I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom: A Novel

Jason Pargin
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I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom: A Novel

Jason Pargin
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Overview

416 PAGESENGLISH

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Overall rating: 4.8 / 5 from 5 reviews.

AI Generated Review Summary

Summary topics

Review topics: [commentary, doom].

Review highlights

Reviews

Pargin at the Peak of his Powers

"Black Box of Doom is a biting satire of the post-social media hellscape we currently inhabit. Podcasts, algorithmic bubbles, the modern attention economy polarizing people into neat little echo chambers and rewiring their sense of being. . . this isn't so much the plot of the book, but the elements Pargin brilliantly satirizes, deconstructs and lays out against the backdrop of a wild road trip that may or may not be about nuking the capital. It's Fight Club for the post-social media and livestreaming world."

Nouman K. (5/5)

5 stars - highly recommend

"Extrêmement bien écrit, drôle touchant et prenant jusqu'à la fin, avec un commentaire social précis et intelligent."

John M. (5/5)

Loved it

"Pargin always has something to say with his books. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and really enjoy his social commentary. This book was funny, witty, and sparked a lot of thought."

KMB (5/5)

Delightful read

"What a wild ride and journey you take reading I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom. Abbott Coburn when approached at gas station to by Ether to drive him and the mystery black box across the country and back for $200,000 he simply cannot refuse. There are rules Abbot (full of anxiety) has to follow: don't look in the box and no devices that people can track him with. If it sounds to good to be true then it often is. Considering someone else wants this black box and the madcap journey begins. The FBI is tracking, social media is buzzing. No spoilers here so as not to ruin the fun for the reader with this cast of delightful, quirky and laugh out loud moments. This was my first but not last Jason Pargin book. Don't miss out on this wild adventure, grab your copy and you wont be disappointed."

Judy1 (4/5)

I am Abbott's Impending Sense of Doom

"The world is a terrible place, where anxiety-ridden socially awkward young people are trapped in echo chambers, finding comfort only with people that look at the world through exactly the same blinders put in place by algorithms, oblivious to the reality that they are trapped in a nightmare of their own choosing - of radical views, polarization, conspiracy theories and disillusionment. This is our world. This is the world where a somewhat controversial Twitch streamer and Lyft driver finds himself on a cross-country road trip with a mysterious figure on their way to deliver a suspicious black box of doom to a mysterious figure that may or may not be ready to start a civil war. Will the smartest people on the planet - Reddit sleuths - settle on whether our protagonists are heroes or villains? Will the retired Federal Agent unravel a foreign power's insidious plan to cause the collapse of America? Why do reasonable men sometimes do unreasonable things? Answers can be found in the best book you'll read this year."

NoumanK (5/5)

Q&A

  • Published date: Nov 18, 2025
  • Language: English
  • No. of Pages: 416
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
  • ISBN: 9781250879981
  • Dimensions: 5.35" W x 1.15" L x 8.2" H

"A madcap thriller with sharp social commentary from Pargin." - William Earl, Variety

"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 comical road trip that may end in mass destruction...Wacky, thoughtful, and fun." — Kirkus Reviews

"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

“Jason Pargin’s curse is a brain that can make sense of what we’re all living through. His gift is an ability to take the key elements -- paranoia, screen addiction, deep loneliness, fear of the end times -- and hocus-pocus them into a comic thriller. Illuminatus! for an even weirder time, and with much cooler cars.” — David Weigel, national political reporter, Semafor

“Jason Pargin has a unique grasp on all the ways our relationship with information technology has warped our brains and our society as a whole. This latest work is a fun, socially relevant, and propulsive work of satire. Well, mostly satire: The way its characters fabricate dangerous narratives out of whatever information they can access is terrifyingly true to life. I felt personally called out a dozen times and I loved every page of it.” — Matthew Kitchen, Editor, Chron

"[A] provocative, rambunctious, comedic cultural rant of a novel that’s fueled by internet paranoia, conspiracy theories and outlandish action scenes. Think Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One”'s pacing with Carl Hiaasen-like social commentary on our digital age." -The Minnesota Star Tribune

JASON PARGIN is the New York Times bestselling author of the John Dies at the End series as well as the award-winning Zoey Ashe novels. He previously published under the pseudonym David Wong. His essays at Cracked.com and other outlets have been enjoyed by tens of millions of readers around the world.

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