Supermarket by Bobby HallPublished: March 26th, 2019, Simon & Schuster
Pages: 272
Source: Paperback, purchased
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 1.5/5
How I Felt: I love Hall's music so when I heard he had come out with a book I immediately picked it up. I really wanted to love this.
I want to preface this review by saying that the majority of other reviews I've read have said that the plot of this book is very similar to Fight Club but I've never read the book or seen the movie so I can't attest to the accuracy of that claim.
There were so many things I had issues with in this book and I wish that wasn't the case. I really do think Hall has potential as a writer and I'll eagerly pick up any other books he writes in the future.
One thing I loved about this book and thought was well done was the depiction of anxiety and depression. I admire Hall for having the courage to write about something that affects him so much and I related to his sentiments.
(I have a few quotes I want to share throughout this review because some of them were poignant to me and others are just for the sake of explaining why I found problems with his overall writing style.)
"I couldn't understand why my body felt this way because I wasn't freaking out in my mind--it was my body that felt out of control" (pg. 78-79). This quote in particular hit close to home for me because I often feel this way in a panic attack. It was startling to me to read the words of someone who just gets it, you know?
Another quote I thought was interesting was when he was describing the retail industry and how it feels to work in a service-type job. "Your sole purpose is to blindly serve people who don't give two sh*ts about your own happiness or future." (pg. 19) This stood out to me because it was one of the most relatable quotes I've read in a "celebrity" book. It was thought-provoking to me so I thought I'd share it.
Ok, so the writing. It was...messy to say the least. It felt very unpolished and informal. One of my biggest pet peeves is when narrators break the fourth wall and talk directly to the reader and Hall did that a lot in this book. It became annoying after a while. This is just my personal preference, though. I don't see how it added to the story but that could just be me.
Also, the characterization. Mia just felt like a cookie-cutter, perfect modern girl. I've seen in a couple reviews that her description is very similar to Hall's ex-wife but again, I don't know enough information about that to confirm or deny. I just thought she was bland and only there to give Flynn something to strive for. It was a very dated approach at forming the character of the token girlfriend.
What I also noticed was that for the first half of the story, most of the side characters or brief descriptions we get for clothing are all almost the exact same. It seems the standard uniform for a man is black shoes, blue jeans, and a white shirt. I made a note of it on page 34 after I'd already seen it mentioned a couple times and it got under my skin.
Foreshadowing is used A LOT in this book, and it's very obvious. I love a good foreshadow when it's subtle enough you don't realize how all the pieces fit until the end. Then you can go back and scream about how brilliantly plotted the story was. In this book, however, it felt like I was an animal being led directly to the food and I couldn't find it myself. (That's probably a horrible analogy, I apologize.) It's like the author wanted you to KNOW he was foreshadowing, which spoiled all the fun lol.
There's also a moment where Flynn literally describes the entire plot of "Sphere" (a book that was later turned into a movie) complete with a "spoiler alert" and all. I saw that and literally closed the book for a second because it was so unnecessary and strange??? Like,,,, WHY was that included?? I digress.
Hall also often used phrases like "You know the one" etc. to describe things and it just seemed lazy to me. Not to mention hecka informal. Another thing that bothered me (more so in the first half) was the over usage of similes. Literally ANYTHING and EVERYTHING was described using a simile. There were some outlandish ones too but I don't want to make this review longer than it has to be by including them aksjdhakjsd
It was an interesting concept to me, (take that with a grain of salt as I'm unfamiliar with the story of Fight Club) but I just felt like the writing wasn't able to hit the mark. I really wanted this book to be great.
Overall, I was really disappointed by this book. I didn't go into it expecting a masterpiece or anything but I still was hoping it would be better. I can't say I recommend reading this but I'll be keeping an eye out for more Hall books in the future. Maybe pick this up if you're a mega-fan? But this just was not it for me.
Thanks for reading!
~Birdie
