We would hear in focus groups, ‘Yeah, Donald Trump throws bombs. He says outrageous things, but he doesn’t mean all those things. He won’t be like tha
We would hear in focus groups, ‘Yeah, Donald Trump throws bombs. He says outrageous things, but he doesn’t mean all those things. He won’t be like that as president. He’ll change.'
To paraphrase national treasure Maya Angelou, "when people show you who they are, fuckin' believe them."
"So I did what I do best: I said some cruel and stupid things, and I pushed away someone who was trying to stay close to me.
Aside from reading minds, "So I did what I do best: I said some cruel and stupid things, and I pushed away someone who was trying to stay close to me.
Aside from reading minds, that's my other superpower."
Do you enjoy action movie cliches including, but not limited to, explosions, car chases, gunfights and a literal drone strike? How about Manpain, Level Four? What about main characters who don't know how not to think with their dicks? This is the book for you!
I did like most of it. Some tropes exist because they are, in fact, quite enjoyable, but when you put them all in the same book, it gets tiresome. I also don't think that the overall concept (emotional manipulation of people into mobs) will be able to overcome how dated it will become thanks to the scattered references of how it came to be (Facebook, Snapchat, reddit, 4chan, et. al). Still, I like the idea of a telepathic CIA agent-turned-mercenary and that's what kept me reading. John's interaction with Zhang, a peer from the Chinese government programs, made the second half of the book worth continuing. Because they are both telepathic, they are just black holes of thoughts to one another. Their musing on how incredibly frustrating it must be for regular people to interact, since we are only able to figure out other people's motivations and intentions through what they say, body language and facial expression, was the most amusing part.
However, I cannot tell you how little I cared about the villain in this novel - an overly smart, isolated boy with a not-so-great childhood grows up to be a smug asshole of a man with money and power because of his aforementioned intelligence and lack of morals.