This whole city is a butt that farts horror.

I have read several books by David Wong before, and so I was very excited to start this one. A few minutes in, it was clear that it was in his usual style, that slightly vulgar, but still hysterical style that he wrote John Dies in the End, etc.

The story is in a futuristic place, where cars drive themselves and cell phones project holograms of the callers, but it’s still familiar enough that the characters can hit the Wendy’s drive-thru for some chili or botch an at-home hair dying job. Wong does a great job striking the perfect balance of the two. There are so many twists and turns, so hold on to the seat of your voice controlled car, and enjoy the ride.

Whether or not you’ve read any other books by David Wong before, this one will not disappoint, it’s a great book and a ton of fun to listen to.

45 people found this helpful

Insufferable characters and disjointed themes

I am typically a fan of Wong's not-so-subtle humor, but this one missed the mark. While fart jokes and silliness juxtaposed with life or death situations are typical of Wong's, many of the gags in this book felt forced or out of place. I just didn't laugh as much as I did with "John Dies" or "Spiders." Also, the theme seemed to revolve around the resilience of feminism in the face of unrepentant misogyny. Although the effort was earnest, I don't think it landed as intended. The main character was a bit flat and came off as indifference peppered with poor foresight. While she overcame some significant challenges, it was mostly due to dumb luck or the actions of others. The rest of the cast seemed tightly focused, but trudging through the story from Zoe's perspective felt like a chore. Even the detestable villian was slightly more layered than the protagonist, even though he was a shallow husk of misogyny personified. Overall, the setting, supporting cast, and interesting themes of the story were notable, but they were all held back by an uninteresting, sometimes insufferable hero.

27 people found this helpful

Excellently read SF thriller, with guns and humor

I had avoided David Wong books under the impression that they were mostly horror, but picked this one up on a whim - I am really glad I did. This was an excellent near-future thriller that felt like a comic book movie, one that was not afraid of some (lightweight) satirical social commentary, but is mostly about slick gangsters, super villains, McGuffins, and excellently written dialogue. It is also surprisingly funny, to the degree that I actually laughed out loud a couple of times.

Holding it together is the amazing reading of Christy Romano, who does character voices on par with the best readings I have heard on Audible, and brings even the most cartoonish of the characters to life. This important because, while the central figures in the story are well-rounded and interesting, many of the characters are a bit light on motivation, existing mostly as foils for jokes or action. There is also occasionally some dissonance in the contrasts between the (occasionally horrific) violence described in the book and the frequent use of humor in the face of disturbing scenes.

These are relatively minor flaws, since the book is at its best when considered as a comic book in novel form - I really enjoyed it.

27 people found this helpful

David Wong Does It Again

When I found out this wasn't a continuation of the David and John saga, I was slightly disappointed. This disappointment turned out to be unjustified. David Wong is great at weaving ridiculousness and humor throughout his stories. I would like to formally apologize for doubting him. The story was good, full of heartfelt moments, serious introspection into human nature, and Wong's trademark hilarity. The narrator did a great job of giving each character not just a voice, but a cadence and speech pattern that perfectly matched their personalities. Overall, it was a great experience that will make David Wong fans feel at home as well as appealing to fans of sci-fi and crime dramas. I highly recommend this title.

22 people found this helpful

Like Stale Kettle Corn

You keep going because you can almost taste what it was meant to be, but in the end you're left feeling unfulfilled and maybe a little sick. It's unsubtke, not nearly as funny as it thinks it is, and the plot meanders from setpiece to setpiece with the thinnest of convenient justifications to excuse it. All in all, not great.

The narration is equally unsubtle, saddling every non-white character with a borderline racist ethnic accent.

20 people found this helpful

violent, madcap, edge-of-bad-taste romp

True to David Wong's quirky, fast-paced, oddball, edge-of-bad-taste, addictive writing style, this book was a fun romp of a tale. It wasn't quite as good as John Dies at the End, but it was well worth a listen. Chubby 22 year old barista Zoey is snatched out of her plebian trailer-park existence and away from her 38 year old stripper mother, and thrust into a high-stakes adventure to determine the estate of her suddenly-departed very rich celebrity father. Everybody wants her as she is apparently the key to her father's wealth and to the secret behind robotic body modifications that give normal people super-abilities. Zoey had nothing but disdain for her father and his ill-gotten millions, and wants nothing more than to escape the madness - but no one is allowing her to walk away. Who does she trust and how will she worm her way out of this mess?

The plot is convoluted, twisty, violent, flashy, absurd, and moves along at breakneck speed. You barely have time to question the craziness of the plot and you just try to hang on and appreciate the humorous moments. Zoey, of course, has deeper reserves of survival instinct and intelligence than she knew she had, and in the end, manages to wrestle control of the situation.

The book is really violent and often the characters act in bad taste, but Zoey is a decently feminist lead character and manages to call out the (good and) bad guys on their failings and small-mindedness, and you find yourself liking her more and more as the book continues.

Christy Romano's audio narration is snappy and well-suited to this book. It helped me enjoy the story and kept me listening when I would have put a print copy of this book down.

16 people found this helpful

Horrible Narration

I enjoyed Wong's previous two novels, and the same silly, bizarre sense of humor is found here. I laughed out loud more than once. Unfortunately, a couple of those times were at the unbelievably bad narration that absolutely ruined the overall experience.

When the book started, I honestly thought I was being trolled by Wong and he had brought his humor to the next level by starting the book with comically bad narration. The problem is that she. Has full-stop pauses at totally inconceivable. Times. It will drive. You mad. I am not 100% convinced that Christy Romano is a human narrator, so I googled her. I'm still not convinced. Maybe there's a software program reconstructing this reading from previous voice clips like a next gen Stephen Hawking voice. Maybe someone replaced her with a robot and the robot has buggy software. Maybe someone in charge of sound editing is drinking on the job. There is just no way that a human being could actually be this awkward and terrible. I'm not buying that the reading is fully human. The result is that while she has a wide variety of very good character voices (they are good), the delivery has gone terribly, suspiciously wrong.

Do not open this audio book, and not because it's full of spiders. It's full of some. Thing worse than. That.

12 people found this helpful

Don't be fooled by a lack of David and John

If you found yourself here because you loved JDatE and TBiFoS, but are worried about this book not including them then worry no more. This book is great in its own right. In fact I think this book is better than TBiFoS.

One of the things that made the previous books great was the fact that you never knew what was going to happen. And what eventually happened was ridiculous and funny. In this book there is some of that, but it's almost as if the author matured and didn't rely on that writing style to make this book work.

So if you like his previous books then give this one a chance.

12 people found this helpful

Annoying main character.. And villain.

This book is actually well written conceptually and most of the characters are thoughtfully rendered... With the exception of the main character, who consistently makes the most boneheaded decisions for two thirds of the book.. I realize that the author designed the main character to be naive and clueless entering a brand new environment, but damn there's a difference between naive and frustratingly stupid.

I also wish that more of the side characters had detailed back-stories. Because they were all way more likeable than the main character and only a few had any history revealed about them and why they were so loyal to the Livingston empire.

10 people found this helpful

Fun story, TERRIBLE Narrator

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book itself is exactly what you'd expect from a near future dystopic novel brought to you by the same author who penned the John Dies at the End book. Entertaining, a little low brow, pretty facecd paced (once you get through the beginning) and all around a fun read.It's a little slow to get going, but worth it. Haven't gotten to the end quite yet though

What didn’t you like about Christy Romano’s performance?

She's one of the worst audible narrators I have ever hear. I can't believe that the final product made it through the editing process as is. She constantly puts emphasis on the wrong syllables, trips over commas/reads straight through periods, and just says the wrong damn word in certain places (I have heard her say 'through' when it is clear from context the correct word was 'though' at least twice). I don't know if it's just because they had to edit her mistakes so badly, but at points it sounds like a computer is reading sentences to you, and the computer is just reading one word aloud at a time rather than blocking off phrases with a good cadence and putting stress on words with more impact (you know... like a good narrator does). At first it was maddening, then I started to think it was somewhat fitting for the book. I haven't quite finished the book yet, but I think i'll stick with it because at this point I am invested in the story and would like to know the end but I already am reading a couple books that I don't want to put down so could finish this one as a printed copy.

Any additional comments?

Read it, don't listen to this awful narration! Also, to Audible: Please NEVER use Christy Romano as a narrator again....

10 people found this helpful