There has been a paradigm shift in recent years that consists of more and more people walking away from the modern workforce.
And although I am completely in favor of this shift, and have even discussed it in some of my most recent articles, there are those who will undoubtedly point towards this shift as the inevitable end of capitalism.
Not only that, but they will no doubt cheer it on, as capitalism as we know it is demolished like a condemned building. But is that actually good or bad?
First of all, what is capitalism?
Capitalism as I understand it, is the means by which to embark on certain ventures and opportunities based on how much capital you have, hence the name, capitalism.
This is in stark contrast to the so-called old world, where the lot of one’s birth determined how far you were able to climb the social hierarchy.
In that world, a feudal serf marrying into royalty was most unheard of, as only aristocrats within the nobility could do that.
Then when Europeans came to America, capitalism got thrown around a lot, as if to suggest that capitalism is akin to equality.
But what ended up happening instead, was that capitalism ended up creating a new social hierarchy in the so-called new world, where White men had most of the capital, while minorities (African-Americans, jews, poor immigrants, etc.) became a part of “The Help,” otherwise called the workforce.
Then there came the divide of white-collar versus blue-collar jobs, where the blue-collar made up the vast majority of the American workforce, (factory assembly-lines, railroad builders, mail delivery, construction, etc.).
Sidebar: Poor migrants were called immigrants, while wealthy migrants were called expatriates.
In 2026, the families who ended up with a vast majority of the capital are those who built their wealth very early in American history, otherwise called “old money.” Think, J.P. Morgan, J.D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, etc. Titans of Industry. Pioneers of Commerce.
You get the idea.
Those wealthy families are the ones who call the shots, and control much of your daily reality. And undoubtedly, they are some of the ones who anti-corporates love to hate like housewives to an operatic soap villain.
When they talk about “evil capitalism squeezing me dry,” they are talking about traditional capitalism.
But what they haven’t considered is that there are many forms of capitalism.
Well, really only two kinds.
Traditional capitalism, which created a new form of hierarchy that put White men at the top. And now, the newer form of capitalism that may be replacing it.
It’s true that America is the free-market of the world. But people often confuse “Free Market” with “Capitalism.”
Capitalism by itself doesn’t necessarily imply that freedom to buy and sell anything you want is also freedom for all. Remember, capitalism is really just a freedom of opportunities based on capital.
It’s just that traditional capitalism created a hierarchy which made certain that only a few families in the world had any real capital.
What the American free market actually does is to allow anyone regardless of socio-economic background, or neuro-diversity, to eke out a sustainable living for themselves, based on what they have, and how well they market it to the world.
True resilience is in constantly showing up for life. If one thing doesn’t work, try something else.
But only the pursuit is guaranteed, not the happiness.
Yet and still, there has never been a time such as now, where one’s dream can be realized with the simple click of a button.
It doesn’t guarantee success, it only makes it easier.
The rest is up to you.
So with all things considered, capitalism isn’t ending, it’s evolving, and it’s evolving into something that might have the power to eventually shield techno-capitalists from any kind of “gatekeeping” that traditional capitalism was notorious for in years gone by.
Traditional capitalism is the only form of capitalism that truly needs to end, so that the free market can now truly live up to its name.
This is particularly good when you consider that corporate America was going to continue squeezing neuro-divergents in the workplace, especially those whose neurodivergence intersects with race and gender, until they’d found a way to build a brand label they can somehow profit off.
The only question that remains is whether the newly liberated, once they finally gain power, will remain liberators, or become the very gatekeepers that kept them hungry in the first place.
I ask you to reflect upon my words today, on the birthday of our president, and as the 250th anniversary of American independence draws near.
Buckinchere’s Wager, Part II — The dichotomy of Love and Respect
B. Lorenzo Buckinchere
June 7, 2026
A couple of weeks ago, I’d introduced the Buckinchere wager, where I challenged you all to choose between power and comfort.
Now, I am issuing a challenge to all who are fortunate enough to come across this article to choose between love and respect.
But what’s the difference?
There are some people who say that they love you, yet they cause you so much abuse and disrespect, that it doesn’t seem likely that they actually love you. “How could they love someone whom they treat that way?” you’re probably wondering.
But the irony of that question is that in their own selfish, shallow way, they actually do love you.
They just don’t respect you!
Now here’s the thing about respect. Most people only respect their fear of consequences. So if you don’t impose some stringent consequences on them whenever they mistreat you, they may love you, but will never respect you.
Now, it is up to you to decide which is more important to you. Love or respect.
For example, I was recently contacted by a toxic ex, and I told a friend about her. He said, “well maybe she likes you, bro.”
I was offended and seriously taken aback. I looked at him like, “what makes you think I give a damn about being liked when I don’t even care about being loved?”
But of course, everybody wants to be liked to some extent.
I, for instance, want you to like this article, and leave a comment that I will like in turn. But like is such a casual, dismissive sort of thing, similar to nice.
When someone is being “nice” and telling you how much they “like” you, that is a form of breadcrumbing compared to being kind and loving someone. Or more, much more than that, being decent and respecting someone.
And when it comes to human interaction, I care more about my dignity and peace of mind than being liked.
So whoever doesn’t respect my dignity can go fuck themselves!
Some of us have self-respect over here, and we kinda wanna keep it that way.
Anyone who is willing to use a thing as beautiful as love as a weapon to gain undeserved access to others, only to turn around and take advantage of them, is at best a narcissist, and at worst, a straight-up sadist.
That is not the kind of love you need!
Have enough self-respect to not need any external love or validation from anyone, genuine or not. It will protect you from anyone who wants to use selective love as a weapon of manipulation.
On the other hand, having your walls up that high will freeze out any prospect for a genuine connection. But that is the price to pay for your dignity and self-respect.
Whether or not you actually want to pay that high a price is up to you, and you alone. But it doesn’t change the fact that that is the price of admission to your dignity.
The good news is that this kind of sacrifice is a literal field day for introverts.
It’s the extraverts I’m worried about.
Sike!
But seriously, trust me on the fact that self-respect will literally protect you from trespassers.
It’s the end of the month, and time once again for our monthly review series. Our muse for the month of May is The Other Side of Nothing. But before we begin, here’s a disclaimer.
Disclaimer:
The following review contains spoilers, and is subject to interpretations that may not express the perspectives or intentions of the author. Please read the book in its entirety before reading this, or any other reviews on the topic.
Trigger Warning:
Please be forewarned, the following review discusses themes of illness, death, and self-harm. Reader’s discretion is advised.
Now without further ado, let’s begin.
Overview:
The Other Side of Nothing is a 2024 American novel, written by Anastasia Zadeik, and published by “She Writes Press.” The Other Side of Nothing is Zadeik’s second novel after Blurred Fates, and is centered around a young woman (Julia) who runs away with Sam, her young lover whom she met at a mental hospital while also coming to terms with her father’s untimely death.
Plot:
In 2016, Julia Reeves checked herself into New York’s Brookfield Sanitarium the day after her 18th birthday. She had previously related suicidal urges to a psychiatrist named Dr. Stein, following the death of her father, Paul.
During her stay at Brookfield, Julia becomes acquainted with some of her new neighbors while also being counselled by a therapist named Tanya. Julia has taken quite a liking towards Tanya, and thinks Tanya’s marshmallow voice is absolutely adorable.
Being half-Black, Julia is often judged harshly by her mother’s side of the family. Her grandmother, Frances, in particular, seems to think that Julia is just going through a teenage phase for the sake of attention. Julia’s cousins appear spoiled and overprivileged on the surface. But their mother, Lillly, is more supportive of Julia and her mother, Laura.
Laura visits her daughter at Brookfield as often as she can. Their relationship had become strained ever since Paul died. But Laura tries to be supportive of Julia’s life choices, such as her decision to grow dreadlocks, and befriend a girl named Cheyenne, who encourages her behavior.
Then there’s something else about Julia that’s very noteworthy. She has an overactive imagination, and she likes to draw. With that said, it’s not long before Julia meets a young photographer named Sam. Sam sketches a portrait of Julia’s face, and they quickly become smitten with each other.
One day during visiting hours, Julia and Laura encounter a woman who had come to visit Sam. The woman calls him Max, and a confused Julia suddenly becomes jealous and runs away.
Sam later explains to Julia that the woman who visited him was actually his mother, Arabella, and that his full name is actually Maximilian Samuel Lorenzo, the third, but he likes being called by his middle name.
He further tells Julia that his father, Max, wants to keep Sam from his grandfather’s inheritance, and that placing him at Brookfield was all part of a ruse to weaken Sam’s efforts against Max. Then they plot to run away together.
By the time Laura and Arabella discover that their children are missing from the sanitarium, Sam had already managed to jack his old man’s ride from the parking garage using their name, and take Julia out of the city.
Arabella’s first instinct was to call her wealthy ex-husband, but he was away in Paris with his new girlfriend, and was being rather neglectful towards Sam and Arabella.
As such, the two mothers form an unlikely alliance, and travel across the United States in an attempt to track down their mentally unstable children before they manage to get into any trouble.
Throughout their journey, they share details of their children’s characters as well as their interests that may offer a clue as to where they’re planning to go. Arabella is rather apprehensive about telling Laura of Sam’s previous girlfriends. Apparently, this is not his first rodeo.
Arabella revises Julia’s bucket list, and she notices some rather interesting items, such as aspirations to go to college, as well as foods she hadn’t tried, etc. During this time, Julia leaves a paper trail by borrowing the cell phones of hotel guests to call her mother, but she doesn't say much.
They decide to stop in Chicago first. They visit the ferris wheel because her father once took her there, but Julia had acrophobia, meaning she is afraid of heights. Laura and Arabella’s instincts were correct, because that’s exactly where Sam took Julia. Only, her acrophobia never really went away.
Disappointed, Sam and Julia continue their journey by car while Arabella and Laura track them by air, hoping to get there first. Their next guess was that Sam probably took Julia to the Georgia O’Keefe museum in Santa Fe.
Only this time, their instincts were dead wrong. Not because Sam didn’t plan to take Julia there, but because Sam’s ultimate destination was Half Dome in Yosemite Park, and he was running on a tight schedule.
You see, Julia had told Sam about a once-in-a-lifetime Beaver moon that was coming up in a few days. And being a photographer, Sam wanted to take a picture of the Beaver moon from Half Dome, to replicate the 1927 photograph that was originally taken by his muse, Ansel Adams.
Obsessed with his pursuit of the perfect photo, Sam drove for days without eating or properly sleeping. Julia started to worry, and asked Sam why he never took any of the psych meds that were prescribed for him at Brookfield.
This was a difficult question for Sam, but he eventually answered by saying that they would dull the intensity of his life experience, and that he’d rather live out louder no matter how painful, or intense his experience might become, a reference to Camus whom they had been reading the entire ride. Sam really loved The Myth of Sisyphus.
By the time they finally make it to Yosemite National Park, Sam is sleep deprived and disoriented. Agitated, he easily loses his patience with Julia, and goes on ahead of her, memorizing the trail towards the Half Dome rock.
Separated from Sam, Julia borrows the cell phone of hikers at the park and calls her mother, telling her where they are. But by the time they are finally reunited, Maximilian Samuel Lorenzo had already fallen over to the other side of nothing.
Review:
This novel challenges the reader to contemplate the curse of creativity, and to weigh the odds of living intensely and authentically, versus seeking treatment for depression.
It turns out that Julia was not the only one battling suicidal urges, but also Sam. Which would explain why they resonated so well with each other in the first place.
The Other Side of Nothing is a sobering read that may cause the reader to reflect on the cost of pursuit, and whether the price is worth paying. I give this one a four out of five beaver moon monoliths, and I’ll see you on the next one.
The suggestion of Blaise Pascal that it’s better to suffer for a lifetime here on earth, then finding out that there is no god, than it is to live for yourself here on earth, only to die and find out that there really is a god.
Well, have you ever heard of Buckinchere’s wager?
Of course not. Because this is my first time writing it. Well today you’ll learn exactly what that is, and why it’s important.
Do you know what makes a normie a normie?
His addiction to ease and comfort. He doesn’t like to think, and he hates anybody who is curious and asks questions. He just likes things to run predictably.
Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to maintain a smooth operation. But the normie wants to maintain predictability much to the detriment of progress.
The truth is that life is not linear. It can get messy sometimes, especially for those who are daring enough to want more than what the lot of their birth dictates, and actually go after it.
You can say you want something, and not pursue it. But if you have the audacity to actually pursue it, you will learn really fast that society doesn’t like confident go-getters. Because to do so will be you holding up the mirror to Caliban’s hideous deformities, “the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the glass.”
It’s even worse if you self-validate and go after your dreams anyway. Then they’ll really try to sabotage your plans as punishment for you not giving them the power to gatekeep your destiny.
What I’ve just described is the dichotomy of power versus comfort. The normie is not happy, but he is comfortable with mediocrity and predictability. While the neurodivergent on the other hand, is willing to brave the deep, dark waters in search of lasting power and freedom.
As such, the normie will commute through rush-hour just to get to a wretched, detestable job, just so he can pay the bills. Meanwhile, he’s getting no fulfillment out of his occupation. Plus, he is being underpaid and disrespected.
The neurodivergent on the other hand, though doubtful, is still brave enough to pursue his creative endeavors until they start paying off. The carpenter may not get paid much, but he receives a sense of fulfillment whenever he is finished working on someone’s coffee table.
When it comes to dating, the normie may date another normie just so they can split the rent in half, but then they end up hating each other. Then the next thing you know, the girl normie misses her period, and now, they’re stuck raising a kid they weren’t ready for.
You cannot love a child if you don’t even love each other.
Meanwhile, the neurodivergent has wilfully chosen to sacrifice the shallow comfort and fake connection of a modern relationship in favor of the power and freedom of being alone. Sure, the neurodivergent would miss sex, but that’s just about all they would miss.
When it comes to platonic connections (friends and colleagues), this is where the normie truly thrives. Office lunches, happy-hour, football Sundays. He thrives on the hierarchy of winners and losers. Haves versus have nots. Us versus them.
You get the idea!
The normie is so disgustingly linear in his thinking, that when a neurodivergent goes off script by choosing solitude and insulation from all the madness of the world, it irritates the normie to no end.
Because in the midst of his foolish insecurities, the normie feels like you are taking away the single greatest source of his esteem by being an example to others that self-sustainability is very much possible. As if it’s your fault that the normie fool has an external locus of control to begin with.
As such, the normie, sociopathic as he is, will undoubtedly try to sabotage the neurodivergent just to be able to save his ego and prove a point [more on normie].
He will “play the long game” and catch more flies with honey than vinegar, so great is their addiction to comfort and familiarity.
This is what makes them dangerous!!
And don’t even get me started on family enmeshment. If you come from the bowels of the working class, then your family is full of normies.
This is not a theory!
If you want to date a girl they don’t like, or goodness forbid you want to move to a new town, they will be the first to talk you out of it, and give you a million and one reasons as to why they think it won’t work.
But they’re unhappy, too. What do you mean it won’t work?!
It’s not that they think it won’t work, it’s that they’re too comfortable being unhappy to seek to make things better. And they were banking on you being jut as fucking lazy as they are.
But now that you have chosen power over comfort, you have become an inconvenience, and a source of embarrassment for them. Because by so doing, you have held up the mirror to the rage of Caliban seeing his hideous face in the glass.
Power, on the other hand, can be uncomfortable at first. It can be unfamiliar, unpredictable, and downright chaotic. But if you choose to rise after every obstacle. If you choose to keep showing up for life, every day, then power is definitely worth it in the long run.
The rest is up to you!
With that said, I wager to you now, will you choose the fleeting comfort of crap jobs, and shallow relationships. Or will you instead venture out into the deep blue waters in search of total power, freedom, and your ultimate destiny?
Why Should I Hire You? The Truth About Corporate Loyalty
B. Lorenzo Buckinchere
May 17, 2026
Most people only seek jobs because they need money, and I’ll prove it!
If you won the lottery on Friday night, would you go back to work on Monday morning?
Probably not!
Three years later, and they still wouldn’t know whether you are dead or alive.
You go to work because you need money!
And that is not inherently bad by itself. In fact, that IS the only rational reason why any sane adult should sell forty hours a week of their waking life to a corporation. However, I must warn you to remain cognizant of the fact that not everyone goes to work for the same reason as you.
Some people don’t even need the job. They have a trust fund, or a wealthy spouse they can fall back on. In some cases, an Only Fans account. Nonetheless, they go to work for one reason, and one reason only.
Power!
Don’t think for one second that they don’t know the reason why most people show up for a job they hate. They know you only want the money. And precisely for that reason, their thought process becomes, “There’s literally a million people I could’ve hired, so why should I hire you?”
Now first of all, it’s important to note that whenever they ask you that during an interview, no one really knows the answer. In fact, most job coaches will claim that you should “just figure it out,” because they don’t know the answer themselves.
Claim, because they actually know the answer. They just don’t want to say it out loud because they know just how horrible it sounds.
If you are at the bottom of the proletariat looking for work, and there’s a million other applicants, all looking to replace you, then the only leverage you have over them is loyalty. That is the unequivocal answer to “Why should we hire you?”
The trouble is that normies understand that concept perfectly well. Perhaps not in so many words, but they know the game. They know the script, and they’re willing to play.
But playing the game in a sadistic corporation often requires turning a blind eye to injustice. Not simply turning a blind eye, but also joining in on the torment. Because people who care about loyalty only think in black and white.
“You’re not allowed to be indifferent when dealing with me! You’re either for me, or against me! And you’d better not be against me!”
Actually doing your job is only part of the equation. They really only want your loyalty. That’s why douchebags get promoted, and hard-workers get fired. At some point, your loyalty will be put to the test, and then it will become obvious to everyone involved, whether you are loyal to the job, or loyal to the boss.
Those who are loyal to the boss get promoted, while those who are loyal to the job get rewarded with the work load of four different people until they figure out a good enough reason to fire you.
Now for the record, I’m not throwing shade at loyalty. Loyalty is a beautiful thing when paired with love and reciprocity. But when it is as one-sided as it is within sadistic corporations where people only show up to fight over money and power like a pack of wild hyenas, then loyalty becomes equally sadistic. More than that, it becomes a weapon.
Some people are built for that sort of thing. They like the taste of other people’s blood in their mouths, and the last time I checked, only vampires drink other people’s blood. So if you are not a vampire, then the modern American workforce is definitely not for you.
But you still need money!
You still need to survive!
You need food. You need water. You need medicine. You need car fuel. You need extra cash in case of an emergency. And you still need to be able to pay rent, or you will end up living on the streets.
Jobs are all about control, loyalty, and dogpiling on the quiet guy or gal who does their job, minds their business, and goes home. Corporations only see employees as pawns whom they can use and discard at will. And they make it seem that there is no alternative outside of their power games and one-sided loyalty. But I promise you, there is.
If you don’t wanna get caught up in the chaos, and all you care about is getting paid to do what you truly enjoy, then join me next week as I discuss a rather interesting wager I’m sure you’ll find useful.
And that goes for all jobs. White-collar. Blue-collar. Entry level. Professional. And everything in-between.
It’s just that some normies were able to get into white-collar management positions because they were willing to lie, or sleep their way to the top, screwing others over on their way up.
Either that, or the lot of their birth had afforded them the privilege to attend college. For those reasons, they are a little higher up on the societal food chain than others.
But they are still normies for the very simple fact that they are comfortable with playing the hierarchy game while seeking to humiliate those who just want to quietly do their jobs and go home.
A lot of the people with jobs don’t even need the money. They either have a trust fund, or a wealthy spouse. A job to them is nothing more than a chessboard for power. More on that later.
If you are inherently creative, then by default, you are not obsessed with hierarchy, because you spend much of your time in your right brain, and creative energy tends to lean more feminine.
For that reason, you cannot work a normie job. Not for long anyway. Because the opposite of a normie is to be neurodivergent.
If you are creative, then you have neurodivergence by default, and the moment the normies spot that you are different, they will gang up on you and seek to ostracize you, and it won’t be obvious at first because they will appear friendly.
But understand that that is the most important part of the facade. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. By the time you are able to figure out that you don’t belong, it will already be too late, and you won’t be able to fight them so easily.
And in fact, you don’t belong because you are not supposed to. You see, jobs are for normies.
The typical. The average. The talentless.
That’s why they fight to gatekeep their spaces from neurodivergents so ferociously. They figure it’s only fair because they need those spaces to survive, and you don’t.
You can literally get up one day and decide to write a book, or build a website. They can’t! They need those jobs. And for every job that is occupied by a neurodivergent, that’s just one more job they figured could have gone to one of their normie friends or relatives.
Not only that, but most blue-collar jobs are service level positions. We’re talking about; uber, Lyft, UPS drivers, Amazon Prime, warehouse associates, telecom tower technicians, etc.
When neurodivergents create something meaningful and relatable, we need people to help us move it across town right to the doorstep of our paying customers. And that’s where normies come in.
Why would you want to work among normies when they are literally meant to serve us?
Sometimes, a shift in perspective is really all you need to help move things along smoothly. So with that, I close by reiterating my main point.
Ok, great! So now that I have your attention, you’re probably wondering what that could even be. In this article, I’m going to get down to what I’m actually hinting at. And no, it’s not a Harley Davidson.
Stick around!
There are some very thirsty people in society. Who are these people, you may ask? Random normies who see you and walk up to you in public to strike up a conversation without knowing you.
And I mean anybody; dudes, chicks, dogs, cats.
From your perspective, you are genuinely flattered at all the attention, especially if you’re not used to getting it at first. You likely believe their interest in you to be genuine.
So you allow the unsolicited social contact to carry-on for a tad bit longer than your comfort zone would allow. To the point where you may feel compelled to say, “Go look a girl nuh, bredrin!”
Speaking of which, here are some of the nuances about the men who show interest in you. If you are a man, and another man is chasing you, and forcing himself on you, you’re probably thinking that maybe he’s gay. And some of them genuinely are, even if they don’t show it.
But here’s the kicker. Most of them are straight. Some of them would even go so far as to use their smoking hot girlfriends to publicly flirt with you as bait to get them in the door. And the girlfriend in question is totally on board with his idea, except that she probably has her own motives, and it’s not what you think.
But this is where you get a little thrown off. Because most people are driven by lust. So if a straight man is using his girlfriend to bait another straight man, then what could possibly be better than sex?
Your aura!
Now this is where we start going down the rabbit hole into “chosen” territory.
I do believe that some people are indigo children, meaning that they were born with certain innate talents that normies do not possess. But I don’t believe that these indigo children are actually chosen.
Chosen by what?!
Back to my point! People may be primarily driven by lust, but greed is a very second motivator, and when people meet an indigo child, they believe they have struck solid gold. And they are right.
UniQue qualities of indigo children include, but are not limited to;
Calmness:
In a mad, chaotic world, calm is the light that shines too bright. They will flock to you like moths to a flame. Not only that, but they will crave your light while resenting you for having it at the same time.
Good Listener:
If people often come to you for advice, even people who don’t know you, then they likely see you as a free shrink they can use. They will blow up your phone at two o’ clock in the morning to burden you with their problems, then resent you for asserting a boundary.
Visionary:
This is probably the most dangerous one on my list. Specifically because you can never be too careful. But if you are a visionary, then people always come to you for advice. Specifically to pick your brain for ideas they intend to steal for themselves and take all the credit. These are the people who will talk you out of your brilliant plans, only for them to steal it and declare to the public that it was their idea to begin with. If you are a visionary who doesn’t want to be stopped, then prepare to live the life of a recluse. I mean that with all sincerity, and every bit of love.
P.S. Buy a travel-sized padlock for your laptop bag.
Creativity:
Normies love to consume art, but don’t actually like creative people. Far worse than that, they actually hate them. Much like with peace, they will also flock to your creative light like moths to a flame. But once they realize that you are the one with the secret sauce that they cannot accurately replicate, envy rears its ugly head, then eventually turns to resentment. For that reason, many creatives are loved by the world, yet they often lead lonely personal lives. That is, if they have yet to find a fellow creative to share their lives with. True creativity comes with a curse that normies are not willing to accept, yet they envy creatives for doing that which they are not willing to do.
Enigma:
Speaking of having a secret sauce, this is the part that is actually better than sex. Picture this! You walk into a room. Not loud. Not seeking validation. But as a phantom. You go over to your table, pull out a chair, and order a drink.
Everybody is wondering who you are. Some are rubber-necking your table. Others are not so obvious. You are whom they call an enigma. A mystery man. The most interesting man in the room. Yet your entrance was merely the whisper of a phantom.
If you possess the aura of being the enigmatic presence of every room you walk into, then everybody wants to be around you. Men, women, dogs, cats.
You get the idea!
This is a phenomenon that comes naturally. That kind of aura cannot be faked, and I’d rather doubt you’d be able to lose it if you wanted to.
That last one is where greed and entitlement always comes into play. Human nature is innately selfish, and most people only show interest in you for all the wrong reasons.
I know it may sound cliche for me to say, but they literally see your gifts as a resource to use for their own benefit. The resource in question could be anything; from money to favors, etc. However, in this case, the highly addictive resource you possess that is better than sex, is attention.
Your attention.
The attention of the enigma in the room.
And specifically because human nature is so inherently selfish and narcissistic, most people will seek to control your attention to keep it on themselves at all times.
The general mindset is, “if you’re so great and I’m the one who either controls you, or breaks you, then what does that make me?”
As such, they become sadistic in an attempt to keep you under their control, so they can be the ones to control who gets to access your precious attention. If you make it obvious that you don’t want to be controlled, then that is when they become hell bent on breaking you to make an example out of you.
The over-familiarity of random strangers in public, coupled with the extent to which said strangers fight to get, even you, out the way of your own attention is a very telling sign of how powerful your aura truly is. And the irony of that statement is that you may not have been aware of it for a long time.
They are not going to tell you why they are being so overly possessive with you. You only know that that level of aggression and over-familiarity coming from a perfect stranger is not normal.
This is when you must assert stringent boundaries that are impermeable to human deception if you are to be successful in your war effort.
No one’s gonna draw you a map. Not even me. But in case no one ever told you this, remember you heard it here first.
It’s the end of the month, and time once again for our monthly review series. Our muse for the month of April is Luster by Raven Leilani. But before we begin, here’s a disclaimer.
Disclaimer:
The following review contains spoilers. So I recommend reading the novel before reading this or any other review on the topic. Now without further ado, let’s begin.
Overview:
Luster is a 2020 American novel written by Raven Leilani. At 227 pages, it was Leilani’s debut novel, and was among the best received debut titles for that year.
Plot:
The main plot follows Edie, a twenty-something African-American woman who works at a publishing company in New York City. It is a dead-end job that she is able to keep by fulfilling sexual favors for her male colleagues, mostly White.
Jaded with her job, and with life in general, Edie begins an online affair with Eric, an older married man from New Jersey. Eventually, they meet in person, and he takes her on a date to the amusement park.
Despite Eric being married, Edie is smitten, often indulging in fantasies about their lives together, and how it will all end, that offers a striking peek into her psychology. This will become relevant later in the novel when Edie’s lust becomes more apparent.
Not long after, Edie is fired from her job after setting a boundary with one of her male colleagues. With very little savings to fall back on, she is soon evicted from her Brooklyn apartment.
One day, while out delivering food to the hospital in the rain, on her bike, Edie runs into Rebecca, Eric’s wife whom she had previously met when she found out where he lives and followed him to their home in suburban New Jersey.
Edie quickly discovers that Rebecca has a rather interesting job. She is a practicing mortician at the morgue of the hospital. Rebecca decides to take Edie home with her, much to Eric’s dismay, though he doesn’t really say much about it.
It turns out that Eric and Rebecca have an adopted daughter named Akila, who also happens to be African-American. As such, Rebecca subtly pays Edie with the expectation that she will act as Akila’s live-in governess, due to them being more relatable to each other. Oh yeah, there is one catch, however. Rebecca has told Edie to stay away from Eric.
Everytime Edie takes Akila to the mall, or to her karate classes, she finds a hundred dollar bill on the table when she gets home. Edie is not being rushed to find a job, and as such, she sees an opportunity in her newfound situation to do more of what comes naturally to her, which is canvas painting.
Edie loves to paint. As such, she often finds herself snapping photos of certain things around their home that she finds rather interesting. Most notably, one scene in particular where she snaps a photo of Eric and Rebecca having sex with their bedroom door left ajar, that she intends to sketch out in her sketchbook at a later time.
Eventually, the temptation for Eric and Edie to keep their hands off each other had proven to be too great.
As such, they end up sleeping together, and it isn’t long before Edie wound up pregnant by him, a plot twist that ended up giving way for the single most memorable quote in the entire book for me, “he makes you want, he makes you wicked, and as you sleep, he puts a baby inside your belly.”
If you think that quote was pertaining to Eric, think again.
It turns out that Eric and Rebecca are in an open marriage. But even so, Edie soon finds herself skating on thin ice with Rebecca when Rebecca found out that Edie has still been sleeping with Eric in secrecy, and was told to start searching for another job.
Unfortunately, Edie suffers a miscarriage as a victim of police brutality, that takes place on the lawn of her employer after the police were baffled as to how someone who fits her racial profile could live in a suburban home.
Not long after the miscarriage, Edie finds another apartment and moves back to New York with all the cash that she was able to save from being a governess.
The novel ends with Edie, in her new apartment, doing a sketch of a half-dressed Rebecca from a photo that Rebecca had allowed her to take.
Review:
Though it had a female lead, this book was very relatable to me due to the timeliness of when it entered my life. And now that the title has gotten your attention, I think it’s worth noting that the kind of lust in question is more so related to a lust for survival, passion, and drive, than it is about sexual lust.
The sex scenes in this novel are not as strongly erotic as one might expect, but the moral is far more valuable than the kind of thrills often found in erotica.
I also think that despite her shaky financial situation, Edie felt more confident about moving back into her own apartment when she realized that she can sue the police department in New Jersey, as well as the individual arresting officer for her miscarriage, and a hate crime. I hope she takes her story to the press.
I think it reflects a much wider anomaly within the social fabric of our society to think that this level of racism was still taking place as recent as 2020 in the land of the free.
It’s also hard for me to ignore that the assault scene on the lawn almost parallels Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd right down to the year in question, except that Edie actually survived her encounter with the police.
This tale is about finding the right balance between survival and following your passion. Not perfect, just right. Because survival is messy, and often involves doing things that are normally out of character.
It also makes a note of the fact that help may sometimes come from unexpected places. Not from some divine source, but simply from people helping people.
However, in the midst of the chaos that comes with daily survival, one must never neglect to persevere in their tireless commitment to making their true passion a reality against all odds.
I would just like to end by sharing that I first read Luster, this week back in 2024, during a very dark chapter of my life, and it has motivated me to keep writing throughout despair. With that said, there is literally no Buckinchere Collection without Luster.
As more people continue leaving religion in massive droves, some are turning to spirituality as an alternative. Of course, there are many forms of spirituality from all over the world, some are even older than christianity.
Of the many forms of spirituality, one of the most popular forms are the ones having to do with manifestation.
First of all, what is manifestation?
The belief that by mentally focusing on someone, or something long enough, or hard enough, it will somehow find its way to you. A very good example of this is if a woman wants to get married, but she has yet to meet a suitable partner, she may try to manifest “Mr. Right” by daydreaming about all his features. His smile, his dark hair. You get the idea.
Likewise, if someone is constantly talking about an enemy, someone else who has overheard them may interject by saying, “speak of the devil, and he may appear.”
The belief in manifestation might be reinforced through the confirmation bias of a few scattered coincidences. That’s how all beliefs even begin in the first place.
Now, manifestation has become so popular that “fence-walkers” have even mixed up some of the spirituality with christianity, which has its own belief system separate and apart. That’s how you get christians talking about “karma” like they invented it, when karma is an eastern concept that is older than christianity.
With manifestation being part of spirituality, many westerners, christians or otherwise, are turning to the practice of manifestation. They listen to the tapes, either; in the car, in the shower, at the office, etc. They think that by focusing on something, it shall be theirs if they try hard enough. Then… it doesn’t!
Or it did the first time, and they lucked out, then it never happened again, so now they think that manifestation is a hoax. Just another fading fad.
Now here’s the thing, manifestation is as real as you reading these words on your screen right now. But they’re going about it the wrong way. Or did they literally think that they possessed the power to call upon rain to fall from the sky?
Those tapes you’ve been listening to? The positive affirmations won’t manifest your dreams out of thin air, but it will definitely manifest a change in your mindset, and how you see yourself. That’s the kind of positive reinforcement that builds confidence.
Now here’s the catch, that kind of confidence doesn’t get built overnight. Mindset shifts can take years to become second nature. And even then, it still may not be perfect. You may catch yourself slipping a couple of times. However, it is still very much possible.
Ok, great! So now that you have manifested the psychological profile that becomes a part of your identity like installing a new plugin for your app, there’s also a mechanical aspect of manifestation that is so vitally necessary to where manifestation is utterly useless without it.
Dreamers dream that they have powers. Winners manifest.
Sometimes, the only positive reinforcement you need is in knowing that you had the audacity to take the first step when everybody else around you was filled with doubt.
That is the feeling I get every time I think about the time when I decided to start my first book. I remember that time being filled with much doubt and uncertainty. And look at me now. I just launched my first website. And you ain’t seen nothing yet!
In last week’s article, I’d briefly touched on the topic of Pascal’s wager within the context of christian prudes shying away from sex. In that article, I remember saying that religious zealots squander their lives away abstaining from the wonderful world of sex for a god they can neither see, nor hear.
But what I’d failed to mention is that they also squander their lives away for a god that they can neither see, nor hear, hoping it will solve all their problems. Or at the very least, that it would take enough pity, or favor upon them to make their existence less burdensome than everybody else’s.
What they fail to realize is that if god was a loving, benevolent being, then why is there so much human suffering?
Why is there so much war, and famine, and so many plagues upon the earth? Why do innocent babies get cancer and die when they have never troubled anybody?
Then there’s the existential dread that comes with being responsible for your own sustenance as a grown man in the modern American workforce.
Why commute through rush-hour to go slave for a blasted bunch of sadists just to be able to earn an honest living, yet they will never pay you enough to share their zip-code?
All this needless suffering, yet it still demands worship?!
Why would an all powerful being care about the worship of us flesh and blood mortals?
Yet the average religious zealot will tell you that it’s all a part of god’s plan to help you build character.
To which I’d say that if god was so brilliant, then why does it take pain to motivate us to build character? It could have designed us a little better than that. But instead, it either doesn’t exist, or it wilfully chose to be a sadistic psychopath who gets its rocks off on human torture.
The average religious person is secretly masochistic. And they’re hoping you wouldn’t notice, but that you’d be the same way too. Because there’s no misery that loves company more than the misery of a fool.
Instead of asking the right questions, such as why suffering is necessary to build character, they instead want to make up a bunch of excuses for a thing they can neither see, nor hear, to help it escape accountability.
And these are the same motherfuckers who love to talk about manifestation and universal frequencies. As if to suggest that all your heart’s desire should just magically fall into your lap because you wished it into existence with your thoughts.
Let’s be more practical here.
If their god was even a single ounce worthy of our worship as they say it is, then first of all, it would at least have the decency to reveal itself, instead of being a troll. And secondly, purpose and character would have both been very attainable without sacrifice. Even if there was some sacrifice, it wouldn’t be THIS!
It would’ve been a sacrifice within measurable reason for which we would have been proud.
And by the way, not everyone makes it out alive. For richer or poorer, some people end up dying before they are able to fulfill their life’s work. Or if they don’t die, then they suffer through lifelong disabilities that steals their dreams to be great.
Are you going to tell me that that’s a part of god’s plan, too?!
Perhaps you’d like to believe that that’s their karma. Which is not even a part of christianity. Karma is a hindu concept that westerners seem to have borrowed regardless of their faith.
So if you get what you want, then god answered your prayers. If you don’t get what you want, then it’s all part of character development. And if you happen to witness someone else not get what they want, then serves them right, they’re being punished.
Either way, god escapes accountability, and it’s on us to explain why it didn’t work.
Now don’t get me wrong, you can definitely use suffering to learn and develop character. The human brain is hard-wired through evolution to recognize patterns. Strength through pain is an improvisation that proves human ingenuity.
But it is not a necessity.
If you are neither a sadist, nor a masochist, then the only other possibility is that you are a hedonist. Hedonism is our default setting as humans, yet hedonism often gets a bad rap because it is often wrongfully associated with decadence (https://thebuckincheretranscendence.blog/hedonism-vs-decadence/).
Decadence is but one form of hedonism. True hedonism is indulgence within good measure, which if used correctly, often includes lengthy periods of delayed gratification and sacrifice for the greater good.
But due to religious masochism and a lack of education, most people will shame you for wanting an easier life. They will say that you’re complaining.
They’re coming at you with all this accusatory spirit, yet they fail to consider that hedonism, the drive to eliminate pain at all cost, is our default.
With that in mind, let me conclude by saying, do not let some bible-thumping masochist shame you for wanting to create a life of ease and convenience.
They say that necessity is the mother of all invention. So we literally wouldn’t have technology without hedonism.
This week’s post is a very special article, for two reasons. Not only is it my one hundredth article since starting this blog, but it is also the very first article posted to my new website.
So ya know that awesome feeling that comes when you switch from renting apartments to buying a house?! Well that’s what this moment feels like to me.
With that said, welcome to my new website!
I’m glad you chose to be part of this amazing journey to help me usher in the dawn of a new era.
With that in mind, onto the main topic.
From the perspective of an anti-theist, the existence of a god can neither be proven, nor disproven. However, if there was a god, it would have to be the granddaddy of all devils.
So therefore, we’d be much better off without it.
With that in mind, most christians seem to have accepted Pascal’s wager, the theory suggesting that sacrificing 75 to 80 years for a god you can neither see, nor hear, in exchange for an eternity where it might not exist, is a far better wager than living for yourself for that same amount of time, only to spend the rest of eternity realizing that there was a god after all.
Pascal’s wager is a cowardly one. Particularly because it expects you to sacrifice the one life you have for this thing you can neither see nor hear. Unfortunately, that is the wager that most religious people, especially christians have accepted.
It’s one thing if they want to accept it for themselves, but when they think they can accept it on behalf of others, then we are entering the territory of delusional entitlement. The problem is that christians want others to join them in their cowardice for the very fact that they are cowards.
They believe that in order to make god happy, you must give up worldly pleasures, such as drinking, smoking, partying, and especially sex. For whatever reason, they don’t like when other people have sex. So they try to guilt you by preaching to you to “get right with god before it’s too late.”
In other words, if you have sex outside of marriage, you are making god angry, and he will allow some kind of “poverty demon” to jump on you and ruin your finances here on earth, which is nothing compared to facing eternal hell-fire when you die.
For what?! Having sex?!!
Gimme a break!
Because of their twisted ideologies, christians may appear to be prudes on the surface, but the reality is quite different.
First of all, the bible was written during the time of antiquity. That was literally more than two thousand years ago, and before the dawn of the common era.
Condoms and IUDs did not exist during the time of antiquity. So the “marriage before sex” rule, otherwise called fornication, was a contraceptive measure that may have been relevant for the time of antiquity. Even though people still found a way to do what they wanted regardless.
In 2026, we have condoms, and we also have IUD devices. The commandments of Paul the apostle are no longer relevant. Yet the church for whatever reason only seems to have doubled down on their perceivable prudishness.
A very good example of that is that masturbation has never caused a single pregnancy throughout all of history, yet the church has always condemned the act, even though the literal bible that they preach from is silent on the topic of masturbation.
Furthermore, they have lied and said it’s a sin, and that you will go to hell for masturbating.
Desire is natural!
Addiction is not.
Not only that, but I have always believed that if you have an itch that’s driving you crazy, it is better to masturbate than to rape a woman. Yet the church is suspiciously silent on that thought.
Point me in the direction of one preacher who is fatherly enough to teach young men how to be responsible with their sex drive, and I will shut up.
Sex, whether partnered or solo, is the one act where you are at your most vulnerable. It is the expression through which one connects with their innermost selves. So who is the hypocritical church to preach that sexual expression is wrong when they are doing it, too?
One example of that is the origin of the missionary position. The reason why they even call it that to begin with is to suggest that the man-on-top is the only position that they consider puritanically acceptable.
And that if you are going to be a missionary, and go to the so-called new world to christianize a co-called “bunch of savages,” then you can’t be as savage as the very people you’re trying to save, therefore, you should only be allowed to have vanilla sex.
Doggystyle gets a bad rap, because it is less intimate, and more carnal. And they often say that it encourages lust by objectifying the woman involved.
As much as it is definitely less intimate, how does it even begin to objectify the women involved when they are literally begging for it? And don’t even get me started on the other fetishes that they say are sinful.
These are the very people who used to beat and rape the natives of the new world while also christianizing them at the same time. Who are they to pass any judgment about what people choose to do in the privacy of their bedrooms?!
Especially when they are doing the exact thing they are telling others not to do. That is the part that makes them hypocrites. Especially the women.
Do you know how many secrets the old ladies at your church have from the things they used to do when they were younger? Yet the moment they see a young woman at church who is nicely put together, they approach her with their judgmental selves, saying things like, “your skirt is too short,” or, “your lipstick is too red.”
When did the expression of sex appeal become a sin?!
A lot of the time, it’s just envy. The old ladies at your church are just jealous that they are not young and sexy anymore. Then they see you over there looking pretty and start side-eyeing your skirt.
And then for the gents. They used to tell you, “she got teeth down there!” Then they invented the poverty demon when you took a chance and found out they were lying about the teeth.
They would secretly love and protect a literal pedophile if he was their son, while simultaneously losing their minds trying to tear down a brothel full of tricks and hookers. Literal consenting adults conducting an honest transaction in the privacy of a hotel room.
There was once a time when the Roman senate were the ones organizing the brothels of old, during a time when there were literally no IUDs, or proper condoms. But then came Paul the apostle like a self-righteous prick, and the whole damn thing went to hell in a hand basket.
Now prostitution is illegal in almost every state, except Nevada, as well as many other countries around the world.
The only act where a male bachelor can still take part in partnered sex without giving away his sovereignty.
What a coincidence!
For men who consider themselves incels, that is literally the only way a woman would ever consider touching them.
You only have one life to live. Don’t waste it on jealous idiots. Go get laid!
It is the end of the month, and time once again for our monthly review series. The month of March features a review of Perception by Lianne Downey, but before we begin, here is a disclaimer.
Disclaimer:
The following review contains spoilers, so I recommend supporting the official release before reading this, or any other review on the novel.
Now without further ado, letās get into it.
Overview:
Perception is a 2024 American novel by Lianne Downey, the first in her psychics and aliens series. The story follows Minda Blake, a young psychic remote viewer who is contracted by āBlackthorne,ā a private government contractor, and offshoot of the U.S. navy tasked with locating debris from alien space crafts before they are able to get into the wrong hands, and become public knowledge.
Minda, affectionately called Min throughout the novel, is very content with her job at Blackthorne. She shares a San Diego apartment with Amrita, one of her co-workers at Blackthorne, and her job is satisfying for the most part. That is until the secrets she is obligated to keep by contract starts weighing on her health.
Plot (spoilers):
While out searching for the fragment of an alien spacecraft in the desert one night, Minda suffers a head injury when Wade, one of her co-workers pushes her off a sand dune. Enroute to the hospital, Minda has a dream, more like a premonition of Gramma Julene, her deceased grandmother, who is happily in the company of one Reverend Ben. This is the first of several premonitions that Minda has of Ben throughout the novel.
Minda is now on sick leave from work, resting in the Michigan town of Veenlanden. While having lunch at a diner one day, one of the waitresses named Agnes tells Minda about the heroism of Garritt Vanderhoeven, their ace chef who survived a plane crash in the Amazon rainforest, and rescued dozens of passengers, mostly Ecuadorians from certain death.
Garritt is from a conservative Dutch background, and is battling the demons of his flawed upbringing. At the job, he is very close with Juan, his Mexican teenage co-worker who will soon find himself at the center of a massive controversy.
While recovering in Michigan, Minda begins to feel the guilt of her obligations. She soon starts questioning the ethics of keeping the existence of aliens from the public, and decides to betray Blackthorne and go public with the space debris she found in the desert. But before Minda could expose Blackthorneās secret, Juan is arrested by the police.
Not long after Juanās arrest, Luciana, Juanās pregnant girlfriend shows up at the diner, looking for him. When they tell her that Juan is in jail, Luciana says that she already checked, and heās not there. If the police donāt have Juan, who does?
Minda speculates that Juan may have the missing space debris, and that the officers who arrested Juan were actually undercover Blackthorne operatives tracking the whereabouts of the fragment. Luciana seems to think that Juan may be with Bobby Lee, a local new-age cult leader and conspiracy theorist.
And so, as a blizzard threatens to plummet them into oblivion, Minda convinces Garritt to drive her in search of Bobby Lee. Minda and Garritt spots Bobby Lee in the storm, but as soon as Bobby Lee sees Minda sitting inside Garrittās truck, he warns Garritt to stay away from her, and then he disappears.
As the blizzard rages on, Garritt and Minda are forced to seek shelter at Garrittās house. While there, Minda has a premonition of Wadeās body lying face down in the snow, and it is not immediately clear to her as to whether or not Wade is alive or dead, or if this is an event thatās yet to occur.
She is also forced to confess to Garritt, who she is, and where she works. After all, if she wants him to help her, she is going to have to trust him somewhat.
She also tells him that she plans on exposing their discovery in the desert because the public has a right to know, but also that the space fragment is missing, and that if Juan doesnāt have it, then he probably gave it to Bobby Lee.
Not only that, but if the officers who arrested Juan were truly undercover Blackthorne operatives, then Blackthorne must also realize by now that the fragment is missing.
She says that they have to go back out into the blizzard to continue their search for Juan and Bobby Lee, and he obviously thinks sheās crazy at this point, but he agrees to go with her anyway.
While they are driving through the blizzard, a military chopper lands in the middle of the storm and captures Minda, separating her from Garritt who narrowly escapes, and it seems like their cause is a lost one.
Garritt, despite suffering an injured leg was able to track down Bobby Leeās church, housed inside the back of a diner, and decides to go there.
Bobby Lee hands Garritt an address, about an hour drive outside of town, and Garritt suspects that thatās where they must be holding Juan, but Bobby Lee doesnāt really say much more than that.
Garritt decides to drive an hour in the middle of a blizzard with an injured leg to the address that Bobby Lee gave him, based mostly on a hunch, and arrives at an old abandoned house with all the lights out. With one good leg, he is able to break inside the house to save himself from hypothermia.
Juan is not there, but Garritt notices a cage where he suspects they must have held Juan. He suspects that they must have moved Juan to another location after the heater broke, and it became too cold inside the house.
Despite all of that, Garritt soon falls asleep on an old couch where he has a dream that would explain his undying loyalty to Juan. Then he is suddenly awakened by the sound of someone entering the abandoned house.
As the unforgiving blizzard rages on, Agnes begins to worry about Garrittās whereabouts as she sees it is getting late. She is able to find out where he is by tracking his phone.
She gets a bad feeling about all this, and calls Sam, another of their co-workers. The two girls formulate a rescue plan that involves jacking her brotherās truck while he sleeps.
They arrive at the abandoned house just in time to see a group of men taking Garritt away with his head covered. Agnes and Sam trails them in her brotherās stolen truck to the location of another house, and starts calling everyone she knows, telling them to call their friends.
Meanwhile inside that house, Garritt finds Juan alive. They are being held together inside the basement. Garritt is soon taken upstairs only to see that the house is actually a luxurious mansion. Garritt is further shocked to discover that the house is owned by Senator Volkort Vanderhoeven, his estranged father.
The senator explains to his son that his intention was to save Juan, but the plan went awry. He knows about the missing space fragment, and believes that humanity should come together to protect themselves from an alien invasion, much to Garrittās surprise, who is shocked to hear his Dutch conservative christian father talk about believing in aliens.
Sam and Agnes soon arrive at the senatorās doorstep with a whole posse of their own as well as Juanās loved ones, and also the news media in tow, and Juan is safely rescued.
Garritt chooses to stay behind after they are all gone, and is utterly disgusted when he discovers a scandalous little secret about his father that further invalidates his flawed upbringing.
Meanwhile in San Diego, Minda comes face to face with Reverend Ben from her dreams. It turns out that not only is he actually real, but also a client of Blackthorneās. They have a heart-to-heart that changes Mindaās perspectives, and gives her a renewed sense of purpose.
Once she is back in Michigan, she uses her psychic powers along with the help of Juan, who turned out to be psychic after all, to remotely track the fragment back to Bobby Lee.
Haunted by the demons of his own flawed upbringing, Bobby Lee is now flying a private plane in inclement weather to take the fragment to sell to the highest bidder. Sleep deprived, he begins to hallucinate, and soon crashes into the Colorado Rockies, where he is presumed dead.
Minda and Juan become compromised from being in Bobby Leeās messed-up head. Garritt and Agnes, worried they may either die or go insane, call Blackthorne for help. They soon arrive on the scene and take them to a state of the art atrium, where they recover inside a botanical greenhouse.
When Minda and Juan recover, they are briefed of Bobby Leeās plane crash. It turns out that the rose-shaped atrium in which they have found themselves is really a training campus for many ethnicities around the world who are preparing to become intergalactic peace ambassadors at some point.
For their courage and loyalty, Minda, Juan, Garritt, and Agnes are invited to train at the atrium, but are warned that they would have to keep the secret of their daily whereabouts from their loved ones while they are in training, until the world is ready for the aliens to reveal themselves.
While there, they are introduced to the ambassadors of an alien race called the Oraylians. As Garritt bonds with one of the OraylianĀ women, it begins to seem highly probable that heā¦
Something for the readers to ponder on for the sequel.
Review:
The world building is totally on point with this one. The narrative had gotten off to a slow start that felt like chicken scratch to my ADHD brain. But as you go along, you begin to discover that this novel is ADHD-friendly after all, with Downey dropping pointers along the way from the perspective of each character. Then the plot slowly builds to a crescendo that makes it all the more worth it in the end (or long before).
I see a lot of myself in Garritt despite our difference in socio-economic backgrounds, particularly as it relates to choosing a path that may seem wayward in comparison to the lot of oneās birth, which makes him the most relatable character to me.
I also doubt weāve seen the last of the senator, and I anticipate a lot more character developments, and world building in the sequel as the clash of ideologies promise to come to a head.
Finally, this work of fiction gives you the feel that psychics and aliens are real. Not in an immersive way that pulls you into their world, but in a way that suggests that they are already a part of ours. It provokes speculation into whatās really possible, and inspires exploration into the unknown.
I give this one a four out of five roast beef sandwiches, and Iāll see you on the next one.
