Posted by Hey Book Friends I finished reading “Black Buck” by Mateo Askaripour; let’s get into it ⬇️⬇️
Synopsis: Darren is content with his life as a manager at #Starbucks and living in Bed-Stuy (Brooklyn). He has a great relationship with his mom and girlfriend, Soraya, but one day opportunity knocks, and he answers.
By chance encounter, Darren impresses the CEO of a startup, Rhett, who offers the barista a job at his company. Everything seems to be on the up and up until it comes crashing down. Unexpected death, breakup, snow bunnies, you name it. But our lead character levels up and becomes the Head Dude In Charge.
This book is a straight-up dark comedy and wildly entertaining, but there are some issues. The main thing for me was the cringe-racist workplace interactions between Darren, nicknamed Buck, and a manager. The racism Black, Latinos, and Asian Americans are familiar with, yet our white counterparts deny. Subtle digs that make you want to run away. My other issue while reading was the plot twist: the first half of the book is entirely different from the second half (and I loved the first 🙁😒). The flow is halted abruptly.
Overall, an entertaining book if you don’t mind the changeup. Imagine “Insecure” had a baby with “The Social Network,” and the child’s godfather was Spike Lee. Make sense?
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5) why? It starts off strong, but falls flat.
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