I have picked this book up several times after struggling to get past the first few chapters. I don’t like the writing style and nothing has grabbed me enough to persevere. I’m sure it will work for someone out there just not me I’m afraid.

I’m proud I finished this book- it felt like hacking through a jungle. The writing is bloated, overly descriptive, and reads like a 70s macho paperback. Cut a third of the words and nothing would be lost but filler.

Patrick, freshly dumped and isolated, joins a “Pickup Artist” program called The Bastard Club (yes, that’s really the name). He learns manipulative tactics just as he meets a woman he genuinely likes, then tanks the relationship by using those tricks on her.

There’s some talent here, but the story is flat, the Bastard Club scenes are tedious, and every character sounds the same. The dialogue reads like one person talking to themselves. Lillian, the love interest, is the only one who comes off likable, but mostly because Patrick puts her on a pedestal.

The romance had potential, but everything outside Patrick’s head feels underdeveloped. And the endless sections about his job were mind-numbing. It’s reaching for Bret Easton Ellis-style tangents but misses what made those work.

There’s a skilled writer buried here, but this book needs a ruthless edit and a stronger focus to actually be enjoyable.

im not sure if this book was written in the way it was to make the very point it was written about via the subject matter.
but i didn't get the lesson from it and dont think those that NEED this book would either. i imagine they might love it for the lessons given. where as those disgusted with this culture and the topics in this book might just like me feel disgusted and like it didn't hit home a lesson. im sorry to say that i felt like it wanted to make this book almost to sound like it was trying to be good, show the dark culture and make people stop it. but actually it felt like that was an excuse to write it. because it wanted to. because it agreed with it?
that is a very big assumption and reach but i didn't feel woman were supported or shouted for in this book and that is what i would wish for coming away from it. if this was a book to pour evil on the toxic culture i didn't get it. it just was a stark story of it. but maybe that is how we learn. by feeling horrid over this type of stuff and enough people take notice and stop it. but i cant hold my breathe there either.because the fact there was far to much truth to real life in this book is horrific. and the fact it "a thing" says all i need to know about people then doing something to stop it.
maybe i got it wrong. maybe it is just to close right now and if thats the case im sorry. but i wanted to come out of themes like this feeling supported and like it was a call out to protect woman. i ddnt. sorry.