Review of Whole Lot of Hullabaloo

[Darmenard]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Whole Lot of Hullabaloo" by Christopher Fried.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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Christopher Fried’s Whole Lot of Hullabaloo was a mediocre 2 out of 5 star read.
Overall, the conversation between all of the characters was forced and fragmented. In particular, the author missed the mark on attempting witty and playful banter between college students. Each conversation felt halting and fake. The dialogue between the professors and administrators was slightly more appropriate but also very awkwardly conveyed. There was an attempt to create a realistic voice for different characters but it was not used consistently across the characters it was established for or otherwise throughout the book. The author frequently uses sentence fragments in his attempt to create accurate conversations that came across again as insincere depictions of how a group of people interact, especially the 19-20 year olds that the book follows.
At several different points the author repeats certain phrases or words multiple times, distracting from the flow of the story. For example, the term “good eats” to describe a meal was used multiple times by page 71.

The portrayal of casual racism to set up the plot is uncomfortable and a little cringey to read. Quiet racism is, however, a rampant societal issue and the exposure of large and deep seated problems is inherently uncomfortable. In the novel, the acceptance of the racist jokes by the other characters suggested a point of view by the author that this form of bigotry was not a big deal. It came across to me as a story written from the point of view of a white man attempting to create three dimensional characters of color who ultimately were a bit flat.

There are places where the descriptions and conversations are overly redundant but at the culmination of the story, a briefly mentioned character is reintroduced in such a way that left this reader questioning out loud who the character was. This would be the place to introduce a little of the redundancy overtly exercised elsewhere.

There were only a few typos acknowledged. More grammatical errors and grammatical points of preference were identified as distractions from the flow of the plot line. Lastly, the downloadable version of the book that was available to read was a hinderance as the book was not finished in one sitting. Each time the “book” was set down, the PDF reverted back to the title page and had to be scrolled back through to find the last page read.

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Whole Lot of Hullabaloo
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