#Destroy All Cars

[teenageread]

Review: Destroy All Cars

Initial Thoughts:

This novel is delightful and hilarious if you get past Blake Nelson's sharp and witty writing. The novel is taken from the first-person perspective of James Hoff, a teenager who is against consumer America. Destroy All Cars, titled after James’s AP English class essay on how to save the environment we need to eliminate all cars, James is forced to live his hippy lifestyle in suburban America with peers who do not get it. Now I do not know why James got into AP English. If this is the best writing he can do, I do not believe he will be able to pass the course. I do believe he has good ideas about the environment, and as a fellow environmentalist, I do understand where James is coming from. However, purposely cutting holes into your shirt, and complaining about CONSUMER AMERICA (always in all caps), without actually trying to educate your peers is where I think James went wrong. This is why Nelson introduces Sadie, our activist girlie who James loves but also does not think she’s actually making a difference. This comparison of James knowing what's wrong but does not try to help, vs. Sadie who does not see the full picture but is still willing to try, made for an interesting dynamic, plus threw in a past relationship to add some drama. Unfortunately, this novel has a lot of whine and very little plot, This novel is very teenager that my mid-twenties could not handle, as I found James and Sadie to take themselves too seriously despite the fact that their doing low-scale good community work, and treating it like their at the white house. 

Characters:

James Hoff, a junior in high school and a hater of all things America. Sure he lives in society, has friends, goes to school, and consumes, but James hates it. Refusing to get a car or think about college, James writes mediocre essays in AP English, telling Mr. Cogwiller all the things going wrong in the world, and how there is nothing they can do. Pessimistic and a realist, I think James is the kind of person you either like or hate. He is whiny, he does think he's better than his peers and is content with watching the world burn and not doing anything about it. Thus I love how Nelson gave us Sadie and tied her to James for being his ex-girlfriend, and something James cares about. Sadie is a do-gooder, she tries her best, is involved in everything, and believes that she can make a difference. Both are strong characters who are self-assured in their abilities to do something (Sadie) or do nothing (James). They are well-developed enough characters, in the sense that Nelson wrote them as true teenagers - self-absorbed, no real idea of consequences, and kind of just going through life. Sadie wanting to feel her “freedom”, and James feeling like “no one understands him”, and more classic teenage ideologically that after a time does get boring. 

Plot and Writing:

The plot in this novel is not consistent, as there is really nothing going on, no big event, not one conversation that gives this novel its climax. Nelson truly just gave readers a glimpse into James’s life, and what he is going through in middle America. Divided into six parts, what I absolutely love is how fast-paced Nelson kept the novel with barely a page per chapter. Starting from January with the first essay on destroying all cars, Nelson takes readers into early June with James, with each day almost being like a diary entry from James as he just seems to talk to the readers about life, thoughts, and his conflicted feelings towards Sadie. Not that I would call this novel a romance, but that is a part of the plot, same with how James is an environmentalist, and this novel, I think, is just a realistic take on society in a pessimistic way.   

Conclusion: 

This novel is really about a teenager with no real plot. We have emo boy James Hoff who hates consumer America despite being part of it, wants to love Sadie but does not know how, and all in all just trying to survive and pass AP English. With its short chapters, I would recommend this novel, but not for readers to take it seriously and to just enjoy this silly ride. 

[quins-makeshift-menagerie]

mmmmmMMMMMMM

[little-mouse-adventures]

Currently thinking about Artemis's will in the code at the bottom of TLG and how it really kinda shows how strained his relationship with his dad still is. Everyone else gets something they're interested in or that Arty thinks they'd like (sound system for Juliet, frozen chicken for Mulch, ethical investments for his mother, etc) and yet for his father he leaves only bearer bonds, despite Artemis I trying to move away from a money-focused enterprise and lifestyle as of TEC. Not to mention it's Butler who would know how to disengage all the booby traps protecting said bearer bonds, further highlighting the difference in trust & familiarity Artemis has with everyone but his father.

[violent138]

Stephanie Brown definitely wears skin care face masks during really long stakeouts in the Batmobile. It's why out of all the Batkids she looks least like death warmed over in the mornings. Bruce entirely approves of such preemptive measures as someone who has also sunk a significant amount of time and energy fixing his face.

[ineed-to-sleep]

Jackie died. Jackie died and I'm devastated. I will never be the same person again

[avocado62524]

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

thinking about 4halo again and dying

they just. they used to be so sweet together. and then the election arc managed to genuinely turn them against each other (and bad is still affected by being caged in the museum) and i would NOT have been surprised if a rebellion had started within the next few weeks after their last fight and. they used to be friends and then they almost destroyed each other

and then the eggs went missing

and there are so many parallels between them, but one of the biggest parallels is how they're both protectors. they both protected the eggs (and, when he became president, forever extended that protection to the other islanders) but the eggs went missing and they had to put all of that aside. Forever was quicker to put it down than Bad was (it felt like only a very temporary truce, from Bad's end), but they put their problems on hold, because their eggs. were gone.

and another parallel. the destruction. both of them with their plans to cause ruin because then, maybe, theyll get their kids back. bad caused most of the grieving arc damage directly, and got aypierre and antoine to help him. he dug holes in the ground. he placed mines everywhere and leapt into them. he started the lavacasting process of the fed building (and was interrupted by admins, so he stopped, but philza and fit were still right to laugh at him lmaoo). he drilled a hole through the side of the federation office from a huge distance away. he has chosen to hurt his friends and himself to get the eggs back. whatever the cost.

forever destroyed the island. or he planned to destroy the island. or he was interrupted just before he destroyed the island or or or. I don't know. but it was big, and it was bad. bad enough that the feds had to step in and forcefully drug him, and kickstart the happy pills arc.

and the happy pills arc..... oughghghgh as fucking awful as it was for their characters to experience i genuinely truly think that it saved them from each other. when he was first told about forever being fucked up bad was still in the "i need to kick his butt" mindset, and was all ready for an excuse to kill forever. and then he saw forever. and the first proposal happened. and bad was angry and he was sad and upset and he was careful. forever tried to kill him. bad decided to save him. forever kept trying to marry him. forever kept taking the pills. forever was so scared of his own anger and all of the damage he could and would have caused to his family that he kept taking drugs that kept him so out of his mind he hallucinated his son was just sleeping safely at his house.

and they both tried to kill each other. and they both failed.

and bad showed phil and cellbit (and tubbo) the item scanner that dapper discovered, which could destroy him, because nothing else was working. because they needed to save forever. because bad was reminded by then that forever was a victim of the federation instead of just a mouthpiece for it. and then when forever woke up he saw bad, suffering, and so excited to see him awake.

and now they're here on opposite sides again with forever projecting his protection urges onto the fed worker in bad's basement and bad frustrated that he isn't being believed and his evil plans of giving ron lemons apology brownies is being interrupted and. look at them. soft "i hate you" and the appreciation room and bad's quiet heartbreak when he learned about forever being missing and the "i miss you" book bad got mad at because it asked him not to torture fed workers. does anyone hear me im so ill about them. do you understand they care about each other so much and the happy pills arc reminded them of that. forever realized bad is colourblind and bad assumed forever was poisoning him and then forever helped bad cheat on another colourblindness test and forever was giving bad flowers and bad was accepting them and accepted that he was colourblind despite his previously constant denial and! i don't know if im being comprehensible and i dont really care i will be honest i just need you to know i am frothing at the mouth like a rabid little beast. they are a TRAGEDY of miscommunication and external pressure but they love so so much. platonic or romantic or qpp they CARE and it tears me to shreds

[singsweetmelodies]

yes, i haven't been online for like a week (2 weeks?! idfk) but also yes, i really am coming back online exclusively to hate on carlos sainz. because, man, FUCK THAT BITCH, this is a charles blog before everyone else <3

[yeetlegay]

Peace and love to Rain’s mom, she’s a peach for sure, but what in the bedazzled fuck was she thinking when she gave her son, chairman of the whoopsie daisy committee, a BRAND NEW BMW????

[axeofsuns]

Some of you don't realize just how bad the after math of a storm can be.

Obviously people lose houses. But even if you don't shit can be BAD

Someone told me to stop complaining because of 'a few hours of no power' because I said my house was fine

It Will be at least a WEEK of no power for my whole town, and at the moment there's no gas or phone signal

And yeah some people have stoves that don't need power and keep well stocked pantries of things that don't need refrigerating and will get just slightly inconvenienced.

And some people don't even have WATER without power. Some people rely on Well Water, which needs power.

Some people's houses are in tact but let's not forget that some areas that got hit are still in the 90s and 100s (f), it can be DANGEROUS

Some people had all their food in freezers and fridges that's now gone, and no way to cook it In time because they have an electric stove

And remember how I said no gas? They can't just drive to a restaurant with a generator that's open,

And I don't live in an area that got hit by the actual hurricane, just offshoot storms.

And some people aren't getting paid even though their work was closed anyway.

I'm currently hotel hopping out of town because our house is so hot my sister was showing signs of heat exhaustion (heatstroke lite, which can become Heatstroke Heatstroke)

Some people in my town didn't think to fill up on gas before hand, or their cars were ruined by falling trees, or didn't Have One in the first place, there's no phone signal, what if there's an emergency, like Heat Stroke in the 90-100f weather

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

Faralda, teaching Onmund to drive: Okay, you're driving and Brelyna and J'Zargo walk into the road. Quick, what do you hit?

Onmund: Oh, definitely J'Zargo. I could never hurt Brelyna.

Faralda, massaging her temples: The brakes. You hit the brakes.

[forfuckssakejim]

Going on 14 hours without power from the storms last night.

[mudwerks]

(via Driver Steals Truck Attempting To Tow His Pickup And Smashes Everything In His Path)

[cchickki]

well hurricane milton upgraded to a category 5

it was nice knowing you all 🥲

jk jk…maybe

[molliemoo3]

Thank fuck they all seem OK, because look at the state of his car

[aisling-saoirse]

Abandoned Vehicles dumped from a Ford Plant, Hewitt, NJ - March 8th 2024