Tags
Contemporary Fiction, Self-harm, Sexual Situation, Substance Abuse, Suicidal Thoughts, Technology, YA Fiction
Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: April 3rd, 2018
368 Pages
Synopsis: William Mackler is about to go on the road trip of a lifetime. After winning a contest—and nearly dying in the process—he becomes the proud owner of Autonomous, a driverless car that knows where you want to go before you do. #Worthit! To sweeten the deal he gets to pick three friends to go with him on a cross-country trip to see their favorite band. For William, a reckless adrenaline junkie, this is the perfect last hurrah before he and his friends go their separate ways after graduation. But Autonomous is more than just a car without a steering wheel. It’s capable of downloading all of the passengers’ digital history—from the good, to the bad, to the humiliating. The information is customized into an itinerary that will expose a few well-kept secrets, but it will also force William to face some inner demons of his own. Think you know Autonomous? The real question is, how much does Autonomous know about you?
“The real question is, how much does Autonomous know about you?” Noooo. The real question is, how do I get back the seven hours I wasted on this? I was expecting snarky teenage humor with maybe a lighter shade of Stephen King’s Christine mixed in. Instead, Autonomous is a red hot mess that doesn’t seem to know what exactly it wants to be.
Disney is marketing this to 14-year-olds and up, and I absolutely disagree with them on this. Even if I had liked this, there is no way I’d recommend this to anyone under the age of sixteen for the following reasons:
1. There is so much swearing in this that it doesn’t even come across as realistic. Almost every sentence has some sort of curse word in it and this made the dialogue extremely awkward.
2. Sexual scenes which include one, where two of the characters decide they want to lose their virginity to each other. Granted these teens have graduated from high school, but there is no way I’d want anyone under the age of sixteen reading this.
3. Drinking and drug use is prevalent throughout the story. There are drinking games like “Never Have I Ever”, and one drunken scene involving a water tower which had me horrified. The character who’s addicted to cocaine defends himself by saying Sherlock Holmes used it. Just…ugh. There’s also a little side trip to a meth lab because of the bad decisions of a different character, which I just did not understand at all.
4. The contemplation of suicide, and self-harm are brought up but never discussed in a responsible way, and worse, there’s no resolution.
The only thing I liked in this book was the car, “Otto”, who I felt actually felt sorry for in the end. There are too many social issues thrown in together during this road trip and then adding in a cautionary tale of social media and our over-reliance on it, is a bridge too far.
When I first requested Autonomous the release date was set for 11/14/17. It’s now been moved up to April 2018, for reasons unknown. I’m hoping it’s so the author can do some much needed editing and rewriting. While I liked the premise, this book in the end, was a huge letdown. This is where I usually say, make sure you check out other reviews, but to be honest, there are very few positive ones out there. It’ll be interesting to see now that the book has a new publishing date, if once it’s released, the reviews improve. As of right now though, I would not recommend this to anyone, especially teens.
renxkyoko said:
FYI, I clicked to visit your site, but the whole post is totally covered with FCC’s ad , and it wouldn’t allow me to read the post. So here I am.
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beetleypete said:
You can get rid of that Ad by clicking the cross on the top-right corner. Then the post appears when it’s gone.
Best wishes, Pete.
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renxkyoko said:
Maybe it’s my computer but there was no X to click. The ad was just too big . Anyway, I got to read the post on the pre-view, and commented there. I do prefer to read the post on the site.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I’m glad you got to read it anyway.😊
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
If you click the tiny x in the right hand corner it disappears.
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renxkyoko said:
There was no x I could see. The Ad covered the entire monitor. ^__^ FCC ads are smaller, except this one.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I only have an iPad and a Kindle Fire, and the message only covers a portion of my blog when it pops up and it always has that x, so I don’t know what happened. It’s extremely annoying though.😡
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beetleypete said:
Seeing 1 star from you, and the name Disney, is more than enough to completely put me off, Kim. Thanks for saving those seven hours of my life. I don’t have enough of them left to waste any! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
This was bloody horrible Pete! 😡
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fragglerocking said:
Sounds dreadful!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
One of the worst I’ve read this year. I’m really surprised at Disney.😕
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raistlin0903 said:
I had to laugh at this because yesterday I of course wrote my Christine review and it was the first thing I had to think about when I read this review (the book that is, not my review lol 😂). But wow…this is certainly one I am going to avoid. Sorry you had to suffer through this for reading it 😢
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I was thinking of you when I wrote this Michel.😏
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fanofthefiction said:
How sad is it that a book with sex, drug abuse, excessive bad language, and obvious self-harm would be rated for ages 14 and up! If a movie had all these elements, wouldn’t it be rated R?
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
It absolutely would be rated R!
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Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆ said:
I agree Becca! Completely ridiculous!!!😨😱😱
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Grrr.😡
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Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆ said:
Wow Kim a 1 star rating from you is pretty bad! I’m surprised you didn’t DNF this book! That really bothers me they would market a book with heavy drug use and that much swearing for a 14 year old! I’m all about freedom to read and all that bullshit but I don’t want my children to think that this behavior is normal and even to bring Sherlock in it! Just ABSOLUTELY absurd! I hate you wasted 7 hours on this and it had to be a hard read for it to take so long for you and as a child’s librarian you would know what children should read! Your professional and personal advice means a lot to me and by your description I would never buy this more children or myself. So sorry you had to endure this!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I think the fact that it’s being published by Disney, made it even worse Dani. I mean marketing this to 14 year old? What are they thinking?😡
And thank you for your kind comments Dani. I always try to be honest.😙
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Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆ said:
That does make it so much worse Kim! Disney should be ashamed! I love your honest opinions! I’m surprised you didn’t DNF this one! I can’t get over the content and a 14 year old! Usually Disney is way more careful with this!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I know! Right?! The only reason why I plowed through this was partly because I kept hoping it would get better, and also because it was an eARC and I always try to finish those.
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Dani☆Touch My Spine Book Reviews☆ said:
I completely understand that. That sucks that none of it was good besides the car you felt sorry for. 😕
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Poor, poor Otto!😰
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Reads & Reels said:
Ouch 1 star! I’ll stay clear thanks lol
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Please, please do!
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theorangutanlibrarian said:
Oh dear! I rarely see this from you- must be bad!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I HATE giving bad reviews!😒
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theorangutanlibrarian said:
Ahh don’t worry- sometimes it’s just necessary
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
😰
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thesarahdoughty said:
Good lord. I’ll avoid this one.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Please spare yourself Sarah!
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Lashaan (Bookidote) said:
This sounds absolutely awful. So sorry you had to waste your time on this. Makes me wonder if you ever DNF books, and what made you go all the way with this one? All the points you make really makes me curious on how it’s even possible that it MIGHT get published at all… Just… How… Thanks for sharing, Kim. Much needed review for the community. Your suffering will not be in vain. 😉
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Lashaan! I’d hate to have suffered for nothing!😏
As far as not finishing books, with eARCS I try to stick with them even when I’m really disliking one. I feel a responsibility to the author and the publisher. I’ve been doing this for three years now and I can only think of one eARC I just couldn’t make it to the end. It was a YA book called My Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend. I know, I know! In my defense I thought it was going to be a satirical look at teen life and high school norms. It was deeply disturbing, gave me the creeps, and was just awful! And then when I started reading others’reviews on Goodreads, I stumbled across this thread devoted to dinosaur erotica! I’m telling you, I’m scarred for life!🤦🏻♀️
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Lashaan (Bookidote) said:
Hahaahahahahahahahahahh It’s almost midnight 11pm here and you made me laugh out loud!@21 I actually know about that book because it was the first physical ARC I was presented and kindly refused!!! Your attempt to defend your decision to try it out is still making me laugh. Oh my, what a surprise it must have been!!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Oops! Sorry Lashaan!😁 You obviously had much better sense than I did. I think I made it to about 40% of the book before realizing that yes, it was truly atrocious and it wasn’t going to get any better. I don’t think I’ll EVER forget it!
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Carrie said:
Whew! Dodged a bullet with this one it seems. I remember looking at it and thinking that sounds unique, could be interesting. Then I saw it was Disney and they had just rejected another one so I passed it by. I’d have so many problems with this from reading your review.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
OMG Carrie! This was just awful! I’m really shocked that the editor didn’t see anything wrong with the writing, and that the Disney marketing team didn’t have any problems aiming this for 14-year-olds! 😒
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Carrie said:
With everything combined that you mention I don’t want to read that let alone had it over to a child. And the thing that gets me most is there isn’t a hint of it being that bad in the description so I’m sure if it hits the market plenty of people will think like I did that hey this sounds unique and pick it up. SMH
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Exactly! A parent would have to read several chapters in before realizing, that their little Suzy or Johnny might not be ready for it.
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Carrie said:
And who is really going to do that with every book a preteen picks up? So what would you do as a parent? My guess would be see the Disney label and think this can’t be bad.
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Exactly!😒😠
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mlbradford said:
To improve my writing, I studied articles assessing where badly-crafted novels went wrong, and felt grateful for not having to wade thro them myself
I’m sorry that u had such a turgid time w this – u were subjected to too many negative elements
Th editor approved this – really?
Th publisher approved this – really?
Too many people in this business have lost th plot…
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Brad. What really ticks me off is that Disney is marketing this to teens as young as 14! There is no way in Hell anyone that young should be reading this.😠
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mlbradford said:
Disney?!
Just when I thot they were doing wonders w Star Wars and Marvel
This book is a blemish that not only they could do without, but th reading public at large it seems
If ever there needed to b a Banned Book, this is it
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I know! Right?! It’ll be interesting to see if it actually does get published in April or if the date just keeps being pushed up only to eventually disappear. I’ve seen that happen before.
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mlbradford said:
Right!!
W th byhookorbybook stamp of DISapproval it should not get far!
heh heh heh…
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Hmph!😏
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Arachnid Weaver said:
You felt sorry for the car?
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
I did! It’s hard to explain, but it developed its own personality and the ending was not a happy one for poor Otto. The only reason why I gave it even 1 star was because of Otto.😞
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Jazz said:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 1 star review from you so I was intrigued to read this review.
If it was being self-published, I could perhaps understand the author’s confusion over which age to market this book towards, but I think when it’s gone through a publishing house – with editors and what not – there’s no excuse. I’m not an editor, but even I can tell that those themes are NOT suitable for a 14 year old! Especially so many hard hitting themes in the same book!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Exactly Jazz. I blame the Disney marketing department more than the author. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens now that the publishing date has been moved up.
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vinnieh said:
Thanks for the warning, Kim. Guess this was in need of a fixer upper?
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
It really needs a rewrite.😒
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vinnieh said:
Definitely sounds like it.
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Jen said:
Oh my gosh LOL! This does sound like a hot mess. Cussing, meth labs, drunken scenes and losing ones virginity is just wow. I’m so sorry you lost 7 hours of your life to this and here’s hoping the next book you picked up was beyond fabulous!!
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By Hook Or By Book ~ Book Reviews, News, & Other Stuff said:
Thanks Jen. This was definitely one of my biggest disappointments book-wise this year.😒
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