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28 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I guess I'm all alone on this one, January 24, 2007
This review is from: Watch Out (Perfect Paperback)
I couldn't put this book down and finished it in one night. So why am I giving it only 1 star? Because I expected something more frankly. I was very let down by the shabby plot. OK so maybe for this style of book, the plot is unimportant. Regardless, it's just about a guy who is waiting for an interview that never happens. Then the "climax" is a huge let down, and then the book seems to fall apart into a series of stories including the character's past. The chapter about "Britney Spears", though the name is never mentioned, left a lot, and I mean A LOT to be desired. With the amount of hate some people have for her, I would have much preferred a silly vicious rant from someone who can't spell. Yes, that'd be more entertaining. Each chapter is about three pages long. I guess it's good for those with a short attention span. This may not be seen as a downfall, but for some reason it annoys me with this book.
If you just like reading graphic novels, maybe you'll find this more interesting than me.
I admit that some of it IS entertaining, that's why I picked up the book, hoping I'd find more of this entertainment within. Ultimately the entertainment value severely lacked, as I kept hoping something would happen other than the same old thing. He plays with himself and talks about how everyone wants him. He mentions everyone looks like David Bowie, though a twist of David Bowie. It's kind of cute, but it really does get repetitive and unimaginative after awhile. Also he uses "Watch Out" far too much, and in an annoying fashion.
Joseph is a fantastic salesman. Let me stress FANTASTIC. He has many followers though most of them have never actually read his book. But it seems that those who have, LOVE his book. I'm the odd person out here apparently.
If you buy this book and randomly read passages with your friends you will most likely be entertained. As a whole book, I wasn't impressed though. I wouldn't buy this book for the price it's offered now. I am trying to sell it for $10 though myself. I just don't want to lose so much money on this because I really feel it was a waste of my money. Unfortunate.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Pointless and Horrific, OR Sick and Twisted, December 10, 2007
This review is from: Watch Out (Perfect Paperback)
I adore comedy, philosophy and I appreciate dark humor. This book is for shock value. An intelligent reader will hopefully not fall into the ego trap, "only an elite reader will understand this book". It will leave one feeling dirty and mentally dismembered. It is not really all that funny, although it is meant to be tongue in cheek. I did not want this book in my house when I finished reading it, so I threw it in the recycle bin. It reminded me of a ouji board that I had to dipose of lest it beome a vortex to bring evil into the room. Yes, it was that strange. Not worth wasting one's time. If you value your brain and find your sensibilities to be sacred, avoid this book.
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22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Watch Out! This novel will grow on you. Or worse, in you., September 18, 2006
This review is from: Watch Out (Perfect Paperback)
Watch Out is like a nightmare you don't want to wake from. It does what any good novel should do -- transport you to a world so alien yet so convincing, you begin to see your own world through its warped lens, and in the case of Watch Out, through the eyes of its protagonist Jonathan Barrows. "A star needs a dark background in order to shine," Barrows declares early on. "I am unblemished by the taint of human scum." Next to Barrows's narcissism, Nietzche looks like Richard Simmons.
In fact, to call Barrows the protagonist is misleading. A protagonist is surrounded by other characters, however minor. Barrows is surrounded by carbon-based Zeros. Or as he puts it: "The world exists only in order to be digested by Me. I gourmandize everyone who gets in My way."
Suglia's writing has the poetic power of a runaway snowball, insistent & consistent enough to sustain the trance. When I say I couldn't put the book down, I mean it literally. The writing is that good.
Watch Out will no doubt gain much of its notoriety from its more shockingly violent & sexually perverse scenes (and there are many of them, and they are all those things). But if I had to compare the experience of reading the novel to anything, it would be to the feeling I had while first watching Wernor Herzog's Even Dwarfs Started Small: you can't quite believe you're seeing what your eyes are telling you you're seeing, you don't quite know if what is happening is really happening, you're utterly unsure who to root for & who to root against -- and in the end, you don't care about any of that. Because what you're witnessing, what you're in fact experiencing, is a world so genuine, so deeply felt, so authentically disturbing, you want it to end now, and when it ends, you watch it again & again, exhausted & renewed.
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