If you were a fan of Wolf of Wall Street and Sorry to Bother You, let me introduce you to Black Buck. Before I had even seen any comparisons, I recognized that this book was the exact blend of the two. This blurb from the inside of the dust jacket sums it up well: “For fans of Sorry to Bother You and the Wolf of Wall Street – a blazing satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cultlike, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.”
Darren is 22 and gliding through life with no clear sense of direction. He’s working at Starbucks, living in a brownstone in Bed-Stuy with his mom, and spending most of his free time with his girlfriend. That all changes after he successfully convinces Rhett Daniels, CEO of startup Sumwun, to deviate from his regular coffee order – and Rhett actually enjoys it. The rest, as they say, is history.
Instead of this being a book solely about Darren’s life and what he’s done, it’s framed as a book written by Darren himself to readers who want to become successful salespeople. This approach definitely made the book more interesting to read right from the very beginning. Darren shares his best lessons in sales in the context of his own life experiences. We get it all directly from the source.
Before reading this book, it’s very important to remember that this is satire. There were some things that were so outrageous, I had to remind myself that that was the point. If you plan on reading this book, buckle up. It’s going to get crazy. I’d heard a lot about this book and it was even featured on the Read with Jenna book club. It was because of all this that I had such high expectations going in.
I wanted to love it more than I did. Though it was a pretty easy read and I finished it fairly quickly, it just didn’t resonate with me the way I hoped it would. I didn’t like Darren, not even a little bit, and I definitely didn’t like anyone else. The writing is good, which is a plus. The flow was good and the plot progressed at a good pace. I was pretty certain that I was going to give this a 3 or 3.5 out of 5 stars until almost the very end. There was a plot twist that took me by surprise and had me hanging onto the last few pages but, for most of the latter half, I was a bit bored with the story. This was disappointing because there were parts that I knew should’ve gotten a bigger reaction out of me but I just wasn’t interested.
The final plot twist definitely saved this book for me. It’s a decent read. I wouldn’t discourage others from reading it but I’m not sure it would be the first book I recommend either.
Darren is 22 and gliding through life with no clear sense of direction. He’s working at Starbucks, living in a brownstone in Bed-Stuy with his mom, and spending most of his free time with his girlfriend. That all changes after he successfully convinces Rhett Daniels, CEO of startup Sumwun, to deviate from his regular coffee order – and Rhett actually enjoys it. The rest, as they say, is history.
Instead of this being a book solely about Darren’s life and what he’s done, it’s framed as a book written by Darren himself to readers who want to become successful salespeople. This approach definitely made the book more interesting to read right from the very beginning. Darren shares his best lessons in sales in the context of his own life experiences. We get it all directly from the source.
Before reading this book, it’s very important to remember that this is satire. There were some things that were so outrageous, I had to remind myself that that was the point. If you plan on reading this book, buckle up. It’s going to get crazy. I’d heard a lot about this book and it was even featured on the Read with Jenna book club. It was because of all this that I had such high expectations going in.
I wanted to love it more than I did. Though it was a pretty easy read and I finished it fairly quickly, it just didn’t resonate with me the way I hoped it would. I didn’t like Darren, not even a little bit, and I definitely didn’t like anyone else. The writing is good, which is a plus. The flow was good and the plot progressed at a good pace. I was pretty certain that I was going to give this a 3 or 3.5 out of 5 stars until almost the very end. There was a plot twist that took me by surprise and had me hanging onto the last few pages but, for most of the latter half, I was a bit bored with the story. This was disappointing because there were parts that I knew should’ve gotten a bigger reaction out of me but I just wasn’t interested.
The final plot twist definitely saved this book for me. It’s a decent read. I wouldn’t discourage others from reading it but I’m not sure it would be the first book I recommend either.