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Reboot: A Novel
A raucous and wickedly smart satire of Hollywood, toxic fandom, and our chronically online culture, following a washed-up actor on his quest to revive the cult TV drama that catapulted him to teenage fameDavid Crader is a has-been. A former child actor from the hit teen drama Rev Beach, he now rotates between his new roles as deadbeat dad, part-time alcoholic, and occasional videogame voice actor. But when David is summoned to Los Angeles by Grace, his ex-wife and former co-star, he suddenly sees an opportunity for a reboot—not just of the show that made him famous, but also of his listless existence. Hollywood, the Internet, and a fractured nation have other plans, however, and David soon drinks himself to a This seemingly innocuous revival of an old Buffy rip-off could be the spark that sets ablaze a nation gripped by far-right conspiracies, toxic fandoms, and mass violence. Reboot is a madcap and eerily prescient speculative comedy for our era of glass-eyed doomscrolling and Millennial nostalgia—a tale of former teen heartthrobs, online edge lords, and fish-faced cryptids, perfect for anyone who still agonizes over Angel versus Spike, lives in fear of the QAnon mom next door, or has run afoul of a rabid “stan” and lived to tell.
294 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 23, 2024
About the author
Justin Taylor
18 books70 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Justin Taylor is the author of the novel “The Gospel of Anarchy” and the story collection “Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever.”
The Millions called “The Gospel of Anarchy” a “bold casserole of sensual encounter and deranged proclamation… Loudly, even rapturously, Taylor succeeds in making the clamoring passion of his characters real, their raw, mercurial yearning a cry for ‘a world newly established.’ In terms of acts of God, The Gospel of Anarchy is a tornado, tearing up the hill where rock ‘n roll and cult meet.”
And the New York Times raved that “Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever ” is a “spare, sharp book” which “documents a deep authority on the unavoidable confusion of being young, disaffected and human. … [T]he most affecting stories in … are as unpredictable as a careening drunk. They leave us with the heavy residue of an unsettling strangeness, and a new voice that readers — and writers, too — might be seeking out for decades to come.”
His stories have been published in many shitty literary journals, and his non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, BookForum and The Believer, among other publications.
He lives in New York.
Justin Taylor is the author of the novel “The Gospel of Anarchy” and the story collection “Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever.”
The Millions called “The Gospel of Anarchy” a “bold casserole of sensual encounter and deranged proclamation… Loudly, even rapturously, Taylor succeeds in making the clamoring passion of his characters real, their raw, mercurial yearning a cry for ‘a world newly established.’ In terms of acts of God, The Gospel of Anarchy is a tornado, tearing up the hill where rock ‘n roll and cult meet.”
And the New York Times raved that “Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever ” is a “spare, sharp book” which “documents a deep authority on the unavoidable confusion of being young, disaffected and human. … [T]he most affecting stories in … are as unpredictable as a careening drunk. They leave us with the heavy residue of an unsettling strangeness, and a new voice that readers — and writers, too — might be seeking out for decades to come.”
His stories have been published in many shitty literary journals, and his non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, BookForum and The Believer, among other publications.
He lives in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
May 1, 2024
What the book description promised: a "madcap speculative comedy for our era" about a former child actor and the attempted reboot of his short-lived "Dawson's Creek meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer" teen drama series from the early aughts.
What I got instead: a rant about pop culture fandom that somehow links a popular RPG to antisemitic hollow Earth conspiracy theories, and a murder that has little emotional impact because the MC has taken up all of the literary air in the room. Of course, because it's a novel written by a white man, the alcoholic fuck-up MC manages to bag his wealthy, beautiful, and smart former co-star, despite having no redeeming qualities that I could discern.
What I got instead: a rant about pop culture fandom that somehow links a popular RPG to antisemitic hollow Earth conspiracy theories, and a murder that has little emotional impact because the MC has taken up all of the literary air in the room. Of course, because it's a novel written by a white man, the alcoholic fuck-up MC manages to bag his wealthy, beautiful, and smart former co-star, despite having no redeeming qualities that I could discern.
January 11, 2024
10/10. The book DeLillo would have written if he'd watched every episode of Buffy and Dawson's Creek.
February 15, 2024
Excellent. This novel rides that rare line wherein you can just as soon put it on your college syllabus as you can recommend it to a friend who simply likes a good book.
As far as recommending it to your friend who reads commercial bestsellers, I would recommend it to friends who recently loved TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW. In his creation of the "rebooted" TV show, and in his creation of/engagement with the gaming world, Taylor does a lot of the clever world-building that Gabrielle Zevin did in TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW. Both books also have heart. And they both explore broken marriages/relationships, as well as explore the connection between avid fandom and violence. I'd say REBOOT is more masculine-oriented than TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, and in some ways lines up with FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE. Taylor's take is slightly more meta than either of those, but every bit as entertaining.
As far as a specimen-for-your-syllabus goes, REBOOT has heavy WHITE NOISE vibes. The author masters not only DeLillo's satirical themes but also his deft, character-driven narrative style. What's really interesting to me is that, back when I first read WHITE NOISE, the disasters -- like the Airborne Toxic Event -- felt so... speculative. Exercises in extrapolation; the assumption being that we were still living within a space that was at a distance or remove from such extreme scenarios. But boy have times changed (or did I just get old?). Either way, the cultural phenomena and environmental disasters in REBOOT are either already part of our actual existence (forest fires, mass shootings, QAnon/space laser believers, etc) that there's definitely a difference in how the book hits. (Although, side note: I guess the Airborne Toxic Event has now actually happened, too! It just hadn't at the time when I first encountered WHITE NOISE.) We live in a world where it has become difficult to look at a headline and guess whether it comes from the Onion or the BBC, and in some ways I suppose that gives REBOOT a more incisive bite.
All this said, this is not a "cold" academic novel! Or a mean one whose entire point is cynicism. Taylor appears to actually hold his characters in warm regard (gasp), and that keeps a warmth kindled in the reader's heart to want to keep hanging out with them and turn those pages. In the interest of discussing this in terms of "reader recommendations" I would urge those who are reading for entertainment to make sure to read further than the "cold open." While the book opens with the POV of a self-proclaimed Incel who implies he's an imminent active shooter, this isn't where the book lives. Read on -- it's worth it.
Oh, and besides the fact that the cover reminds me of those airbrushed T-shirts you used to be able to buy at your local beach boardwalk in the 1990s, now that I've read the book, I see what's in the rest of the picture, and "get it"!
As far as recommending it to your friend who reads commercial bestsellers, I would recommend it to friends who recently loved TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW. In his creation of the "rebooted" TV show, and in his creation of/engagement with the gaming world, Taylor does a lot of the clever world-building that Gabrielle Zevin did in TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW. Both books also have heart. And they both explore broken marriages/relationships, as well as explore the connection between avid fandom and violence. I'd say REBOOT is more masculine-oriented than TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, and in some ways lines up with FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE. Taylor's take is slightly more meta than either of those, but every bit as entertaining.
As far as a specimen-for-your-syllabus goes, REBOOT has heavy WHITE NOISE vibes. The author masters not only DeLillo's satirical themes but also his deft, character-driven narrative style. What's really interesting to me is that, back when I first read WHITE NOISE, the disasters -- like the Airborne Toxic Event -- felt so... speculative. Exercises in extrapolation; the assumption being that we were still living within a space that was at a distance or remove from such extreme scenarios. But boy have times changed (or did I just get old?). Either way, the cultural phenomena and environmental disasters in REBOOT are either already part of our actual existence (forest fires, mass shootings, QAnon/space laser believers, etc) that there's definitely a difference in how the book hits. (Although, side note: I guess the Airborne Toxic Event has now actually happened, too! It just hadn't at the time when I first encountered WHITE NOISE.) We live in a world where it has become difficult to look at a headline and guess whether it comes from the Onion or the BBC, and in some ways I suppose that gives REBOOT a more incisive bite.
All this said, this is not a "cold" academic novel! Or a mean one whose entire point is cynicism. Taylor appears to actually hold his characters in warm regard (gasp), and that keeps a warmth kindled in the reader's heart to want to keep hanging out with them and turn those pages. In the interest of discussing this in terms of "reader recommendations" I would urge those who are reading for entertainment to make sure to read further than the "cold open." While the book opens with the POV of a self-proclaimed Incel who implies he's an imminent active shooter, this isn't where the book lives. Read on -- it's worth it.
Oh, and besides the fact that the cover reminds me of those airbrushed T-shirts you used to be able to buy at your local beach boardwalk in the 1990s, now that I've read the book, I see what's in the rest of the picture, and "get it"!
March 31, 2024
I think this book was a huge swing and a miss for me because of an unfocused plot that sludges along, but what was most frustrating was the sense of humor. Ostensibly it's set in 202(2/3/4) but really is lacking in the type of jokes the description says. Ones that have stayed with me is someone not wanting to drink soda water instead of alcohol "like a derp," and someone saying to someone else they think they've "won the internet" for today.
December 28, 2023
A funny, excellent satire of our current desire to reboot literally everything - unfortunately with an ending that just didn’t cut it for me. Excellent writing though.
May 13, 2024
everyone just seemed bored to be there. back to female authors for me 🫡🫡
March 5, 2024
DNF at page 100. I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the main character. I’m also an avid gamer and the talk of the fictional video game and its ins and out bored me. I ended up skimming a lot, and decided to just let it go.
May 23, 2024
Comic novel about a washed up former child actor, now getting by by doing voice acting for videogames, who gets involved with a scheme to reboot the TV series that made him famous….only to run afoul of Internet trolls, “hollow Earth” conspiracy theorists, two ex wives, a drinking problem, and other hazards. The book has a literary bent, namedropping Woolf, Wordsworth, Joyce et al, while also having serious geek cred in its discussion of the gaming/online/fandom world. Liked the book overall but didn’t love it. The story meanders at times and is a bit one-note, but that one note does tend to be a funny one, so I’m not sorry I read it. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it’s a good light read, should be enjoyable by gamers, and has some thought provoking discussion on second chances and “rebooting” your life in the face of past failures and regret.
July 28, 2024
This is like a Substack post with a dash of fiction. Never let me read chronically online people ever again. Sole reason this is a 3 (2.5 rounded up) is because I liked the ending.
September 2, 2024
TITLE: REBOOT
AUTHOR: Justin Taylor
PUB DATE: 04.23.2024
A Hollywood satire about a washed up actor - whip smart and with humor, a very unique and interesting read.
AUTHOR: Justin Taylor
PUB DATE: 04.23.2024
A Hollywood satire about a washed up actor - whip smart and with humor, a very unique and interesting read.
May 13, 2024
It was written in this stream of consciousness way that became very annoying very fast. A lot of the characters sounded the same, and then there would be some massive info dumping. It was interesting enough that I finished, and it was pretty clearly spelled out by the end what it was trying to say, but it could have been executed better.
September 24, 2024
This is certainly a novel that covers many bases: conspiracy theories, TV reboot culture, feeling washed up and like it’s too late to make a good life for oneself, the twisted political discourse of recent years, climate collapse, and COVID. At times I felt like there was too much crammed into these pages, and that some references and trends felt a little dated. I’m fatigued by COVID literature as well. I do think the writer is talented and nicely put all these things together, and I loved the weirdness he captures of Florida and Portland. I like the author’s work and want to read his memoir, I just don’t know that I’m the audience for REBOOT.
May 23, 2024
Can you give a positive 2-star review? I’ll try. There’s some occasionally interesting pop culture insight here, but it’s mining for gold in a muddy, shapeless, plotless void.
September 28, 2024
This was a lot of fun. Set in a world very familiar to me, Hollywood. I loved it.
April 30, 2024
Reads like a reddit thread at times. I'll let you decide if that's a bad thing or not.
Read
July 6, 2024I just didn’t get it, lol.
June 3, 2024
Very clever! Also, smug (very.) And coy (kind of.) But mostly just ridiculous
June 20, 2024
Rating: 2.5 Stars!!
Review:
Thank you to Pantheon Books for picking me to win this FREE ARC Copy as part of a giveaway on their website earlier this year.
This was my first time reading a YA novel by Justin Taylor so I wasnt sure what to expect but I have to say that sadly this book was just OK for me. I was hoping to like it more than I did but Part 1 was just too descriptive and too long for me with very little happening.
I thought this book was going to be like The OC meets Laguna Beach and Beverly Hills 90210 but sadly I was mistaken.
The Characters were OK but could of been better since I couldn't stand the complaining that the Main characters did through Part 1.
The Setting was beautifully described which made me feel like I was actually in California, New York, and Florida while reading especially when the scenery was described which was just about the only thing I loved about this book.
Overall it could of been so much better. I will read more by Justin in the future but I hope his other books arent like this one was.
Review:
Thank you to Pantheon Books for picking me to win this FREE ARC Copy as part of a giveaway on their website earlier this year.
This was my first time reading a YA novel by Justin Taylor so I wasnt sure what to expect but I have to say that sadly this book was just OK for me. I was hoping to like it more than I did but Part 1 was just too descriptive and too long for me with very little happening.
I thought this book was going to be like The OC meets Laguna Beach and Beverly Hills 90210 but sadly I was mistaken.
The Characters were OK but could of been better since I couldn't stand the complaining that the Main characters did through Part 1.
The Setting was beautifully described which made me feel like I was actually in California, New York, and Florida while reading especially when the scenery was described which was just about the only thing I loved about this book.
Overall it could of been so much better. I will read more by Justin in the future but I hope his other books arent like this one was.
May 30, 2024
3/5 - this was…confusing in a bad way
June 10, 2024
First review I’ve ever written; that’s how much I loved this book. This feels like the necessary third book in a Goon Squad/Candy House series. 10/10, very positive this is the book I will not only most enjoy this year but also continue to think about for years to come.
July 11, 2024
Clearly written by a man (non-complementary)
May 16, 2024
a LOT going on here. too much, some might say. and as for the landing….it was not stuck. some good/funny bits, though.
January 18, 2024
Reboot by Justin Taylor is not what it seems. It presents itself as a memoir being written by a man still reeling from his loss of fame twenty years earlier after being a teenage TV star. But it emerges as a foray into a post-modern style that at times resembles David Foster Wallace.
David Crader is mostly over his two failed marriages and almost happy not to be recognized in public anymore. He believes he has his alcoholism under control and that he can now focus on being a good father to his six-year-old son.
He feels that he had stared fame in the face and walked away. “Celebrity is status. It can be won and lost, doubled down on or stripped away – intrigue and happenstance, fate in conspiracy with chance. It can even be forsaken . . .”
David’s renewed sense of self splatters across the windshield of his life when he learns of a possible reboot of Rev Beach, the show he starred in alongside the woman who would become his first wife and the man he still thinks of as his best friend, though they hadn’t spoken for years.
Two things dispel the story’s trashy memoir image. Justin Taylor inserts an introduction prior to the first chapter called ‘Cold Open.’ It reads like the final thoughts of a man intent on a suicidal mission to kill someone, a pop star whose social media posts have been pissing him off. Gun in his pocket, he walks toward his target. “Mostly he’s looking forward to never again being bored.”
The second clue is David’s trip from Portland to LA to visit Grace Travis, his first wife. Her father Ty had created Rev Beach to showcase Grace and she’s serious considering a reboot to honor his legacy. When David arrives at Grace’s mansion the steps are covered in ash. When he landed at LAX he’d thought about the magic-hour glow in the middle of the day. He’d noticed it first before he flew out of Portland amid wildfire smoke. “It was the fires that produced this daylong evening, this continuity of doom.”
As the surface story of a possible Rev Beach reboot spools out from Portland to LA and finally to Florida, David suffers various emotional crises within the milieu of climate catastrophes. What he’s witnessing registers only peripherally; he can’t get out of his own self-doubting head.
Arriving in NYC, he walks through torrential rains on his way a nightspot where the blogger who scooped the reboot story tends bar. Coming through the door, the first thing he sees is his old friend Shayne Glade, the Rev Beach co-star who has since gone onto movie fame. David reacts “like a man in a dream.” He then tumbles into a bout of introspection lasting an entire page before he finally screams, “It’s good to see you!”
This book had me shaking my head from beginning to end. The second chapter begins with a 9-page online post by Molly Webster. Molly’s explainer recounts the two-year popularity of Rev Beach (2003-2005), its stars, its sudden cancellation and the twenty-year post-fame story. A bare reflection of old-style journalism, Molly rambles with a certain flare and interrupts herself with asides like, “What was I saying? Oh yeah, Rev Beach.”
I thought, “Who writes like this?”
By the end of the book, I had my answer: “Justin Taylor writes like this.”
The wild ending and David Crader’s slippery grasp on reality are redolent of Hunter S. Thompson characters. The undercurrent – more like a riptide at the end – dwells on powerful themes ranging from climate collapse to the popularity of conspiracy theories. But Taylor is even more thematically ambitious.
He references the complicated lexicon of generational pop culture and he reaches back to Rilke and Bob Dylan. He bows to the insight of Wordsworth and Coleridge on matters of romance and is fond of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s politics. He explores Cyrus Teed’s founding of a commune in Florida where he preaches his hollow earth theory. But what particularly stands out is Taylor’s reference to Friedrich Nietzche.
Nietzche’s philosophy of ‘eternal return’ might seem only remotely relevant to a TV show’s reboot but Justin Taylor has deeper purposes. Without giving away the book’s cataclysmic ending, Reboot is much more than a child star’s trashy memoir. It’s about reality vs delusion – climate and political catastrophe vs digital bullshit and conspiracy theories. It implies that earth itself is in need of a reboot.
As Nietzche put it, “The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over again and again.”
David Crader is mostly over his two failed marriages and almost happy not to be recognized in public anymore. He believes he has his alcoholism under control and that he can now focus on being a good father to his six-year-old son.
He feels that he had stared fame in the face and walked away. “Celebrity is status. It can be won and lost, doubled down on or stripped away – intrigue and happenstance, fate in conspiracy with chance. It can even be forsaken . . .”
David’s renewed sense of self splatters across the windshield of his life when he learns of a possible reboot of Rev Beach, the show he starred in alongside the woman who would become his first wife and the man he still thinks of as his best friend, though they hadn’t spoken for years.
Two things dispel the story’s trashy memoir image. Justin Taylor inserts an introduction prior to the first chapter called ‘Cold Open.’ It reads like the final thoughts of a man intent on a suicidal mission to kill someone, a pop star whose social media posts have been pissing him off. Gun in his pocket, he walks toward his target. “Mostly he’s looking forward to never again being bored.”
The second clue is David’s trip from Portland to LA to visit Grace Travis, his first wife. Her father Ty had created Rev Beach to showcase Grace and she’s serious considering a reboot to honor his legacy. When David arrives at Grace’s mansion the steps are covered in ash. When he landed at LAX he’d thought about the magic-hour glow in the middle of the day. He’d noticed it first before he flew out of Portland amid wildfire smoke. “It was the fires that produced this daylong evening, this continuity of doom.”
As the surface story of a possible Rev Beach reboot spools out from Portland to LA and finally to Florida, David suffers various emotional crises within the milieu of climate catastrophes. What he’s witnessing registers only peripherally; he can’t get out of his own self-doubting head.
Arriving in NYC, he walks through torrential rains on his way a nightspot where the blogger who scooped the reboot story tends bar. Coming through the door, the first thing he sees is his old friend Shayne Glade, the Rev Beach co-star who has since gone onto movie fame. David reacts “like a man in a dream.” He then tumbles into a bout of introspection lasting an entire page before he finally screams, “It’s good to see you!”
This book had me shaking my head from beginning to end. The second chapter begins with a 9-page online post by Molly Webster. Molly’s explainer recounts the two-year popularity of Rev Beach (2003-2005), its stars, its sudden cancellation and the twenty-year post-fame story. A bare reflection of old-style journalism, Molly rambles with a certain flare and interrupts herself with asides like, “What was I saying? Oh yeah, Rev Beach.”
I thought, “Who writes like this?”
By the end of the book, I had my answer: “Justin Taylor writes like this.”
The wild ending and David Crader’s slippery grasp on reality are redolent of Hunter S. Thompson characters. The undercurrent – more like a riptide at the end – dwells on powerful themes ranging from climate collapse to the popularity of conspiracy theories. But Taylor is even more thematically ambitious.
He references the complicated lexicon of generational pop culture and he reaches back to Rilke and Bob Dylan. He bows to the insight of Wordsworth and Coleridge on matters of romance and is fond of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s politics. He explores Cyrus Teed’s founding of a commune in Florida where he preaches his hollow earth theory. But what particularly stands out is Taylor’s reference to Friedrich Nietzche.
Nietzche’s philosophy of ‘eternal return’ might seem only remotely relevant to a TV show’s reboot but Justin Taylor has deeper purposes. Without giving away the book’s cataclysmic ending, Reboot is much more than a child star’s trashy memoir. It’s about reality vs delusion – climate and political catastrophe vs digital bullshit and conspiracy theories. It implies that earth itself is in need of a reboot.
As Nietzche put it, “The eternal hourglass of existence is turned over again and again.”
June 6, 2024
I almost stopped reading this book on the second page. I work in the entertainment business, and don't generally like books about it. Too much of a busman's holiday. But I kept going and I was glad that I did. The main thing that kept me in was the character of David. He is certainly an "erratic self sabatoging buffoon" as one of the other characters describes him, but he also has a non-stop self-effacing charm that lacked most of the narcissism that is too common in actors and that made me like him, even when he was screwing up. You could see why Grace and Amber still liked him even after divorcing him, why Hank loved him and why his family forgave him. And though he had barely a high school education, he was smart, not street smart where he mostly failed, but autodidact book smart. Some of his charm and smartness is courtesy of his ghost writer, Molly, who we learn is writing this memoir for him and who clearly has both qualities in abundance, but as a good writer, she's just embellishing to make the good qualities better, not making up qualities that are not there.
One of the things I most liked about the book was my realization that it is the Wizard of Oz - the story of a group of friends who each have their individual weaknesses travelling through a magical land in search of their dreams. Grace is the good witch, bad witch and wizard all rolled into one. And in the end of course they discover that they had all along the things they most wanted, which in David's case, like Dorothy's, was to go home to the people he most loved.
The conspiracy elements were a lot of fun because they are presented as being completely insane and outlandish, except when it it seems for a few moments of David's fever dream that they might be real after all. The only conspiracy that was definitely real was the one that was being engineered by Grace to reboot the old show, make money, honor her father, get back the ex-husband she still loved and reunite her old friends all in one fell swoop. She was devious but you could hardly have a more benign conspiracy.
One of the things I most liked about the book was my realization that it is the Wizard of Oz - the story of a group of friends who each have their individual weaknesses travelling through a magical land in search of their dreams. Grace is the good witch, bad witch and wizard all rolled into one. And in the end of course they discover that they had all along the things they most wanted, which in David's case, like Dorothy's, was to go home to the people he most loved.
The conspiracy elements were a lot of fun because they are presented as being completely insane and outlandish, except when it it seems for a few moments of David's fever dream that they might be real after all. The only conspiracy that was definitely real was the one that was being engineered by Grace to reboot the old show, make money, honor her father, get back the ex-husband she still loved and reunite her old friends all in one fell swoop. She was devious but you could hardly have a more benign conspiracy.
April 23, 2024
Recovering alcoholic David Crader starred in a teen drama, Rev Beach, a cross between Dawson’s Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that aired in the early aughts. Nearing middle age, he keeps afloat by tending to his Portland bar, Wing and Prayer, attending fan conventions (“I took home a few grand for a day spent signing autographs and posing for photos and being told how great I was”) and doing voice work on cartoons and video games. During lockdown, David had a dream that led to an idea for a Rev Beach reboot to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the show’s premiere.
David gets his former co-star, and first ex-wife, Grace Travis, the daughter of the show’s creator (who were repeatedly compared to Aaron and Tori Spelling), on board. He is then tasked with assembling the rest of the cast, including Shayne Glade, the young heartthrob whom David met at Rising Star, “an extended-stay hotel full of kids who could sing and tap-dance and launch into monologues at the drop of a hat, watched over by groups of mothers on second mortgages who traded tips about talent agents and drank white wine all afternoon,” and Corey Burch, the “Designated Fat Kid,” whom David and Shayne met when they returned to Rising Star as “sparkly tweens doing one-offs on Nickelodeon sitcoms” to encourage the current residents that “this wasn’t all a pipe dream.”
David bounces around the country trying to court the support of his former cast-mates, but his plans are derailed by the impact of accelerating climate change, from flooding to fires,. In addition, a video game for which David did voice work has spawned an internet conspiracy theory that portends real world violence. Taylor has written a hilarious sendup of Hollywood and pop culture. Thank you Pantheon and Net Galley for this witty satire.
David gets his former co-star, and first ex-wife, Grace Travis, the daughter of the show’s creator (who were repeatedly compared to Aaron and Tori Spelling), on board. He is then tasked with assembling the rest of the cast, including Shayne Glade, the young heartthrob whom David met at Rising Star, “an extended-stay hotel full of kids who could sing and tap-dance and launch into monologues at the drop of a hat, watched over by groups of mothers on second mortgages who traded tips about talent agents and drank white wine all afternoon,” and Corey Burch, the “Designated Fat Kid,” whom David and Shayne met when they returned to Rising Star as “sparkly tweens doing one-offs on Nickelodeon sitcoms” to encourage the current residents that “this wasn’t all a pipe dream.”
David bounces around the country trying to court the support of his former cast-mates, but his plans are derailed by the impact of accelerating climate change, from flooding to fires,. In addition, a video game for which David did voice work has spawned an internet conspiracy theory that portends real world violence. Taylor has written a hilarious sendup of Hollywood and pop culture. Thank you Pantheon and Net Galley for this witty satire.
June 5, 2024
Somewhat confusing supposedly DeLillo-esque plot that cannot stand up overwhelming BANTER. The banter in this book made me mad in a way that I am sure is principally the narcissism of small differences, but it made me mad nevertheless. It is full of "They fly now" style BANTS back and forth but then the characters are also bantering about Satantango or Coleridge, which made it worse. There's a conceit about the narrator revealed like two thirds of the way through to try to explain this, but that also made me mad. I should say that while ultimately underwhelming, the plot did keep me engaged enough to stay up late and finish the book. The ending has one weird vision part (about tikkun olam, okay, good) but then a longer ending about how Things Really Do Kind of Work Out, Don't They?, which I found annoying.
To return to my observation about the narcissism of small differences: the narrator of this book is constantly imagining interesting covers (Cat Power doing "Reeling in the Years") or claiming that this or that is Hegelian. I do this too and I am sure my loved ones might find this annoying but I think I am not merely a hypocrite: I think there is something tolerable about free floating association and drawing expansive connections in *life* that in the (should-be) closed box of the novel are instead irksome, or are at any rate irksome to me. There's a shape to lives and a shape to novels and it may be some of my frustration with contemporary novels (not just this one) that they make too much of this isomorphic. (An anxiety or a confusion could be seen here too that most, though confusingly not all, of the references are not to novels but to movies and especially, tv [hence, reboots]). So, I was annoyed at many points reading this book but I am glad I read it and will keep thinking about it.
To return to my observation about the narcissism of small differences: the narrator of this book is constantly imagining interesting covers (Cat Power doing "Reeling in the Years") or claiming that this or that is Hegelian. I do this too and I am sure my loved ones might find this annoying but I think I am not merely a hypocrite: I think there is something tolerable about free floating association and drawing expansive connections in *life* that in the (should-be) closed box of the novel are instead irksome, or are at any rate irksome to me. There's a shape to lives and a shape to novels and it may be some of my frustration with contemporary novels (not just this one) that they make too much of this isomorphic. (An anxiety or a confusion could be seen here too that most, though confusingly not all, of the references are not to novels but to movies and especially, tv [hence, reboots]). So, I was annoyed at many points reading this book but I am glad I read it and will keep thinking about it.
July 25, 2024
Reboot (Hardcover) by Justin Taylor
"But then - he loves this - the thing that isn't true becomes true once enough people believe in it. That's what meaning means to him. The truth is a false flag operation. Reality is an inside job." p. xvii
David Marin Crader is a has-been. A former child actor from the hit teen drama Rev Beach, he now rotates between his new roles as a deadbeat dad, recovering alcoholic, and occasional videogame voice actor (Shibboleth Gold). But when David is summoned to Los Angeles by Grace Merkavah Travis, his ex-wife, and former Rev Beach co-star, he suddenly sees an opportunity for a reboot—not just of the show that made him famous, but also of his listless existence.
Unfortunately, they need to get the old gang together for the reboot to occur, which has not kept itself amicable after twenty-five years.
Hollywood, the Internet, and a fractured nation have other plans, however, and David soon drinks himself to a realization: This seemingly innocuous revival of an old Buffy rip-off could be the spark that sets ablaze a nation gripped by far-right conspiracy, climate catastrophe, and mass violence.
Narrated from the first person point of view, I thought the book was a disaster. I never cared for any of the characters, nor did I care for the plot. The writer keeps going back and forth on so many tangents that I never cared about the book. He also likes to give the reader spoilers - like on page 248: "(And not to ruin a perfectly good cliffhanger but come on, you know I didn't die) He also loves to talk directly to the reader - which never worked for me.
I struggled to read this short novel and I don't recommend you read it.
"But then - he loves this - the thing that isn't true becomes true once enough people believe in it. That's what meaning means to him. The truth is a false flag operation. Reality is an inside job." p. xvii
David Marin Crader is a has-been. A former child actor from the hit teen drama Rev Beach, he now rotates between his new roles as a deadbeat dad, recovering alcoholic, and occasional videogame voice actor (Shibboleth Gold). But when David is summoned to Los Angeles by Grace Merkavah Travis, his ex-wife, and former Rev Beach co-star, he suddenly sees an opportunity for a reboot—not just of the show that made him famous, but also of his listless existence.
Unfortunately, they need to get the old gang together for the reboot to occur, which has not kept itself amicable after twenty-five years.
Hollywood, the Internet, and a fractured nation have other plans, however, and David soon drinks himself to a realization: This seemingly innocuous revival of an old Buffy rip-off could be the spark that sets ablaze a nation gripped by far-right conspiracy, climate catastrophe, and mass violence.
Narrated from the first person point of view, I thought the book was a disaster. I never cared for any of the characters, nor did I care for the plot. The writer keeps going back and forth on so many tangents that I never cared about the book. He also likes to give the reader spoilers - like on page 248: "(And not to ruin a perfectly good cliffhanger but come on, you know I didn't die) He also loves to talk directly to the reader - which never worked for me.
I struggled to read this short novel and I don't recommend you read it.
May 7, 2024
There was a t-shirt I used to see advertised in the back pages of Rolling Stone magazine, which I should have ordered, but didn't: "You disgust me. But I like it."
That non-metaphysical-conceit expresses my feelings about "Reboot," a novel which was designed to annoy and succeeds spectacularly on its own terms. The gratuitous pop-culture references. Characters who actually say LOL. The tropey narrator, with his addictions and self-absorption. Even the novel's only seeming unintended flaw, that a semi-educated dude-bro like David could make so many classical references, is explained away in a fashion that makes the book even more irritating. Christ, even the heartwarming bits got on my nerves.
So . . WHY AM I GIVING THIS BOOK FOUR STARS?
Because damn, is the author committed to his repulsive vision, the sentimental nihilism that Chuck Palahniuk pioneered and Mr. Taylor is in the process of perfecting. He reproduces our current state of media saturation better than any novelist I've read. He threatens an apocalypse but doesn't deliver because the SOB is smart enough to realize that dystopian literature is as much a form of escapism as romance or horror. And he won't let us escape.
So I'd better finish this write-up before I start reading the 1-star reviews and realize that I agree with all of them.
That non-metaphysical-conceit expresses my feelings about "Reboot," a novel which was designed to annoy and succeeds spectacularly on its own terms. The gratuitous pop-culture references. Characters who actually say LOL. The tropey narrator, with his addictions and self-absorption. Even the novel's only seeming unintended flaw, that a semi-educated dude-bro like David could make so many classical references, is explained away in a fashion that makes the book even more irritating. Christ, even the heartwarming bits got on my nerves.
So . . WHY AM I GIVING THIS BOOK FOUR STARS?
Because damn, is the author committed to his repulsive vision, the sentimental nihilism that Chuck Palahniuk pioneered and Mr. Taylor is in the process of perfecting. He reproduces our current state of media saturation better than any novelist I've read. He threatens an apocalypse but doesn't deliver because the SOB is smart enough to realize that dystopian literature is as much a form of escapism as romance or horror. And he won't let us escape.
So I'd better finish this write-up before I start reading the 1-star reviews and realize that I agree with all of them.
July 11, 2024
I READ AN ACTUAL PAPER BOOK. Reboot sounded right up my alley, and it wasn't available (from my library) in any e- form, so I borrowed a physical book and read it, a truly rare experience in 2024, aka my audiobook year (apparently).
Anyway, the actual story: it was great in the first half. I loved all the very online references and pop culture mentions. They will make this book age terribly, but they were a lot of fun. Taylor clearly watched BtVS, which won him some points on my very important mental scoreboard. The protagonist isn't exactly likeable, but it was interesting to follow him on his weird little self-centered adventure.
But the last quarter of the book went off the rails; it turned into a different book. I do not know what happened there, and I can't say it was boring or anything fatal like that, but I couldn't follow the sharp turn very well. Very meta stuff that didn't make a lot of sense, magical realism, dream sequences (nothing about cheese, kind of a rip-off), the gun in the first act going off in the third in a very anticlimactic way . . . it was like someone ripped out the last 75 pages and replaced them with bizarro world fanfic.
I'll read more by Taylor, though—the good parts were very fun.
(three and a half stars)
Anyway, the actual story: it was great in the first half. I loved all the very online references and pop culture mentions. They will make this book age terribly, but they were a lot of fun. Taylor clearly watched BtVS, which won him some points on my very important mental scoreboard. The protagonist isn't exactly likeable, but it was interesting to follow him on his weird little self-centered adventure.
But the last quarter of the book went off the rails; it turned into a different book. I do not know what happened there, and I can't say it was boring or anything fatal like that, but I couldn't follow the sharp turn very well. Very meta stuff that didn't make a lot of sense, magical realism, dream sequences (nothing about cheese, kind of a rip-off), the gun in the first act going off in the third in a very anticlimactic way . . . it was like someone ripped out the last 75 pages and replaced them with bizarro world fanfic.
I'll read more by Taylor, though—the good parts were very fun.
(three and a half stars)
April 27, 2024
Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC of this novel. An aging millennial manifesto in the form of a faux-memoir that analyzes the world on the axes of celebrity culture, internet conspiracy theories, and climate change. Our protagonist and subject is a former young adult actor who sees the world in terms of television scripts and is going for a rebooted TV series, which he believes will reboot his life. Meanwhile, the forces of chaos, in the form of internet conspiracies about this TV show, the video game he does voiceovers for and Jews generally, are working in multiple directions, causing him to try to harness them to his own benefit. The largest source of chaos, climate change, now rebranded as climate.collapse, is doing its thing and holds the trump cards. This is an interesting foray into the nature of truth, now termed Speculative Nonfiction, and triumph of the fringe in today's world. The laughability of online reality in the face of ecosystem collapse is thoroughly explored. The author is a great writer. Portions were definitely self-indulgent.
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