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NOTE: as with all the others I’ve done in the Other Books series, I have not read Troll; this is just pure guesswork and a bit of fun that will hopefully persuade you [and myself] to check out his book.

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You don’t know much about the author except he writes a lot of thoughtful reviews on indie books and is clearly a troll otherwise how could he write a book called Troll.

Or maybe it’s his alter-ego?

They [Gitlin & Nuechterlein] do say there is something dark and/or pedantic in there that crawls out now and then without you kno-

Apparently, this is all in second person, which is risky as after ten pages or so the narrative can start to sound like an accusation. Or worse, a list of YOU axioms. But the review you just read on Kirkus promised it was written well, so you don’t need to worry about that.

The review also says that it’s about a youngish uni graduate who failed to escape his home town and now he’s both stuck and adrift, reading books he barely understands, wanking over sex clips from Shameless [including the William H Macy ones], dropping weed into bottles of Asahi, wanking over KOREAN MUM BIG TITS FUCKS SON IN KITCHEN WITH DAD SLEEPING NEARBY, smashing the half-drunk bottle, wanking over Solaris wife, Solaris mum, Solaris dad, setting the whole bottle mess on fire, calling his cat a nosy cunt etc.

You think, hmm, you know this guy, this protagonist, and at some point he’s gonna either become a troll online or dress up as a literal one and go full [Klaus] Kinski in the local supermarket. With a firearm, if he’s American, or a samurai sword, if he’s white-other.

Your gut says the first one, online troll, at least for most of the book, perhaps as a way to juxtapose the nasty shit he does in forums with the powerless null-face of his daily routine.

Here’s the blurb on the back:

‘Here you are, shopping for books online because honestly, who has the energy to go out anymore? There are so many people out there, all buying the same Oprah-stickered crap to take to the coffee shop and Instagram next to their PSLs and blueberry muffins with one perfect bite taken out (or pretend to read until their latest Tinder date shows up). It’s insufferable – the performance of it all – and everyone knows small presses are where the real literary vanguard is happening these days anyway. Well, maybe not everyone. But that’s kind of the point of your being here, isn’t it?

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