Drew MagaryCritiques

'Shrooms. Lots and lots of 'shrooms. That's the only explanation...

I'm half-way through this and am giving up on it. It just seems to be a bunch of stuff that happens for no particular reason.

It is an interesting concept and I really enjoyed the first half of the book. But the second half just ended up being terribly depressing and I struggled to want to keep reading…thus the length of time it took be to complete the book. Worth reading but not a favorite.

I don't think I've ever felt more compelled to leave a review for a book. I read The Hike in three sittings over a couple of days because I was engaged, surprised, curious, frustrated, or a mix of those things at any given point.

The descent Ben experiences is gut-rending and near unbearable. The introduction of Crab was one of the best parts of the story because it brought humor to a dark beginning and then served to set up the climax of the entire story (which caught me completely off guard, which was nice). Seeing Ben struggle with the desire to get home and the desire to give up was exhausting for me as a reader and I think it helped me connect more to the plight.

It's a weird, weird story with lots of twists. Admittedly, the second third felt long and, for me, didn't contribute a whole lot to the arc of the story other than add a ton of time to Ben's trip, which was disappointing. But the time-loop reveal helped boost my interest and kept me reading closely.

Other people have mentioned the ending, and I have to agree, it's perfect. I had doubts about how Magary would wrap it up and it was done perfectly. I'm sure I'll be revisiting this book sometime in the future to read more closely and see what else I can pick up on a second time through.

An interesting book about the cure for aging and all the crap which will happen because of it.

Loved this book. It was creepy and vivid and at times felt like you were reading a warning for how the human race could go. Almost a cautionary tale.

Drew had a brain bleed during a work event. The first few chapters are quotes from friends and family about what they saw and felt while he was in a coma for 2 weeks. The rest is his memories of recovery. I knew Drew from his web posts before the event.

Like a Jack Reacher novel set in a Murakami world

Pretty interesting and narrated by the author! Some parallels with my accident: many people unexpectedly coming together to help while I was unconscious; wanting to get out of the hospital and back home states away; cognitive issues that improved over time; the craziness of how we pay for healthcare -- he too had good insurance and good support from his employer.

Have you ever read a book where after reading it, you wanted to kick yourself for not reading it sooner? That was The Hike by Drew Magary for me. This has been sitting on my shelf staring at me since it came out in August of 2016. I am so upset at myself for not reading it sooner, but boy was it a trip!

I will begin by stating this is a weird book involving talking crabs, giants, dog faced people, and one rule- stay on the path. If you go off the path you die instantly. Stay on the path and find the producer. It is a warped Wizard of Oz, but more of a journey of self discovery while fighting fleshless humans.

The wonderful thing is it begins so quickly- Ben has a family and is on his way to a conference in Pennsylvania. He decides to take a small hike behind the hotel and thus begins the book. You are on the hike within two pages.

Ben will walk on the path, guided halfway by a talking crab, will face a giant who wants to eat him, and will have to fight a big monster man at the end. The strange thing is, as he is walking, he has flashbacks to earlier moments in his life. For example, on the path he faces down a dog who bites his face where he receives a scar. Did that happen on the path or did it happen during his childhood where he imagined something else happened? The book is filled with moments like this as Ben begins to lose his grasp on his life the further along he walks. There is an ending that is a bit of a twist ending, but it was quite nice with lots of foreshadowing for it.

I did not want to put this book down. It isn't a deep book, but it is a book that knows itself in that it knows it is a strange trippy adventure, so it stays a strange trippy adventure. It doesn't pretend to be anything else. It is good sci fi.

I will state there is one moment in the book where a reveal happens that eliminated a sense of danger for Ben, at least for me. It is the same problem I have with prequel movies. If it is a prequel filled with danger, we know the ending, so the danger disappears. Something happens in the book that does the same thing. A reveal happens, but we know the ending, so the dangerous parts are no longer a threat.

I loved the endings both the big reveal and the small twist ending. They fit so well with the story and didn't seem out of place at all.

I loved this book and will probably re-read it in the future. It is one that you can go back to, not to find a deeper meaning, but just to have a bit of fun. Great summer read too.

I gave this one 4.5 stars.

Enjoyed this book. Different. Did remind me of "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. Definitely worth a read.

I don't know what to say about this book, except it disappointed me. It started with a bang, and fear, and horror. I expected it would be like a story by Stephen King. But then the story turned into one long nightmare. (For the main character.) No rhyme or reason, just trial and tribulation mixed with a dollop of absurdity and a dash of pointlessness. I stuck with the story, thinking sooner or later secrets would be revealed, one hint at a time, until it all made some kind of sense. But the closer I got to the end of the book without any resolution, the more worried I became. And then the story ended, and I scratched my head, and wondered why I faithfully followed the main character on his journey for so long.

The Night the Lights Went Out by Drew Magary tells the author’s story of experiencing a traumatic brain injury and the gradual process of recovery. After hosting the 2018 Deadspin Awards, he collapsed, breaking his skull and his brain. In this book, he brings readers along as his life is turned upside down.

Since the author was not conscious for several weeks following his injury, that part of the story is pulled together from colleagues, family members, and doctors. It was laid out with a few sentences at a time from one person, then another person, then another person, etc. It captures the franticness and confusion of the time, as people tried to piece together what had happened. I think that this is probably a very captivating way of telling a story that would be compelling for a lot of readers; however, my concentration is crap because of the effects of depression, so I found it hard to follow.

When the story reached the point that Magary was conscious and alert again, it shifted to first-person storytelling, which I found much easier to read. The author’s writing style is informal and candid, with plenty of humour and profanity thrown in. I learned some new lingo, too, including crack of ass (I’d heard butt crack of dawn, but I like crack of ass more), and butt-rock, which is apparently the genre that Hemorrhage by Fuel falls into. I also liked descriptions along the lines of “the requisite assless hospital gown: the one scientifically designed to rob you of your dignity.”

The brain injury, as well as the effects of later cochlear implant surgery, had significant sensory effects, impairing his hearing, smell, and taste. I thought the author did a great job of conveying how these deficits influenced the way he related to the world, including what it felt like to lose sensory memories and be unable to replace them.

As a result of the injury, the author joins the young old people club that many of us with chronic illness are already members of. He needed to use a walker, get a pillbox, and transition to being “a Hearing Aid Guy,” and wrote that, “In the span of less than two months, I had aged thirty years.” It’s interesting to hear the perspective of someone who experiences those changes suddenly compared to the slower adjustment in chronic illness.

The author is open about how hard it became to interact with the world with a brain that wasn’t working properly. He talked about being a “cranky old turd” and “an overly sensitive prick,” and realizing he needed to figure out a way to “get the fuck over myself.” He observed, “The more I recovered from my hemorrhage, the more pronounced my losses became to me.” It was one of the many points in the book that highlighted how much commonality there is in different kinds of wonky brain experiences.

The book also addresses the push/pull of wanting to be normal yet wanting people to accommodate his limitations. He grappled with acceptance, and realized stubbornness was serving as “a flimsy cover for outright denial.” When he found out that a coworker was also deaf in one ear, he discovered something a lot of us in the mental health blogging community have already learned: “It never hurts to know someone who’s been through your very specific brand of shit.”

Vulnerability was another theme that came up, including the need to get over his own mental block that made him reluctant to see a therapist. This book is certainly proof that he’s prepared to be vulnerable, even if it isn’t easy.

Culturally, I live in a very different world from the author, who is currently a columnist at Defector, which I hadn’t heard of before I read this book (nor had I heard of Deadspin). I think many of my cohabitants in the mental illness/chronic illness world will likely be able to relate to a lot of the issues that come up in this book. Where I think this book will really have value, though, is in bringing these kinds of issues and this vulnerability to audiences within the author’s cultural world.

I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

Wow, the author and those closest to him went through a ton. Once I started reading this book I almost didn't want to stop.

The author posted some of this story when the author was staff at Deadspin (with the same title). If you read that then some it will seem repeative but this book includes many details that aren't there.

The author is very lucky to be alive and realized that at some point. And his entire family is very lucky to be working for the company he did as they helped them (which is talked about in the book).

The book gives you a real view point of the american health care system as a patient which has insurance. The author didn't go into details with exact prices but does give some numbers.

There were times I was crying, laughing, or smiling when reading.

The book doesn't really feel complete as the author is still experiencing some of the things described in the book.

There are some things said in the book that can make an impact on anyone who has been in the hospital, or really anyone who may need to go to the hospital at some point in the future.

"You went for a CT scan because Megan pushed for it. You know, they tried to turn you away and send you home. Megan’s insistence that they examine you closer is what kept you alive."

If you’re not taken to surgery within four hours (...), then you have no chance of living.
My operation commenced at 6:16 a.m., over six hours after I collapsed."

"They took your sedation down further, and the nurse came in and said, If you can hear me, like, put up two fingers. You flipped them off, and we started crying and laughing. The nurse was like, That’s the happiest I’ve ever been being flipped off in my life. That to me was when things shifted."

"I started despising New York. I felt like it represented the worst thing that had ever happened in my life. I remember going to Dunkin’ Donuts, getting some coffee, and then always looking around at people. They’re fine and they have no idea what’s going on in my head. It would make me angry that they got to go on with their normal lives."

"This is part of you now. Part of your experience. You’ve got the scars to show it. It’s what’s going to make you Drew going forward."

"I also violated discharge orders (...), despite the fact that Sonia’s college friends had bought us a very generous Seamless gift card to help with meals, which remains the single most useful get-well present that I have ever received."

"That’s the American healthcare system for you: The only shit that’s free is shit you’d NEVER want"

"I wanted to be seen as “normal,” but I also wanted everyone to accommodate my predicament without my having to make a fuss about it."

"It’s amazing how much of modern medicine is still dependent on your being able to accurately describe what you’re feeling to a doctor."

Fantastic, fun story. I didn't know what to expect from it, and loved every minute of it.

In the memoir THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT, by Drew Magary, the author recounts a fall at a karaoke bar and the ensuing recovery that takes a toll on him, as well as his family and friends. As Magary maneuvers through insurance claims, mood swings, doctor's appointments and loads of successes and failures on the road of recovery, the reader is not only given an education on brain trauma and the magnitude of problems it creates throughout the body, but Magary also shows how by embracing his new self, he is neither better or worse, just different and the new Drew Magary is just as awesome and maybe more so now because his accident has forced him (like never before) to be thankful for every day he has.
Enlightened is the best way to describe my new understanding of brain injuries. Magary does an excellent job explaining everything he has to go through in a straight-forward and clear way. He often describes it medically, then compares to something commonplace to help further the understanding. The most amazing part of the book, though, was not written (albeit curated and edited) by Magary.. Magary was in a coma for a few weeks and then was slowly brought back to the world, so Magary enlists his family and friends to describe the night of the injury, the ensuing hospital stay and even reflecting on Magary's first days out of the coma. The varying perspectives really told a complete story. Magary's dry and often dark humor reminds the reader that even through the hardest parts of life, there is humor in everything.
It's clear in THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT that Drew Magary is a talented writer, but the true joy of the book is how the reader can witness his evolution as a human and the exercise of chronicling his journey was part of that evolution.
Thank you to Rodale/Harmony, Drew Magary, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Title: The Post Mortal

Author: Drew Magary

Date Read: 9/2021

Title: An account of the worst invention in history.

Story:
John Farrell. A witness to the price of immortality on a large scale. John’s journey begins when he obtains the “Cure for Aging” from a doctor operating from the black market. His path in life from that moment is caught up in the wake of world that suddenly no longer has to fear death from growing old. John chronicles his life over a 90 year period while never physically aging past 29. He sees the legalization of the drug, the impact that it has on society, and eventually the outcome of a world that no longer has to worry about the time they have in life to accomplish things.

Through it all John chronicles his encounters with other post mortals, those who think that the post mortal should not exist, and what the purpose is of a life that no longer has to end.

Thoughts:
This type of story reminds of books like World War Z and Robopocalypse. It falls somewhere in the middle as it is told only from one view point with various news reports and such filling the reader in on the state of the world that the main character inhabits. I did like the story though and I think the author did a pretty good job of describing how humanity would slowly go nuts when people no longer had an expiration date. Not to mention the fact that people are able to keep having children which leads to obvious problems. This is a pretty good book if you like the previous books mentioned or looking for a good “what if” story.

-m.a.c

There comes a clichèd point in most stories that deal with insanity where the nutjob asks the sane one who determines what sanity is, and maybe we've got the whole thing inside-out. I can say without hesitation that The Hike is batshit insane, but there's nonetheless a steadfast internal logic and heart that undergirds the craziness and connects all of the terrifying parts into a cohesive (if hallucinatory) whole.

It's rare to find a "grounded" fantasy that doesn't traffic overtly in "magic" with laws and rules (think Harrys Potter and Dresden), especially when combined with a rollicking adventure plot. Think of The Hike as a modern-day Odysseus, only with lot more LSD involved (in execution if not authorship). Eminently relatable main character, highly entertaining and endearing sidekicks, thoroughly enjoyable to read (unlike trying to slash your way through the thickets of this review), this is a fun book.

Loved the idea but wasn't crazy about the execution. I was more interested in the tangential stories (freezer babies, sheep flu) than I was about the main character. Strong start but a weak finish.

I was hoping this book would explore the issues around the premise of immortality with more depth and .... courage. The short attention span blog style chapters à la World War Z / Robopocalypse are not my cup of tea but despite the disappointments it was a quick and fun read.

The Postmortal is pitched as a darkly comic satire about a world where a cure for aging is invented and becomes widely available. However, if it is a satire, it is of a character most similar to Jonathan Swift's infamous essay advocating the cannibalization of Irish babies as a solution to poverty. If you happen to smile while reading The Postmortal, I imagine it will be a mirthless rictus intermingled with horror rather than anything signifying amusement. For my part, I don't think I laughed a single time reading the book in a mad rush over the past two days, but I don't count that as a mark against it. In fact, I found it both gripping and chilling in equal parts.

When the cure for aging, commonly known as "The Cure", is first invented, doctors are quick to point out that it isn't actually a cure for death, either by cancer or a more violent end, but that and the fact that it is initially banned by the government don't stop the main character, John Farrell, from spending seven thousand dollars at a black market clinic to get cured at the age of twenty nine. The narrative follows John over the next 60 years of his life, as he learns what it truly means to have eternal youth from both a personal and a global perspective.

An early scene where John takes his roommate back to the same clinic to get the cure sets the tone for the rest of the story, as unexpected tragedy decisively intrudes. John's life is forever changed in an instant, both by the looming spectres of death and destruction that seem to lurk just around the next corner for the rest of his life, and by the fleeting glimpse outside the clinic of a beautiful blonde woman he feels certain he will meet again some day. Magary does an excellent job of setting up a palpable sense of dread very early on in the book; we quickly learn to expect that nothing good will ever come to John without some greater evil following quickly behind.

The book alternates between John's journals/life recordings and excerpts of articles, interviews, and news headlines. We soon get a fuller picture of the way that the cure for aging affects the world around John in new and terrifying ways. One particularly chilling article recounts the story of a woman who gives the cure to her child so that the girl will stay a lovable, innocent baby forever. Magary also spends a good amount of time establishing the particularly catastrophic results of the cure in already over-populated China, and you get the sense that an entire novel could be set in that particular corner of the apocalypse.

The book jumps forward in time over the decades of John's artificially extended life, and we watch as his personal tragedies and disappointments all add together to transform him from a hopeful young lawyer to a cynical, hardened "End Specialist", a sort of bounty hunter who ekes out both euthanasia and questionable justice as forms of legalized population control. My only real criticism of the book is that John still felt like a bit of a cypher by the end of the story; Magary does a great job of portraying the personal hardships that he experiences over his long life, and we get little snapshots of emotion and grief, but John feels more like a window into the world rather than a fully lived-in protagonist.

The Postmortal is a brisk read even at just under 400 pages in print, and if I hadn't started reading it so late at night, I might have finished the entire thing in one sitting. The scenes of action peppered throughout the book are written in a clear, compelling style, and Magary has a knack for grabbing the reader just in time to show them how bad things can get. The brightly-colored cover and the author's history as a comedy writer are a bit misleading considering the searing bleakness of his debut, but if you can stomach it, The Postmortal is a incredibly thrilling piece of dystopian gallows humor, and I highly recommend it.

well, this was certainly written by Drew Magary.

Some people have classified this as science fiction, but I think it's more fantasy than sci-fi, and ultimately more light horror than fantasy.

What is this weirdness?? This story is parts adventure, parts fantasy, and ultimately I wonder if it's just a philosophical journey with symbolism. I still haven't worked it out, but it's an enjoyable read, if you want to learn more about a crab's opinions and how to handle a giant, this may be for you.

Weelll....I liked it. I wasn't sure about it at the beginning, but I am a fan of violence and swearing so I kept on. Ben really grew on me...I agreed with his older self that his younger self was annoying, though I can't say I'd have been any less annoying in his place! I was really neutral on him at the beginning but by the end I was rooting for him. The ending was nice too. I wasn't sure what it could look like in a way that would be satisfying but I liked it! So, in the end, worth it to read and would recommend if you're into weird shit and sarcastic talking crabs.