bookmark_borderI’m Starting to Worry About this Review of Jason Pargin’s Latest Book

There’s a quote that I think about quite often from Jame’s Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day: “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.” If there are messages in Jason Pargin’s latest novel, I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, one of them is that there are no black boxes of doom but those we make for ourselves.

There’s a quote that I think about quite often from Christopher Nolan’s Inception: “An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.” If there are messages in Jason Pargin’s latest novel, I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, one of them is that the black boxes we make for ourselves can grow to define or destroy us.

The black box in the title of the novel is not the physical black box in the narrative of the novel. I’m not spoiling anything here, this is all explained quite early on in the novel. Applying that information to the philosophical black boxes in the rest of the novel is left as an exercise for the reader. If all that seems like a bit of a bait-and-switch con, keep in mind how much bait-and-switch happened with those two movies. The actor who played the main antagonist in the first movie plays the main white knight protector in the second? The eponymous inception is perpetrated not just on the target of the heist, not just on the instigator of the heist, but primarily on the perpetrator of the heist?

That said, Black Box is a bit of a bait-and-switch. When you find out the true meaning of the philosophical black box, and when you find out the true contents of the physical black box, your concepts of most of the main characters are switched and turned. This is not to relegate this novel to the trash heap of the “twist ending”. There is a twist beginning, a twist middle, a twist climax, and a twist denouement as well. One character who is cast as the only competent and experienced professional turns out to be kind of a nitwit. One character who is cast as a relentless machine turns out to be one of the most tragic and sympathetic characters in the whole story.

All the while, we are forced to contemplate how information is presented to us in this world, and how that affects the way we interpret it. A clandestine road-trip quickly becomes one of the most comically public endeavors on the planet. What the characters think they understand about each other becomes as unreliable as what we think we know about them.

This novel is not part of either of Jason Pargin’s two successful series. It is not a John, Dave, and Amy novel or a Zoey Ashe novel. It is good to see a writer branch out in new directions and work on things that are different. This is not a horror novel or a science fiction novel. These situations are all too real, these landscapes are too mundane, and these people are very real. Everybody makes mistakes and has regrets. There are no color-coded hats or billowing capes.

At times, mostly in the middle, this novel gets a little bogged down in conversations that are mostly exposition. At the end, most threads get tied up maybe a little too neatly. If those things are “flaws” in the novel, I’m not sure how Pargin could have fixed them. Maybe it’s not perfect, but it’s good. Very good. I continue to think that Jason Pargin is a novelist who started out strong and just keeps getting better. I recommend this book to all adult readers, and most YA. What I really don’t understand is why this author’s publisher hasn’t updated his promotional web site.

bookmark_borderYou Are Too Sober for this Book Review

Having just come out in 2022 with a me-lauded new entry in the “John Dies at the End” series, Jason “David Wong” Pargin followed up in 2023 with a new “Zoey Ashe” novel titled Zoey is too Drunk for this Dystopia. I continue to believe that Pargin continues to make himself a better and better writer. I don’t know, maybe he just has better editors, but he knows enough to work with them to make better and better books, so good enough.

Anyway, in the first book of this series, protagonist Zoey Ashe inherits a vast fortune and shady business empire from her father. This inheritance comes with a group of her father’s helpers who are known collectively as “The Suits”. Now, Zoey is not stupid, and she is far from helpless, but she is way out of her depth in the first book, and knows it. The Suits do most of the heavy lifting, and Zoey mostly struggles to keep up while trying to direct the business onto a more noble path.

In this book, the fourth in the series, Zoey is really coming into her own. She is making the plans, and doing some of the heavy lifting. When helpers get sidelined, she knows that the rest of the team is looking to her to pick up the slack and recruit substitutes. She’s going from being the shocked owner of this thing, to being the real boss of this thing. Zoey still makes some mistakes, and some horrible decisions that turn out OK anyway, but she’s getting there, and she never forgets about her family, her cats, and her desire to make the world a slightly better place now that she has the resources to do so.

As a writer, Pargin has learned to subvert the reader’s expectations. It’s not that he’s trying to surprise you, but he’s trying to make you think about people. In the Zoey Ashe novels, protagonists aren’t always good, villains aren’t always bad, and red herrings sometimes turn out to be clues. The gun on the mantel in act 1 might be revealed in act 2 to display a flag that says “BANG!”, then in act 3 the flag is waved to summon help from a Thai sea pirate. You just ever know, but he’s urging you to look. Maybe the villain is really ridiculous and more naive than you. Maybe the protagonist has to do one awful thing to make sure another awful thing doesn’t happen. He’s urging you to look inside the suit and see the real person.

Later this year, Pargin is releasing yet another novel, and I think it is set in yet another series. I applaud whenever an author decides to branch out, but I hope this isn’t the last we read about Zoey. Both Pargin and his creations are still on their way to becoming real heroes, and I want to see what they are like when they get there.

bookmark_borderIf this review exists, you are in the wrong universe

Last night, I finished reading the latest book in Jason “David Wong” Pargin‘s “John Dies at the End” series, If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe. I liked it quite a bit.

This series, if you can find it in a store, typically gets shelved under “Horror”, but I don’t know. I found out about the first book while trying to watch all of the movies directed by Don Coscarelli. He mostly directs horror movies like Phantasm and Bubba Ho Tep, so I guess that makes the book that the horror movie was based on a horror book. There is plenty of horror in it, but it’s also very funny because there is plenty of humor in it, but it’s not a comedy because there is a good solid serious story under those other layers.

The thing about these books is that each one is better than the last. The horror is more involved. The humor is more pervasive and integrated. The story and the development of the characters is stronger, more personal, and more positive (no, really).

Interspersed with all the bloodshed and explosions, with all the running gags and one-liners, there is some intricate plotting and utterly awesome prose. I read some passages out loud to Sharon because I was just stunned by some of the wonderful things Pargin writes for his characters.

You don’ have to read all the books in order to appreciate any one of them. If you don’t think you have the patience to “get all caught up”, I say don’t bother. Jump straight to this last one even though it will spoil the shock that John doesn’t die at the end of the first one. It’s definitely the best of the series so far.