Review: Supermarket

Supermarket by Bobby Hall
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Holy hell where to begin with this one? I have seen a lot of other reviews start by prefacing that they are either "A HUGE logic fan!" or "Someone that does not know who Logic is." I see no reason to get creative here (Logic certainly didn't feel the need to do so during the creation of this novel), so I will commence my review in similar fashion.

Hi, I am Nicole and I am indifferent towards Logic, Bobby Hall, whatever he would prefer we call him. In fact, I honest to God could not be more indifferent towards a person if I tried. Do I know who he is? Sure, I am familiar with that suicide hotline song. Do I know anything else about this man? No. Well, at least I did not until I randomly pulled this bright orangey red novel off the shelf at my local Half Priced Books and decided the overtly minimalist cover art was intriguing enough to warrant consideration. Because, and I have said it before, I 100% judge a book by it's cover, and more accurately, it's spine. So, when I read the back of the book and discovered it was penned by Bobby Hall, aka Logic, it had zero impact on me. The premise sounded decent enough, so I'm in.

Unfortunately for me - and I'd venture to say unfortunately for Bobby, as well - upon reading this book, I learned that this young man (he's 3 years my junior, I can call him that) may have been living under a literary rock his whole life. Color me (not) shocked when I was able to pinpoint exactly what was going to happen to our main character 20 pages into this book and map out the sequence of upcoming events like a well traveled cartographer. How did I do it, you ask? Hmm, I'd have to assume my powers of fortune telling stem from the fact that I have read at least ONE other book during my time here on Earth.

I'll admit, I have pretty much tapped the well dry when it comes to psychological thrillers and storylines that explore the dark side of the human psyche, so I may have a leg up in this competition, but c'mon man. Even if you aren't an avid reader, you've likely seen the movie Fight Club. And if you have seen Fight Club? Well, congratulations! You have now also read Supermarket. Because this is some Finkle is Einhorn / Einhorn is Finkle shit (if you don't know the reference, kindly see yourself to the door). I didn't read the Author's Note so maybe he did - but Bobby needs to give credit to Chuck Palahniuk because he essentially took Fight Club, changed the setting to Walmart, and called it a debut novel.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy some aspects of this work of fanfiction, as I will refer to it, because I did. It was a quick, easy read (possibly because I've already read it under another title..?), and despite many others hating it, I didn't mind the pop culture references and extremely informal prose often used. I'm hypocritical, but not THAT hypocritical. I also felt the scenes that showcased the main character's battle with anxiety and depression and the toll mental illness takes on ones' identity rang very true. I wish the novel focused more on this than on trying to be a generic split personality mind bender, because I definitely think Bobby / Logic / wannabe-Chuck Palahniuk does have a genuine talent when it comes to making these disorders relatable and realistic, without being stigmatizing.

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