July 13th of this stupid year of 2024 so freaking weird and perfect and unsettling that it made me feel like I was suddenly a bystander in either a John and Dave and Amy novel or a Zoey Ashe novel, for reasons I'll talk about here in a bit.


The plot of I'm Starting to Worry... chiefly concerns a disaffected young man, Abbott Coburn, who accepts a Lyft request from a mysterious woman who needs help transporting the titular Black Box, a roadie crate covered in band stickers, at least one of which stickers looks quite a lot like a radiation hazard sticker as depicted in the cover art, from California to Washington D.C. In Abbott's dad's tricked-out practically brand new Lincoln Navigator, of which Abbot believes his dad is more proud and protective of than he is of Abbot himself.

We are treated, here and there, to just enough foreshadowing about the eventual fate of box and car l, and about the subsequent fame of Abbot and the young woman, who gives the improbable but cool name of Ether when Abbott demands to know what to call her, to know that this trip they're planning is not going to go smoothly or end well. Which, of course it isn't; this is a Jason Pargin novel. His first book gave away an unhappy ending in its title!

The duo's eventual fate is sealed by two unhappy circumstances they don't even know about until miles and days later, when one of them finally breaks the rules of the trip (don't look in the box, don't bring any devices that can track us, etc) and realizes that the Internet has lost its collective mind over their journey and conspiracy theories about it abound; the true point of I'm Starting to Worry... is thus revealed to be that said Internet has given us all a chronic case of what Malka Older named "Narrative Disorder" in her Centenal Cycle: our brains, already inclined to pattern seeking and narrative creation where neither pattern nor narrative actually exist, also can't really tell the difference between the stories it has fabricated and objective reality. Or at least not without more effort than most of us are used to expending to overcome the inherent efficiency/laziness of our brains, the better not to hog all the glucose so our muscles and organs can have some, too.

Anyway, not only did that sticker on the box capture the imagination of some of the worst sufferers ever of Narrative Disorder (aka Reddit users, which, get ready for them: big chunks of the novel take the form of conflicting theories, insults and wild speculation in Reddit threads, even unto the creation by rebels from one subreddit about the escapade of a whole 'nother one, denouncing the users and moderator of the original), but also, the vehicle Ether had originally tried to use to take the box cross country by herself... did in fact set off a radiation detector when investigators found it broken down and abandoned not far from where Abbott picked her up.

Oops.

So people think the pair are maybe some kind of terrorists transporting a dirty bomb to set off on the Mall in Washington D.C. No, wait, actually, Abbott is just a dupe in this plot, seduced into driving by Ether, who is a trained Russian sex-spy. No, the radiation is actually from an alien (or alien corpse) that the pair are transporting from a seekrit location to D.C. for a dramatic reveal to finally force Disclosure; Abbott and Ether are heroes! No, wait...

See why it was freaking weird to be reading this on the day a poor marksman took a potshot at the Republican nominee for POTUS?

Anyway, the mystery ropes in two unlikely "detectives" who have assigned themselves to the case: a recently retired FBI agent named Joan Key, and Abbott's father, Hunter, who, it turns out, actually does care quite a bit about his son, thank you (he's just really bad at, you know, emotions and stuff), and would really rather not see his boy go down in a hail of bullets on national TV.

But as Key and Hunter try to track Abbott and Ether -- Key to stop what she is sure is a terrible domestic terror threat that none of her former colleagues will take seriously, Abbott to save his son from certain death or even worse fates and also maybe congratulate him for finally doing something interesting with his life -- they can't help but join a howling pack of weirdos who are all doing the same thing for different reasons, spurred to action by the insanity on Reddit and Facebook, mostly, but also...

We find out early on that Abbott isn't just a Lyft driver who still lives with Daddy, but is also a YouTube streamer of middling popularity; this all really got touched off by a quick post to his channel advising that he was going to be offline for a while having a real life adventure. So some of his fans, hip to what's been going on on Reddit, etc long before Abbott himself is, are out to save him from the Evil Woman who tempted or kidnapped him into being her unwitting stooge.

And there's a big scary and heavily armed guy the duo refers to as the Tattoo Monster on their trail, too. The Tattoo Monster seems to know what's actually in the box and to believe that it's rightfully his, and is surprisingly resourceful for a dude who looks like he hasn't paid attention to anything since Hunter S. Thompson wrote Hell's Angels. In which Tattoo Monster (he has a real name but Tattoo Monster is more fun) could easily have been a character.

It all builds up to a satisfying climax in typical Pargin fashion, both way over the top and just believable enough, both coming at you out of nowhere and telegraphed almost from the first paragraph.

In the middle, though, we get lots and lots and lots of pseudo-philosophical exchanges between Abbott and Ether, mostly about how much the world sucks and it's going to hell and it's especially bad for unattractive young white men (Abbott, who "spent half his life sensing he was in someone's way and the other half actually being in someone's way but failing to sense it") vs It's only bad from a very narrow, specific and privileged viewpoint and everyone really has a bad case of Internet poisoning and toxic levels of loneliness (Ether).
I have this theory that everything that happens on our screens is designed to do exactly what's happening here, to repel us from one another, to create a war of all against all. It's like a filter that only shows you others' bad behavior, blocking the pure and letting through the poison, to make you scared of everyone who isn't exactly identical to you. I think that, long-term, it traps your brain in a prison, that it's designed to keep you inside, alone, with only those screens for comfort.
- Ether, explaining why she refers to social media tech as the Black Box of Doom

So yeah, if you're a fan of Pargin's old work at Crackd, his many podcast appearances on shows like Behind the Bastards, or his TikTok channel, these passages won't be too much of a bother, covering similar mythbuster-y ground to those, but they do slow down the action some and often feel quite preachy if you're already on Pargin's wavelength re: what modern technology and living standards and capitalism have done to our brains and how important it is to unplug and get some perspective -- I can only imagine but that is even worse for those who are not. So I'm sure lots of people are going to be online soon complaining that Pargin has Gone Woke or whatever new slang for pointing out that things could stand some improvement in the equity and kindness departments will be by the time the book is published later this year.

For this was a Netgalley pick for me, and, weird July 13 experience it was for me, I'm mighty glad to have gotten it.

Pargin doesn't need fancy magic or sci-fi trappings to tell a great, and frequently funny, story. He made my auto-buy list a long time ago, but I maybe need to bump him up to must buy in hardcover.

*I'm aware that this is a strange context in which to use the word "descend" but this is supposed to be genre fiction, and Pargin's audience is not, I suspect, going to like the lecturing and arguing that characterizes a lot of the interactions between our protagonist and his primary companion. I'd love to be wrong!

"I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom" is a wild ride that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I enjoyed the unique premise of a mysterious black box and the strict rules surrounding it. The tension and intrigue build as the driver and the young woman embark on their cross-country journey, all while the stakes escalate with rumors of a potential terror attack.

The blend of suspense and absurdity in the story is handled well, and I appreciated how the author uses the mysterious black box to explore themes of trust, secrecy, and the unknown. The evolving narrative and the unexpected twists make it a compelling and thought-provoking read. Overall, it’s a gripping and entertaining book that delivers on both suspense and creativity.

It was hard to connect with any of the characters in this story. I struggled to feel anything for the main character and it didn’t matter what happened. Seemed like the story could’ve been better and feel some sort of sympathy towards any of the characters. Thank you NetGalley for this digital arc.

When I first started this book, it made me nervous. I was instantly smitten with the premise, the characters and the tone, but I worried if the book could sustain that awesome momentum. The answer is both "yes" and "no."

As a person who spends a lot of time in online spaces, I loved the idea that these two people who are on this innocuous trip suddenly become online heroes /villains/obsessions for millions of people watching their every move. This whole plot line was amazing and felt ripped from a Twitter feed. This gave the book a very "It's a Mad, Mad, World" flavor and kept the pages turning. I wish the book would have leaned even harder into that aspect.

The part I liked less was the dialogue between Abbott and Ether (which, when reading came to FEEL like being trapped in a car with a person who's terribly unpleasant). What started out as fun banter and some careful exploration of their lives, developed into lengthy "hear me out, incels may have a point"" arguments which were a huge turn off for me. Any love I had for Abbott went right out the window as he railed on Ether about how awful women are, treated her like shit and then refused to hear any of her counter arguments.

I really struggled to understand what narrative point these exchanges served. I get that Abbott is lonely and has a complicated relationship with his father, but these passages not only slowed the story down to a snail's pace, it also really hurt the development of the friendship between these two people, and made me less invested in their fate. Ultimately, I'd rather have spent the entire book with ZEKE and Ether stuck in a car, as he was a MUCH cooler character that deserved more screen time.

I'm not saying I DISLIKED this book, by any means. I though the writing sizzled and the story was engrossing. I think my issues come down to some narrative choices that I personally wasn't a fan of that took away some of the fun. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this one totally blind. I had no idea what to expect but it was right up my alley. So many insightful scenarios had by a completely raucous cast of characters. This was high octane storytelling at its finest. So many twists, turns and laugh out loud moments. I’m so glad I’m not the only one thinking these crazy thoughts!
Thank you NetGalley, Jason Pargin and St. Martin’s Press - Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First of all, if you love roadtrip novels, then perk your ear up.

The black box of doom needs a little road-time.

Of course, exactly WHAT that black box of doom is will be a major bone of contention throughout the novel, but it should be safe to say that there are several.

Probably, the more interesting black box of doom is the author's willingness to let it all hang out. We've all had some seriously hard years, be it with societal craziness, fractured people, loneliness, online echo chambers, and, let's face it, FEAR and the greater uneasiness we all have about opening up to others.

After a fairly delightful meet-cute involving a bit of kidnapping (honestly probably the only way this basement-dwelling dude might have agreed to this bit of wildness), this novel doesn't hesitate to jump right in and say the things that might start tons of arguments.

Oddly, however, there's a bit of interesting open-mindedness, which was pretty delightful, even if it didn't go overboard.

The rest of the novel was almost slapstick in how the Reddit boards went cuckoo or how conspiracy nutters became weekend warriors. It was pretty funny.

It may not be my favorite of Mr. Pargin's, but I do appreciate the courage to put these other ideas out there and treat them with a little respect even if they may be a sore point for many. (Think any of the contentious things that are on Reddit, and you'll get the idea.)

Jason Pargin's "I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom" is a fast paced adventure ride. When anxious introvert, Abbott, decides to give a mystery woman a ride, in exchange for 200,000, it's an opportunity he can't pass up, despite his very strong reservations. What ensures is an unbelievable and zany adventure that explores herd mentality, social media addiction, and cancel culture. Pargin's novel is a quick and comical read with some divisive and thought provoking themes to explore.

For fans of Cory Doctorow's "Ready Player One".

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book in exhange for my honest review.

Had trouble getting into it at first, but it picked up in the second half. Didn't know what to expect, but wasn't disappointed with what I found.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press, Jason Pargin and Netgalley.
Well, I didn't think it was possible to not like a Pargin book, yet here I stand corrected. Actually, laying in bed with a horrible sunburn! This book had none of the fun that his other books have. Or....maybe, they had the same amount of fun without the freaks that I so dearly love from his other books.
Either way, I've decided that Pargin is a sometimes author for me.
Sometimes I love his stuff, other times I don't. This was a don't for me. Yet, Pargin is still weird and funny.

Rating: ⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Mystery Thriller

Abbott is a Lyft driver who encounters a woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 in cash to transport her and the box to Washington, DC. However, she imposes strict rules: no questions and no peeking inside the box. As they embark on their journey, rumors about the box and its purpose begin to spread across social media.

The narrative is told in the third person, with multiple characters providing their points of view throughout the story, which takes place over five days. The idea behind the story is absolutely incredible, and it brings to mind the film "The Bag Man" by John Cusack, which I found to be a fascinating and entertaining film. In the same way, the main character is unable to look at the bag, obtain any information about it, or ask any questions about it.

Unfortunately, unlike many other readers who enjoyed this book, I did not find it enjoyable. Firstly, the book seemed too long. I'm not sure if the pacing was off or if the book was simply too lengthy. Additionally, I don't think the story needed multiple points of view. It would have been more satisfying for me if the story had focused solely on the box's location and if the two main characters discussed their pasts or something. I didn't find the viewpoints of Abbott's father or the other characters necessary.

As a reader, I found it difficult to connect with the characters in the story, which was a significant factor. The main character, Abbott, is not likable, and I struggled to understand or sympathize with him. I also found it hard to relate to the other characters. It's unfortunate because I feel that the story had a lot of potential.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.