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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

Written 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 Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Thriller & Suspense Witty

What the critics say

"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’ve followed Jason Pargin on social media for a long time and have always loved his insights, outlook, and commentary. This is the first book of his I’ve read and I can’t wait to read more!

This story is full of twists and turns, complex and well-written characters, and important themes and commentary on our current society. Every turn is a left and it’s hard to predict the ending or any of the events along the way there.

The narration is very well done and keeps you in the story. I was hooked from the first couple of minutes and couldn’t wait to be done work every day to jump back into my book. It normally takes me a very long time (weeks or months) to finish an audio book, if at all, and I finished this one in 3 days. 😆

I listened to this book weeks ago and still think about it almost daily. I can’t wait to read more of his books and jump into one of the series! Thanks for the journey, Jason Pargin! 🙌

I will definitely reread this book many times. Highly recommend ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Incredible journey that will keep you hooked from beginning to end and stay with you long after

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I bought this on hardcover and here as well. Glad I did because I loved reading the incredibly quotable text, and the performance elevated it.

Hilarious Book, Brilliant Performance

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Not much more to say, I thought this was a great story, I’ll probably buy a physical copy at some point.

What a fun ride

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If, like me, you had never read a Jason Pargin book but follow him on tik tok for his hilarious but insightful content, this book is for you. He brings the same social commentary and humour to this suspenseful comedy-thriller. Going to be recommending this to those who are deeply disturbed with the state of the modern world but can’t stop refreshing anyway!

Hilarious and timely

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this book hit really really hard and called me out on a lot of behaviours that I took for granted. I love the author and his other works he always manages to pour a lot of his research into the dialogue and characters. I love it and I hate it.(for all the right reasons.) I would return to this one in a bit after some of the message has cooled in my brain. this book is its own black box and has a mind virus that made me not want to put it down.

take on modern culture and screen society this book is its own black box of doom

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Jason writes a fascinating novel that hooked me in quickly and kept me going for the whole book. Deep character development and plot twists make you think and relate to the story with it all tying together nicely in a thought provoking satisfactory conclusion. This will definitely have me looking at other novels by Jason in the future.

Interesting and fun

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Even in audiobook form, this book felt less like a cinematic journey through my imagination and more like scrolling down an abstract representation of the internet itself—captivating, unrelenting, and utterly engrossing. I found myself consuming it with unblinking focus, driven by an insatiable thirst for its cleverness and depth.
The narrative is sharp, witty, and effortlessly funny, embracing moments of intentional cringe with a self-awareness that feels perfectly attuned to our current era. It’s fast-paced and undeniably relevant, as I mentioned in the title.
While I would absolutely love for Jason Pargin to narrate his own books, I must admit that the voice actor’s performance was stellar. It was majestic in every sense—imbuing the text with life, nuances and well defined personas

An unequivocal 5-star experience for me.
ee_dit

Extremely relevant, sharp and thrilling

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