I love all Jason Pargin’s books. They’re a combination of dark comedy and action/adventure. Unlike the “John Dies at the End” series, which is horror-comedy, the “Zoey Ashe” series focuses on futuristic science fiction. More specifically, “what if Las Vegas was turned up to eleven?”. And thus it is an examination of political and social issues, especially when they come into conflict with human nature and desire. This particular book has three central facets. One is an election (and what those parallels are), second is a music festival that reminded me of Woodstock ’99, and a third is a murder mystery.

All this takes place in a blanket of social media and influencer culture, where we are our own Big Brother. In this city, humanity is at its most hedonistic. How do you cultivate an economy of vice? Between events, there are what I call “author has social arguments with himself.” Which is fine–I write the same way. I set one character against each other to examine both sides of an argument and end up solving nothing. But asking questions is the goal, not solving them. Especially when one of the questions is “who is responsible when your followers set a detractor on fire and you didn’t tell them not to.” (Obvious parallel to the Jan. 6 insurrection is obvious) But that’s the point of the book–using science fiction as the lens to examine our present and to ask questions about it. Because our present determines our future. Highly recommended.