>>24543362
>live reading the manuscript by chapter as it was being written was interesting (and how it differed from print final version)
>suck & fuck appropriate for slacking high school seniors at least
>nominal antagonist's mental illness portrayed believably
>hobo pet killing cult and gangstalking made surveillance menacing along with the True Detective possibility of having stumbled into something much larger
>extensive in-book soundtrack good for immersive reading:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2pEYm35mYlL6WKAEYh7jcH
Finally executed on Imperial Bedrooms and Smiley Face Killer surveillance being the real horror, and some of the darker parts of the short stories. Noir-ish setup supercedes Less Than Zero and Rules of Attraction affluent ingenue ennui. Material's personal and until this book suppressed, which lends itself to verisimilitude. The way his self-insert handles aspects of the investigation beggars belief at a couple critical junctures, but this could be handwaved for his complicity and/or simply being young and dumb (and drugged up). A more schizoid picrel by way of Brick (2005) and Stephen King.
