2024-08-17
A comical road trip that may end in mass destruction.
Abbott Coburn drives his father’s Lincoln Navigator for Lyft and spends his free time in online chat groups. A young woman named Ether asks him to take her and her black box from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., almost 3,000 miles out of his normal range. He wants to say no, but she doles out an incredible wad of cash to entice him.Money doesn’t matter that much to Abbott, but Ether reads his mind well and is quite persuasive: “What you're about to do,” she tells him, “this is every downtrodden schlub’s dream come true.” So off they go, but someone with a cellphone notices their cargo bearing a sticker that looks like a radiation symbol. No one knows what’s in the box, by the way; Ether is delivering it for someone else. But soon the rumors are “all over Twitter. The cops found nuclear material at a gas station.” Word spreads to internet chat groups that a dirty bomb will detonate in the nation's capital. The story bubbles over with quirky characters, like Tattoo Monster and a scary dude named Malort who chases Abbott and Ether because he wants the box. There’s retired FBI agent Joan Key, whose colleague is a “boxy LEGO figure of a man who had probably looked like an FBI agent in his mother's ultrasound.” A lot happens quickly: Chat rooms go nuts with gossip as the box progresses eastward. Along the way, Abbott and Ether are snagged into helping two women find a lost bunny named either Petey or Dumptruck, depending on which woman you talk to. But that’s the least of the problems as the story builds to a screwball, action-packed climax. Meanwhile, Abbott and Ether have some great conversations. He says he learned how to shave from the internet instead of from his father, while she makes insightful observations about the nature of friendship.
Wacky, thoughtful, and fun.
"A madcap thriller with sharp social commentary from Pargin." - William Earl, Variety
"Strident and timely, the dark humor of this wild standalone adventure from Pargin evokes satirists like Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams for a new age... It’s a raucous roller-coaster ride." — Publisher's Weekly
"A comical road trip that may end in mass destruction...Wacky, thoughtful, and fun." — Kirkus Reviews
"...what’s inside is the mystery propelling this provocative, rambunctious, comedic cultural rant of a novel that’s fueled by internet paranoia, conspiracy theories and outlandish action scenes. Think Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One”'s pacing with Carl Hiaasen-like social commentary on our digital age." — The Minnesota Star Tribune
"A road trip through America that is equal parts hilarious and terrifying. Jason understands humanity better than most, and it’s inspiring that his diagnosis is ultimately optimistic." — Daniel O'Brien, Senior Writer, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
"I was hooked from the first page. If I'm honest, from the first sentence or two. Jason has a rare gift for delivering High Weirdness coated in a sticky layer of real life, deeply relatable shit that forces you to see yourself in whatever weirdo or maniac he introduces. It's a rare gift, but he's got a lot of those. You should read this book." — Robert Evans, Host of Behind the Bastards
“Jason Pargin’s curse is a brain that can make sense of what we’re all living through. His gift is an ability to take the key elements — paranoia, screen addiction, deep loneliness, fear of the end times — and hocus-pocus them into a comic thriller. Illuminatus! for an even weirder time, and with much cooler cars.” — David Weigel, national political reporter, Semafor
“Jason Pargin has a unique grasp on all the ways our relationship with information technology has warped our brains and our society as a whole. This latest work is a fun, socially relevant, and propulsive work of satire. Well, mostly satire: The way its characters fabricate dangerous narratives out of whatever information they can access is terrifyingly true to life. I felt personally called out a dozen times and I loved every page of it.” — Matthew Kitchen, Editor, Chron
