
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Technically this would be 2.5 for me.
If I were asked what this book was, my best description would be "a white, middle-class, middle-aged man's mid-life crisis fantasy". The audience for this book is very much a man between 40 and 56 longing for the glory days of his life in the 1980's.
I came close to giving up on the book after chapter 5 because there was non stop 80's references in the everyday life of the character... TONS of conversations that were debates on best 80's films, video games and the like. There had been very little explanation about WHY the society was so entrenched and fascinated by the 1980's. I could by the almost dystopian society in 2044, but the obsession just didn't make sense. It wasn't until Chapter 6 when the main character is taking a history class that we actually really learn WHY. Seriously, that chapter needed to be much earlier in the book. Because once that chapter happened I understood and was able to accept the obsession and references. Before that, I was just "this is really stupid and makes no real sense".
Once we get into the actual "meat" of the story... the action, I mostly enjoyed it. I'm glad I read it, but I can't say it's something I'm ever going to return to. I'm not even overly interested in seeing the movie, definitely not in the theater. I can wait until RedBox, Netflix or Amazon Prime streaming to see it.
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