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

400 pages

English language

Published 2024 by St. Martin's Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-28595-9

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 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 the pair hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the mysterious woman was living in an apocalypse shack in the wilderness . . . and that her possessions are radioactive. Amateur sleuths, including a retired FBI agent, believe the box is part of a carefully-orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war. What ensues is a chaotic race against time across an angry and anxious nation, an ensemble of eccentric misfits desperately searching for the truth in a dark cloud of paranoia. It …

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 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 the pair hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the mysterious woman was living in an apocalypse shack in the wilderness . . . and that her possessions are radioactive. Amateur sleuths, including a retired FBI agent, believe the box is part of a carefully-orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war. What ensues is a chaotic race against time across an angry and anxious nation, an ensemble of eccentric misfits desperately searching for the truth in a dark cloud of paranoia. It quickly becomes clear that regardless of what is or isn’t inside that box, this trip is destined to end in fire and screams.

2 editions

cjurek reviewed I'm Starting to Worry about This Black Box of Doom by David Wong

Fairly fun read, interesting premise, a little too monologue-y for me at times

3 stars

It's about a road trip that spirals into weirdness due to misinformation. The book does a good job capturing some of the insanity of the internet, with a focus on reddit "sleuthing". A lot of talking about how the way we view the world is shaped by internet algorithms maximizing engagement, etc. At times it feels like there was an essay that was reconstructed into dialogue between the characters, which wasn't really for me, but I could imagine it would be good for someone less informed about the internet hell-scape to absorb.

Beginning was fairly strong, middle dragged on a bit, and the ending was somewhat convoluted, but overall it was an enjoyable read.

It's about a road trip that spirals into weirdness due to misinformation. The book does a good job capturing some of the insanity of the internet, with a focus on reddit "sleuthing". A lot of talking about how the way we view the world is shaped by internet algorithms maximizing engagement, etc. At times it feels like there was an essay that was reconstructed into dialogue between the characters, which wasn't really for me, but I could imagine it would be good for someone less informed about the internet hell-scape to absorb.

Beginning was fairly strong, middle dragged on a bit, and the ending was somewhat convoluted, but overall it was an enjoyable read.