16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tucker's vindictive side rears its ugly head, February 20, 2012
I'll give him this: Tucker entertains. His stories are for the most part well written, and his third book is a fun and easy, albeit frivolous read. As usual, a good chunk of the book is just emails to and from his friends, some dating back years. That, coupled with multiple pages dedicated to his "sexting" with his core fan base, i.e. immature and insecure teenage girls, sort of undermines his claim of being a prolific writer.
Tucker is at his best when he writes about his friends' various idiosyncrasies. The chapter about his friend Hate was by far the funniest, containing some exemplary wit.
He is absolutely at his worst when he gives life advice. The "wisdom" he imparts is shallow, hackneyed, and hardly conducive to forming good character. At one point in the book, he suggests that kids shouldn't listen to anything their parents say, that they should just follow their own rules and the hell with the norm. So, when your dad preaches the importance of virtues such as loyalty, honor, fortitude, and honesty, just ignore the old man. Very rebellious, Tucker! This is painfully cliched and unenlightened advice.
By far the most disturbing chapter is on Miss Vermont.
It reveals a vindictive, pathologically narcissistic, and petty side of Tucker. He takes extreme pride in destroying a young, innocent girl for absolutely no good reason. He comes off as border-line sadistic in challenging Miss Vermont to write her version of events. Miss Vermont didn't want stories about her private sexual encounters published on the internet (who would?), yet Tucker takes delight in revealing intimate details about their relationship. Worse, he hides under the first amendment to justify his actions. Tucker fancies himself as a champion of free speech, when the real story is Tucker's cowardice in continuing to taunt a girl, whose privacy he had already shamelessly violated. Tucker feigns indignation at Miss Vermont's hypocrisy--her preaching chastity on the one hand, and not living up to it on the other. And that is apparently good enough reason for Tucker to go after her with a religious like fervor. He almost exudes moral righteousness that comes off as incredibly petty, creepy and vengeful. In short, the Miss Vermont story makes him look really small, vindictive and cowardly.
Hilarity Ensues is a fun read--with the salient exception of the Miss Vermont chapter--but it belies Tucker's delusion that he has grown or that he is an exceptional writer. He is still petty, at times bitter, and never particularly insightful.
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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Puberty Boredom Ensues, February 20, 2012
Vacuous, juvenile, narcisstic babble. Target audience is teenage virgins with zero life experiences. Judging from the blogger scribbling attempts at plot development, dynamics, or even the most basic coherency...one would assume that is who wrote it.
Here's a synopsis of a typical groundbreaking "hilarious" story. Author goes somewhere with loser friends. Like a catty girl, he makes snarky comments about them constantly, while bragging about himself. Story is a yawnfest, so he exaggerates it into an epic legend. Insert love interest; an overweight, ugly girl. He insults her with lines he thought of over the last six months, while writing the book. Add a token gross event, or a lame fart joke. Scene ends. Soon thereafter, he sends dirty sex/insult texts to another girl; probably large, and with no self-esteem. Then he offers scholarly advice on life. I kid you not.
Oh. One glaring little problem. It's not funny. No hilarity ensues. No token knee slap. Not even a grin. It's as if the book itself is the joke, if not the unintentionally hilarious, misplaced arrogance. I mean really, really bad.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
All filler...., February 22, 2012
no thriller. Nothing that hilarious, I think the word is out and the jig is up. Made up stories pretending to be real are hilarious. Until people realize they're made up stories. His first book was funny though.
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