Wayward

Just straight plowed through this. I think I'm starting to get why Blake Crouch is so popular.

Definitely not the best, or deepest, or smartest, or anything-est book I've read this year, but there's something to be said about how incredibly readable these books are. Just pure popcorn entertainment.

I still really dislike Ethan as a protagonist though. Mentioned this in my review of the first one, but I can't stand his weird fetishization of violence. His internal reaction to everything and everyone upsetting him is to fantasize about throwing tantrums and breaking things and hurting people. If this trait was framed as a character flaw that he's aware of and actively suppressing I'd say he was a great three-dimensional character. Instead it's framed in this weird macho sort of way where I feel like the book is saying like “Hey look how cool Ethan is because he wants to punch people, isn't he so tough?”. It just feels kinda petulant and childish.

Either way though, I've got book 3 on hold at the library to pick up this weekend and am in the hugely long waitlist line for his 2 most recent novels (#36 in line for Upgrade and #10 for Recursion), so I'd say I guess I'm now a fan?