I wanted to like this, but I mostly wound up not caring. It's half memoir, half about his friend who was killed when they were in college together, mostly centered on how pretentious and self absorbed Hsu was as a teen/young adult. He grew up in the 90s, very into zines and underground bands, and very judgmental of anyone with different tastes. He's obviously writing this as an adult with a lot more self awareness, but I did find it incredibly insufferable to listen to. He was an irritating kid (as many are, definitely me as well) and I just had a bad time with that aspect of the book.

Because of that, my interest in the memoir aspect of the story was pretty limited. I loved hearing about his family and especially his father. I really enjoyed when he talked about larger sociocultural issues, because he's quite insightful and has a lot to say, but I struggled.

In terms of his friend's death, he did a brilliant job capturing the emotion. It was heartbreaking, but in a quiet, real sort of way. Definitely had me tearing up even while listening to the audiobook, so I'd recommend it for that alone.

Overall it was fine. A lot of high points, but I was kind of disinterested.