[b: So Say the Waiters|23006140|So Say the Waiters, Book 1 Episodes 1-5 (So Say the Waiters #1)|Justin Sirois|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1408705040s/23006140.jpg|21858021] has been on my radar for years, but only now have I tracked it down and read it. It's been such a long wait that I can honestly no longer recall just what it was about this book that initially got me to put it on my to be read pile - but whatever it was, I was happy to go into the book with no clear notion of what to expect. The ignorance allowed me to approach this book without preconceived notions, and man, was it a fun ride that I was in for.

The basic premise of his book, that there is an app called KidnApp that allows you to be kidnapped within 48 hours of submitting an application, is one that seems eerily plausible. It's just to the side of what currently exists, but the ramifications for people peering into your life, the lack of privacy, etc. all have a nice parallel in day to day life. The book reads like a more updated [b: Fight Club|5759|Fight Club|Chuck Palahniuk|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357128997s/5759.jpg|68729], but minus the misogyny. While the book has typos that need to be brushed up and the writing might do with a once-over the seeds of something great are all there - and the concept alone makes finishing the trilogy (?) worthwhile in my book.

I eagerly look forward to what's done next with this property. It'd make a killer television show, and I'm glad it's been optioned. The concept, the characters, the setting... it's all there and ready to be something great. ( )

Since there is no time-lag between installments, this review is for all three books in the So Say the Waiters 'trilogy'; a story that revolves around the world of consensual kidnapping.

Henry is a government employee whose job is suffering due to financial troubles resulting from his recent split with his fiancee. Dani is a tattooed rocker-chick bartender that participates in the KidnApp community. She is building her reputation as a 'waiter' - someone who waits for a kidnapper to grab them and fulfill the wishes they outlined in their app profile. Henry, (who starts off as an annoyingly whiny and weak-willed character), just happened to go to school with one of the co-founders of KidnApp and is invited to work for the company with an eye toward a management position. First, he will need to build his reputation as a Taker. His first take, coincidentally, happens to be Dani. However, someone else snags her first so Henry ends up rescuing her instead of taking her. From their first meeting, they build a partnership that will take them places neither one ever imagined.

While the story has some issues with pacing and continuity, the overall concept is cool and the implementation is eminently readable. For a self-published work, there are surprisingly few typos and there is adequate back-story to keep things interesting as the story progresses. In fact, Sirois imagines a pre-internet network of Takers & Waiters that operated using a much more... analog system of communicating. Seemingly far-fetched, it still plays pretty well within the scope of the narrative and leads directly to the development of the mobile app used by the KidnApp community. It also provides a workable background for the development of Haymaker, the antagonist character.

At the time I am writing this review, books 1 & 2 are free for Kindle while book 3 is $4.99. All three books, (which is really one book), for $5.00 is a fair price in my opinion. ( )

I waffled back and forth on whether I thought this book ranked three or four stars - what tipped me over the edge is that I stayed up until three in the morning to finish it (I get up at seven for work) because I couldn't put it down - that's always a solid recommendation in my book!

So Say the Waiters is a "big idea" novel - but it's a big idea that fits pretty easily into the world we are currently existing in. In that way, it's not really fantasy or sci fi - it's the exploration of the impact on certain lives of a new product, in a world otherwise unchanged. Sounds consumer-based and simple, right? Except that the new product is a mobile app, subscription based, where you sign up to be kidnapped. You set the parameters - how long you can be kidnapped for, what you do and don't want to happen, safewords - and then wait to be "Taken." This is a brilliant freaking idea. And Sirois does a marvellous job of exploring several possible relationships and responses to this technology - from users, the business itself, and in the world in general. The novel explores our fascination with submission, with escape, and the way a tiny thing can make subtle but significant cultural changes.

There are places I feel that the novel didn't live up to my high expectations - some of the characters themselves feel a bit rote, or unexplored - a little thin. But the plot and the gestalt ideas more than keep you going.

I'd recommend this to fans of Gibson and Murakami, though he writes like neither, and anyone intrigued by the possibilities. I'd also recommend it to anyone who lives in Baltimore or has within the past ten years - that's where the story is set and it has real local colour. ( )