I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom is a wild ride and a cautionary tale of being terminally online. Abbott is—at best—a lonely loser or at worst—an incel who hates women. While driving for Lyft, Abbott picks up a young woman sitting on a black box and offers him $200,000 to drive from L.A. to D.C. with conditions. He can’t open the box; ask about it; or her personal life. Ether—the woman—talks him into it and he complains the entire way. Unexpected turns trigger wild internet rumors and conspiracy theories. The trip’s final stop and conclusion will surprise even the most cynical readers.

I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom is a metaphor for the dangers of isolation. It’s an indictment of what we are going through in the U.S. Jason Pargin highlights the perils of being in an echo chamber and the rage machine that has taken over a political party. The moral is if you get your nose out of your phone and stop watching the “news” networks, you’ll discover the world isn’t ending and it’s not that bad. It’s something we could all learn from.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy of I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom.

Another wonderful, quirky, and endlessly delightful tale from Jason Pargin! This is very similar to the humor and style of his Zoey Ashe books and it was such an awesome journey to follow this black box of doom. What's scary is how this closely mimics misinformation spreading in today's reality and Pargin nails this down so well! Definitely a must read for anyone who loves a good mystery and a quirky sense of humor!

Really funny, clever and insightful, as well as timely. I had to stay up really late to finish it, and then the next morning I was really sad it was done! I've already been recommending it to friends.

I don't want to say too much about it, because it's all about the slow reveal and the mystery. It's really well-written.

This is actually the first book I've read by Pargin - but it won't be the last!

I’m going to start this off by saying I am a huge Jason Pargin fan. Pargin is one of the few authors that I not only always pre-order, but also keep a collection of physical books on my shelf. John Dies At The End is one of my absolute favorite books, and I have enjoyed all the other books in the JDATE world, and all of the Zoey Ashe books. While reading Black Box, I tried to remember that these are separate characters from entirely separate universes from Pargin’s previous books, but I struggled so hard reading this book that I couldn’t help but compare it to his older works. And while Black Box was fine, it definitely did not compare.
This one starts out really strong, and I loved the last 20% or so, but the 50-60% in the middle were tough to get through. There was A LOT of right vs left wing monologuing, and while I’ve never disliked current politics in my fiction, I felt inundated at times here. I found that a lot of Pargin’s unique sense of humor was missing during the middle of this book. I get that this is a commentary on current events and how swiftly misinformation can be spread through social media, but it was also very repetitive and slogging at times. There was just SO MUCH monologuing. Ether would ramble for a few paragraphs, then Abbot, then back to Ether, and so on and on and on, and it felt like they were just repeating the same opinions over and over for like 100 pages. This was thankfully interrupted at times by other character POVs or Reddit posts.
The saving factor for Black Box, imo, was the last 20% or so. I have always enjoyed Pargin’s absurd and ridiculous settings, and the final showdown in Black Box was exactly what I was waiting for through the whole book. There were mild glimpses of Pargin’s unique sense of humor throughout the book, but it didn’t really come through as strong until the last action of the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

The perspective I’ve gained from reading this was very unexpected. I’m fascinated with the online behaviors of others, particularly on social media, and the way this showcased just how insane people become online was *chefs kiss* 😚🤌🏻

<i>Thanks NetGalley for sending the arc in exchange for honest review</i> 🫶🏻

I was excited to be granted an ARC to review “I’m starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom” by Jason Pargin, however, it fell short of my expectations. The premises is about a driver who found himself in a situation where he met a woman who convinced him to travel across country to delivery a mysterious box he was not allowed to ask about. I found it average story, but slowly started to lose interest. While it may not have been my cup of tea, I wish the author the best of luck!

Every book I ever read by Jason never fails to just hit home perfectly. I highly recommend you checking out this book and I think it will speak to you. It's definitely eye opening. (As much as any work of fiction can be.) I love the way he mixed real life events into the fiction to help explain and show what was happening. I also loved the way he used Reddit and showed perfect faked Reddit posts. The use of reddit and just other internet sensations (Twitch, Youtube) helped make it feel more real and just show how important we've made these in our lives. Definitely check out this book if you have the chance.

I really liked the premise of this book but found the execution lacking. It’s nice to see characters that are multidimensional and flawed like real people, but the ranting bounced between extremes to the point I think most people would want to quit reading.

It's not that Abbott is a Gen Z stereotype: well, yes, he has failed to launch and spends a lot of time online in his dad's house. And sure, he's riddled with anxieties. And okay, one of his gigs is as a Lyft driver...which is how he ends up in this muddle.

Driving his dad's high-end SUV, Abbott gets a Lyft call and, despite many red flags, ends up picking up the weirdo girl and her large and mysterious luggage. And when she offers him $200K to take herself and the box to Washington--Cash? Well, this could be the thing that changes his life.

Indeed it does, as Abbott, the box, and the girl, Esther start a road-trip from California to points East with FBI, a retired FBI agent, Abbott's dad, and a murderous goon in hot pursuit. Silly on the outside, this antic romp conceals a tangy center whereby Pargin (author of <I>John Dies in the End</I>) has a chance to wax philosophical about the dangers of the digital age. Think the kind of messaging Kurt Vonnegut would be proud to deliver: humans need humans far more than they need social media, and our smarts might just be the death of us.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for my unfettered opinion.

TLDR It's good. Read it. Buy it. Gift it to friends and family. Ask the library about it.

ROAD TRIP!! Really, who doesn't love an epic road trip story? This is the type of book that begs for a movie. All of the characters are fleshed out in a disturbingly realistic world of viral rumor mills, social media echo chambers, bubbling angers and everyday anxiety. Here you have a fantastic story firmly grounded in the present built from any average day in the US of A. I'm sure there will be plenty of the usual complaints from the usual types of people, but it's important to keep in mind that whatever people read into this story reflects more on them than what was put on paper.

What a fun book to read. I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know what madcap thing was going to happen next. Laugh out loud book.

A definite world ride of a ride across the country..lol funny, satire, abd social media being spot on on what really goes on, a fun read. First of this authors for me found it entertaining

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an early release of this book

Loved this madcap romp of a tale! No spoilers to ruin the fun for other readers, but will say I greatly enjoyed the ridiculous predicaments the characters get themselves into as they travel across the country to deliver the mystery box. And the subreddit comments by redditors as they try to track the progress of box, utterly hilarious!

Besides being a fun read it also provides food for thought on lots of other issues, like how the internet and social media impact our lives, for the better and the worse. At times it reminded me of the zany Florida-fiction I also love (Carl Hiaason, Tim Dorsey, Dave Barry) with it's multiple character storylines that somehow eventually converge. Highly recommend!

Disclosure: Received an uncorrected ARC of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press (Thank you!) in exchange for an honest review.

In LA, a Uber driver arrives to find a young woman waiting with a big black box. She offers him $200k to drive her and the box to Wash, DC, but there are several rules: He can’t ask what’s in the box, he can’t ask her any questions, he can’t tell anyone, and no phones or other devices that can be tracked. What follows is a rollicking, no-holds-barred journey across the country that is filled with suspense, laughs, and a satirical look at how social media can spin wildly out of control. I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box Of Doom will hook you from literally the first page, as the driver and his passenger navigate through all kinds of obstacles, including their own insecurities as they make their way to DC. There’s much more going on here, but I don’t want to spoil the surprises in this totally unique, hilarious and quirky story, filled with great characters, an unhinged social media frenzy, and an ongoing commentary on the perils of today’s digital platforms. This is a totally entertaining and thought-provoking book that you just can’t but furiously flip through the pages. 100% recommended, one of my favorite books of the year!
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a little nugget of fun. It is extraordinarily clever and had me laughing from the absurdity of it all.

The story begins with Abbott, an anxiety-ridden introvert who drives for a rideshare company, picking up a client at Circle-K. She is offering him hoards of money to drive her and a big black box across the country. But there are rules - the box cannot be opened, he can tell no one, and he absolutely cannot bring his phone. Once he very begrudgingly agrees to do this, their cross-country trip turns into a comedy of errors. Unbeknownst to both Abbott and his client, Ether, the whole country is buzzing about them and their cargo. Is it a nuclear bomb? Is it a dead body? What could possibly be so important that a man is willing to pay a fortune to have it driven thousands of miles to him.

Jason Parkin has a very fertile imagination and he has written this book superbly. I absolutely love it and will recommend it to everyone. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this 5-star book.

Abbott Coburn is a 26-year-old Lyft driver who is called to a Circle K gas station to take a woman to LAX. When he arrives, he meets Ether, a woman guarding a large black box. She was going to fly from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, but now she needs someone to drive her instead.

Abbott is not into the idea - he has severe anxiety and doesn’t want to spend ten days driving across the country and back, but the $200,000 she offers him soon changes his mind. He agrees, and she tells him the rules: he cannot look in the box, he has to leave all of his electronics behind so they can’t be tracked, and he cannot tell anyone where he’s going or what he’s doing. The problem? Abbott is a Twitch streamer, and while he was at his house packing for the trip, he uploaded a quick video to let his followers know he’d be gone for a while. Oops!

As they embark on their journey, he realizes that someone else wants that black box that Ether is guarding with her life. He’s also about to run out of his anti-anxiety medication. What neither of them know is that a retired FBI agent has gotten involved, and social media comments are flying. On Reddit, people are tracking the pair and discussing what may be in the box. Everything is discussed, from it carrying aliens or a dead body, but the leading conspiracy theory is that they are carrying a nuclear weapon to DC, as they will arrive at their destination on the Fourth of July.

A lot of the book has these threads and comments in it, and it’s fascinating to watch people make up their own minds about what these two strangers have planned. The ending is a huge surprise, but the social media hype leading up to it is even more surprising. We see it every day, but it was really interesting to see the kinds of things people with limited information take as fact.

This book was fun, thrilling, and had great characters. I could not wait until the end to find out what was in the box, and it was definitely a shock. More than the story of Abbott and Ether, this is the story of social media, and how it really does shape the way most of us think. This was super unique and original, and I liked it a lot. This was my first book by this author, but in doubt it will be my last! 4.5 stars, rounded up.

(Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Jason Pargin and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on September 24, 2024.)

Uber driver, Abbott, is hired by Ether to drive her and a mysterious black box across the country. During the course of the drive, we learn that Abbott hasn't done a lot with is life, other than participate in some pretty wacky online chats. Ether has a quite colorful background and together they make their way across the US to deliver the mysterious black box, all the while attracting a variety of people who invent outlandish stories about what is actually in the black box, and why it's being transported across the country.

This book has some fun and humorous moments. It also has a lot of social commentary about our current US culture. I was thoroughly enjoying the story until maybe halfway through when it seemed to just go on and on, and I was really wanting some resolution. The ending was fine, satisfying, I suppose, but I had a sense of relief that I had gotten through it, because it seemed a little too long and a little too much.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Summary: Abbott is in his twenties and still lives in his father's house, much to his father's chagrin. He is moderately popular on social media and streams himself playing video games on Twitch for income. His father, an ex-Marine who runs a construction company, doesn't believe that's a job and despairs that Abbott will ever make anything of himself. Abbot is also a Lyft™ driver and responds to a call, arriving to pick up an oddly-dressed young woman with green sunglasses who demands that he drive her across the country with a huge black box on wheels, similar to the ones roadies use. Abbott is persuaded by a huge payout and they start out on the journey, although according to the terms of the agreement, he cannot use any technology or be in touch with anyone during the drive. Social media doesn't like a void, and before long, conspiracy theorists are tracking Abbott and GSG (green sunglasses girl) on their journey and expounding outrageous theories about what they are transporting in that mysterious box.

Thoughts: This is a novel with a witty concept and out-there characters. It sounds fun and it is, to a certain point. It reads somewhat like a Guy Ritchie movie in literary form, although some of the characters are much smarter. There are some unpredictable and amusing twists, along with darkly satirical commentary on social media, gender politics, socioeconomic inequality and geopolitical instability. That being said, none of the characters is very engaging or likeable so it is difficult to become invested in any of them. The novel is also bloated with social and political commentary, with some rants that go on for a page and really should be edited down. I wanted to love it, but had to push myself through the final chapters.

I was very pumped to get my hands on a review copy of “I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom” by Jason Pargin. I've been a fan since his first David Wong novel, “John Dies at the End,” which opened a series about two friends who ingest a mysterious drug and are suddenly able to see eldritch horrors hidden to everyone else around them. I came for the eldritch horrors and stayed for the wit, the quirky but solid friendship and the cogent observations on the world at large, not to mention the delightful titles like “What the Hell Did I Just Read,” “This Book Is Full of Spiders” and “If This Book Exists, You're in the Wrong Universe.” My fandom now extends to Jason Pargin's social media, where he has turned the cogent observations into an online brand that might be the 21st century incarnation of Andy Rooney (and I mean that in the nicest way) with daily observations on movies, science, modern life, any and all subjects. He's like that one friend you have who's always spouting weird facts and every once in a while a profound thought.

In “Black Box of Doom,” Pargin leaves behind the eldritch horrors and his series characters. We meet some new people, and any horror is all too real as he explores the black box of doom we call the internet. Abbott Coburn is a Twitch streamer with a modest following, which of course doesn't pay the bills, so he's also a Lyft driver. He picks up a fare who persuades him to drive her from Los Angeles to DC with a big black box that has to arrive on July 4, just over a week away. The pay is too good to turn down, so in spite of being a bundle of neuroses and it being his dad's car (which he suspects his dad loves more than he loves Abbott), he says yes, and starts a cross-country trip that fuels an internet frenzy. Jason Pargin's account of the frenzy is pitch-perfect, starting with the small seed of Abbott's quick online post telling his followers he'll be offline for a bit, and progressing through the disjointed chat and speculation, then to people posting online sightings of Abbott and his passenger, and the wild theories that then become accepted facts that fuel even wilder speculation. Interspersed are updates on people who are following the pair not digitally but real-time; a scary guy who has pretty much GOT to be played by Dave Bautista in the movie, Abbott's furious dad, and a retired FBI agent who has her own wild theory about the black box.

I honestly prefer to be scared by otherworldly creatures who can't really get me, but Pargin manages to keep the tone amusing, more of a Donald Westlake or Carl Hiaasen feel than, say, Cormac McCarthy. But Jason Pargin will never be mistaken for one of my Golden Age cozies. As in the David Wong books, the dialogue and narration are profane, whip-smart and unmistakably NOW. Pargin's style works whether the horrors are supernatural or all-too-natural. All thumbs up – go get Black Box of Doom now, and thank me later.

Wildly entertaining and thought-provoking, "I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom" isn't entirely about the titular black box, but rather, it's also about the silos of isolation created by modern technology.

The cast of characters was diverse, interesting, and humorously drawn, while the story was straightforward until it suddenly *wasn't*. Just when I thought that the book was merely hilarious, it would come around and slap me in the face with some truth about a character and how it made them flawed -- or more human.

The verisimilitude of the social media portions of this book had me howling with laughter, and likewise, the insane slapstick of some of the situations in which our MCs wound up. I think some aspects of the 'truth-telling' parts of the story may be a little bit on-the-nose, but I also think they have a lot of heart and thought behind them.

Well worth a read if you have a sense of humor, a Reddit account, and a taste for wacky plot-foo.