I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom cover art

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom

A Novel

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I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom

By: Jason Pargin
Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
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About this listen

A standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.

Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.

But there are rules:

He cannot look inside the box.

He cannot ask questions.

He cannot tell anyone.

They must leave immediately.

He must leave all trackable devices behind.

As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

©2024 Jason Pargin (P)2024 Macmillan Audio Adventure Dark Humour Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Thriller & Suspense Witty

Critic Reviews

"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 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
All stars
Most relevant
I can not recommend this book highly enough, between how wildly entertaining it is and the controversial and thought provoking opinions presented within, so I’m going to repeat the phrase that has become an almost daily mantra these past few weeks… “everyone 13 and over should read this book.”

This book has made me realise that the pessimism I mistook for realism was an illusion and made me want to be a better person.

Wildly entertaining & controversially thought provoking…

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Writing good! A nice balance of elements.
It probaly says something about optimism and considering also the future of the usa.
GO BRICS!

Good!

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A fun ride with plenty of insight into the behaviour of humans in the year 2024.

Jason Pargin's best so far

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quirky dialogue. grey morality. amazing one liners. loads of twists and turns. fascinating social commentary.

Another cracker from Jason Pargin

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Engaging and full of questions that will keep your brain itching for years to come.

Very clever

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A rollicking tale, nodding and winking at us all along the way, like a cheeky Pedro Pascal Lyft driver.

A tale of these times

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A book that really takes you on a physical, mental and emotional journey. It's hard to imagine anyone else being able to write it.

His best book yet - and that's saying something!

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Loved this book, always a great listen when Jason Pargin tells a story. Looking forward to the next.

Great characters

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Loved every minute of it.
Narrator was excellent.
Hilarious and entertaining.
Original.
Well paced.
A fantastic read from someone that knows how to tell a great story.

Great book

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Probably more than any other writer on earth, Jason Pargin knows what it is like to be extremely online. This novel channels a lifetime (mis?)spent on social media into a surgically precise examination of our present situation. It helps that the tale rollicks along - Pargin’s pacing and flair for the ridiculous are pitch perfect - underpinned by the mix of deadpan absurdist humor which has garnered so many wells-deserved comparisons to Douglas Adams.

But the core of the book is a lucid and confronting picture of what being online is like - and the way that no longer just bleeds into the “real” world, but shapes it fundamentally. To those of us who are, like Pargin, terminally online the arguments presented will be very familiar. Perhaps you might have even been involved in them. They are presented with perfect fidelity, but also accessibly to those not cursed to have been trapped in the black box themselves.

In a sense it is a pity that this book is such a fun read, because it is harder to get people to think of enjoyable fiction as important work. But this is, on any fair analysis, an important book.

A perfectly timed modern tale

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