Nice mood for this zippy light read. Some of the characters didn't gel for me (Zapp? maybe he had some action that got edited out). And I did wonder what they were eating during all this national disruption. See CJA's 'Minnesota Diet' story for that angle. ( )

This book didn't capture me right off the bat. It seemed a bit scattered and insubstantial at first - weird for the sake of being weird. But there's a level of bizarre and disturbing that grows in the background as you read and it becomes compelling. It's also pretty funny and wonderfully kinetic.

Oddly, this book reminds me of reading histories of tumultuous times. History tells the big picture stories but it can't really tell you what it must have been like for regular folk living through dangerous times: how people went about their day-to-day in the midst of everything. Rock Manning Goes for Broke accomplishes what history can't - it lets me feel what it's like to be a regular person living through big, dangerous events. ( )

This book needs one of the over-the-top "IN A WORLD..." trailers.

To say this was a wild ride from start to finish doesn't quite do this novella justice. It's absurd and hilarious, making me literally laugh out loud in what has to be my highest LOL-to-page ratio ever. (More than just a little "pah-huh!" exhalation each time, but actual "HA!"s or chuckles and the like.)

But even while the world is falling down around second-generation stunt-man Rock Manning and his slapstick viral video-making friend Sally as they survive high school, college, and the collapse of the government, what makes this story work is the underlying heart that is central to all of Anders' work. While the actions these characters take are always wild and surprising, they're never random or without motivation. They follow their own logic, even if it's a logic that I would never be able to predict or replicate.

It's hard to pull out evidence from the book to back up these claims, but I don't want to spoil the surprises and rob anyone of the delight I felt when reading this. But here's this quote, one of my favorite moments, because it seems to encapsulate all of my favorite things about this narrator and this novella. Rock is talking about Sally's refusal to incorporate a love story into their latest film, even when her boyfriend is acting in it too:

"She was just dead set against goo-goo eyes. I always tried to remind her about that old saying, that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, because what could be more romantic than a school of fish, perched on bikes at the bottom of the ocean, pedaling like wild with all their fins?"

The whole thing is just so damn good, just like everything else I've read by Anders. It's hilarious and heartbreaking, laugh and cry on the same page, slapstick and so so serious. 10/10 would ride again.

(Thanks so much to Subterranean Press and Netgally for the advance copy!) ( )

Hope punk with a great first person narration. Neurodivergent hero ricochets through life full of optimism, gymnastics skills, and Humor. ( )