Five Star Reviews: What the Hell Did I Just Read

Imagine a father who’s daughter is missing. He’s separated from his wife. He’s an ex-soldier who believes that “war is real life.” He’s violent and bitter and homophobic, but he’s also terrified, exhausted, and most of all annoyed that the only people who can track his daughter down are so very clearly a pair of idiots.

Imagine, in short, a real person — perhaps a person you don’t like — and see how close you are to him. Sympathize with him. That is, after all, what a novel is supposed to do. What the Hell Did I Just Read does that. Like, really well.

David Wong has done his homework. I’m always a fan of fiction that teaches you things. It’s why I like scifi and fantasy. What the Hell Did I Just Read, while it has less than no science content,* taught me LOADS about the lives of people in the economically depressed Midwest, where a building is more likely to turn into a vacant lot than the other way around. They aren’t bad people, and they aren’t good either. They’re just trying to live their lives and deal with their problems. Biker cultists, call-center drones, meth-addicts, off-the-grid survivalists, shady government agents — they’re all just people, and I’m glad I got a chance to know them.

Also there are amnesia-rays, giant hypno-grubs filled with universal evil, and NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS. OOOOOOH!

*It gets a lot wrong about insect anatomy.