I'm not sure how I feel about this one. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Characters are what connects me to a book and the characters here are some of the most annoying, irritating, characters I've ever read. They're exaggerated to the point that it's frustrating at times, and their dialogue had me wondering if I was reading things correctly.

The story itself was fine, the mystery was enough to keep me going, but I just felt detached from it because of the characters. Maybe under different circumstances I would've liked this better but I'm just not completely sold on this.

I went to a conference just like this last month. Only the soul-sucking was much more metaphorical and the presentations were only deadly in their tedium. I survived. Barely.

Obnoxious vegans, 90s hip-hop cliche slinging bros, overt racists, base-jumping Neanderthals, guys named Skinny and Fatty… this book had some of the most annoying and unbelievable characters I’ve ever read. I hated them entirely, and not in that “you’re annoying but I see how your irritating traits are critical to the plot” way. I just flat out disliked them and found all of them to be depthless caricatures of heroes and villains.

There was an interesting story buried deep within these pages, below the absurd dialogue and superficially repugnant characters, and this conference will be indelibly imprinted in my memory for all future conferences I attend. So it did accomplish something. I’ll just leave it at that.

Let’s just say this book didn’t leave me hypnotized. Just had me buggin’ out.