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This is one of those cases where the TV show, Special, is better than the book. I was hoping the book would teach something about Disabilities and self acceptance wrapped up in humor, but I didn't laugh once throughout this book.

One of the many reasons is because, on every page, he attempts to have an observation about the Y generation. I became so tired of hearing the words, "millennial generation this, Y generation that," that I started skipping chapters just to get rid of him saying millennial. This book has also convinced me that everybody is wrong about generational observations and every opinion about whatever generation is caked in ageism.

The tone is a prolonged skit. The funny parts are supposed to arise from ironic skits, or skits with off color dialog. I didn't laugh once because these skits didn't have a comedic touch. They did, it just painted the author as above everybody else, and therefore, an absolute millennial sociologist without an ounce of self reflection.

I wish he would have examined the internalized ableism presented in the beginning of the book, but instead, a new skit must happen to make the audience laugh before moving onto the next skit.

In short, I guess you could say that I'm tired of generation observations and humor without examination or reflection, especially in the Disability space.

Watch the TV show. It's far better and more introspective. Even better? Characters don't say millennial every other word.

The satire I've read and enjoyed centered around one particular theme throughout the whole book. The first half of this book, I'd say, chapters 1 through 19, do this very well. It is a great commentary about a smart Black man losing his way while trying to work in white America.

The second half of the book was not so gripping, partly because it seemed as though the absurdity didn't have a central theme that carried the wacky jokes. It's as if the book wanted to become 2 books in one. Perhaps it was trying to show that, for Black lives, nothing is as it seems, but I feel this could have been conveyed while sticking to a centered plot.

The jokes poke fun at how whites view Black lives, but the second half of the book didn't hold my interest nearly as strongly as the first half of this book. Maybe the careening plot switches are intentional. After all, it is a satire, and a darkly funny one at that.

I just happen to think one steady but powerful message is better than trying to cram lessons on every single page. In one chapter, we deal with Black people in prison, feminism, drug abuse for Black men, police brutality, casual and overt racism, and we don't examine what the book was initially presenting to us. It's as if the reason for this creation fell off the tracks completely.

I enjoyed this book but I am afraid I will not be reading this again. This author, though, is one of my favorite new satire writers. I can't wait to see the next book from the author.

I may be in the minority here when I say that I don't really care if white authors are writing "woke books." If it seems shallow to one person, it may seem deep to others.

Before I begin, I should say this book tackles a lot of heavy subjects. The protagonist becomes gay. That will become apparent when you read the book, and, while it may come across as insincere preaching to some, I honestly believe the author put Ash, the protagonist, through their own personal woke journey the author went through.

It's because I thought the author was honestly sincere in his racism 101 and homofobia 101 that I enjoyed this book and, quite frankly, I really enjoyed Ash's growth.

Ash gets hit on the American football field one day and gets knocked into a parallel universe, and bounces from universe to universe. The universes all take place in current times, so I am wondering why this book is classified as science fiction rather than historical fiction.

Each universe is a universe based on historical events For instance, there is a world where stop signs are blue instead of red. There's a connected world where segregated schools is a law of the land in 2021. I'd think that would be more historical fiction, than science fiction.

This book is a personal journey. If you're a plot reader, this book may not be for you. Ash, the main character, figuratively wakes up to the many things he was completely blind to before. Ash didn't listen, which makes his internal monologues believable and very sincere.

At first, I wondered why Asexuality wasn't examined in this book, but then I remembered that Ash had a lot of growing up to do in this book, so feel the author did well with the subjects he tackled.

One note about the audiobook narration. The white narrator does not try to do a Black voice. I am extremely thankful for this, but it does get quite hard to listen to long stretches of Dialog between Ash and Leo without dialog tags.

All in all, this book won't fix racism, and it won't shed some new light on a subject if you're well versed in these topics. But a very good thing about books is we can watch others grow. Even if one person wakes up, that's progress. We need more books that demonstrate progress rather than promise progression.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times I put down social media to actually read something, something else happens that causes me to read books extremely slowly.

This has been the more fascinating part of my reading life because I read in big chunks. I guess I am just a gulper when it comes to reading, but anyway,

this book isn't one you can pick up after being some days away from it, which is unfortunate because the story is very well told. It's easy writing so it is easy to start again after stopping but when you've been away for a while, the story seems disconnected.

When you dive into it, though, you'll find a very smart critique of the police system. I like the message that even if you win a battle or small victory the system will still be there.

As for the characters, okay, all of them were adorable, but I kept getting their names mixed up.

Unfortunately, Mark is not the best audiobook narrator. At certain times, you can hear them making mouth noises that should have been edited out.

One major scene kept me from giving this book 5 stars was the metal detector scene. Reg has metal pins in his knee. The school installs detectors for reasons I can't spoil, but, in short, treatment of Reg causes a chain reaction of advocacy.

When Reg goes through the detector, his pins get damaged. I feel like this is an unnecessary plot device to, once again, use a Disabled character to advance someone's story.

Even so, this book is still worth checking out. I am looking forward to Mark's middle grade book, personally.

I'm quite amazed this kids box set has no anti progressive views. I mean, I did not read this series as a kid like so many others. I was a late reader and first picked this up my senior year in high school.

What else can I say? The rating says it all. This is a fun series about two pets investigating some supernatural events involving a bunny that might be a vampire feeding on vegetables. The writing is cute. The story is fun. What really amazed me though, was the message of anti bigotry throughout the stories. To an adult, it will be very surface level, but I honestly don't care how surface level the message is if it is a positive one.

The narrator really did an excellent job shifting tones, speaking styles, and more. Even if you hate YA and or MG books, this is just pure, easy, fun, and sometimes that's all you need.