I saw someone call this an extremely ‘online’ book, and, yeah, I’ve gotta agree. Dude knows his online spaces and even name-drops Something Awful. The first three stories are probably the strongest, and definitely centered around the most frustrating and realistic characters. I’m sure that any current or, especially, any ‘former’(is there such a thing) nerd would find echoes of themselves in some of the characters. I confess that I, myself, was walking down the Nice Guy Highway to Inceltown, so I found the first chapter particularly harrowing.

Throughout, there is a lot of the experience of a Thai-American person in America, and their frustration with white people. As I was reading it, I thought, wow, this is pretty interesting and DAMN with the callouts. Like, I’ve done the same thing that these white people have done, because in my mind, I’m really interested in languages and cultures. But, damn, is it actually shitty of me? That blows. Kind of a bummer, but so it goes.

But, then, reading the final(and in my mind weakest) section, I began to wonder, was it all just a wind-up? Then, I finally settled on, I suppose it’s best to just keep my mouth shut, even though I’d love to talk about my upbringing and the weird cultural idiosyncrasies and foods. But, then again, this book comes from a place of being ULTRA online, so who knows what the real solution is.

I guess, in the end, the best thing I can take from it is that people all over the world are messy and inconsistent and, at times, uncharitable. It’s one of the many commonalities that bind us. And rejection hurts.