This was the best fart/poop/butt joke book collection I’ve ever read that also happens to have a plot.
Despite it not being exactly everything I hoped it would be, this book had me about three pages in when the heroine (ordering fast food while sitting in her self-driving car) contemplates how did people ever “eat their car chili” if they had to keep their hands on the steering wheel. This girl clearly has her priorities straight. If the future allows me to eat car chili while cruising down the street, I will forgive it a lot.
I was promised something like Ready Player One going in, but aside from a near future setting and a superficial plot detail (main character and an inheritance from a wealthy man), I really don’t think the two books could be any more different. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits delivers on the promise of its title. Zoey Ashe lives in a trailer park with her mother when the sudden death of her biological father catapults her life into violent chaos. Turns out her father was Arthur Livingston, one of the most wealthy men in the world, and his home base the city of Tabula Ra$a, a playground without rules. His death paints a huge target on his daughter, and she ends up involved with his henchman, who all wear fancy suits and are very into violence, who she isn’t even sure she can trust, but who are her only protection from the very violent and possibly superpowered men who are after her.
The book also takes place in a world where social media is taken to its logical extreme: there are cameras everywhere, recording almost everything, and it’s all constantly live. This makes it even harder for Zoey to stay safe, when the whole world is watching and waiting eagerly for events to transpire.
The thing I liked best about the book was how funny it was. Of course, humor is subjective, but if the car chili thing struck you right, you think it’s funny for a cat to be named “Stench Machine,” and gems like this do it for you:
“Zoey didn’t want to be paranoid, but there was something about the man in the loincloth made of charred doll heads that made her nervous.”
“I want no part of this nonsense. This whole city is a butt that farts horror.”
“She thanked the toilet, but it did not respond. That was good—if she started to think of it as a sentient being, it would probably be much harder to poop in its mouth.”
You’ll probably think the rest of the book is great.
I also ended up quite fond of most of the characters by the end, even though the constant action and danger was kind of tiring. I probably would have given this five stars with a little more breathing room, more emotions. But Wong’s style seems to be fast-paced, quippy, humor-driven plot, and he is very self-assured in his execution. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention that this book includes heaping portions of social criticism, mostly concerning poverty and wealth, and the dangers of toxic masculinity. But, you know, with like dick jokes and stuff.
I would recommend this if you like funny books with lots of action, and you don’t care about swearing or violence or grossness. If you like all those things, you will be amply supplied.