I literally had to force myself to finish The Delivery Man by Joe McGinniss Jr.. This is a bleak, dark novel filled with loser characters who survive in the underbelly of Las Vegas and are on a one way path to nowhere. One character spends most of the book declaring that he is leaving Vegas but neither the readers or any one else actually believes that he will go.

Chase is a 25 year old wannabe artist who has returned home to Las Vegas. He originally took a job as an art teacher but after being fired spends his time as a driver, delivering the local prostitutes to their appointments. Michelle, a prostitute dreams of making big money and buying herself the security and safety that she dreams of, but most of her money is spend on drugs and booze. She also begins recruiting and training teenage girls for the trade, including one of Chase’s former students, Rachel. Meanwhile Rachel’s teenage boyfriend, is not happy with her choices and he blames Chase for her bad decisions.

I did not enjoy this seedy story, in fact, it made me want to wash my hands every time I picked it up. The Delivery Man wasn’t particularly well written and the characters seemed flat and one dimensional. I was disappointed as I had higher expectations than this poorly written story. I probably wouldn’t have finished this book except that I was reading it for an alphabet challenge but the time spent reading this book was truly wasted. ( )

This was recommended via Bret Easton Ellis on Twitter. I can see why he likes it so much. It just seemed like Ellis fan fiction in terms of style, content etc. If I wanted to read a Bret Easton Ellis novel I would have bought the real thing.

There were some positive signs in the book. I will look out for other works by this author but he certainly needs to further develop his style. ( )

Did not like this book at all. Someone in Vegas gave me this book and I made the mistake of taking it. ( )

A novel set in Vegas, centered around high-school and college-age kids, all of whom are involved in drugs and prostitution: not something I would have picked up on my own. It definitely sucked me in though, and I was pulling for Chase to escape the whole way through. The writing is understated and clean. ( )

Anyone who thinks this is "the real Las Vegas" doesn't actually live here. It's /a/ Las Vegas. (Except for when McGinniss gets some directions wrong; despite help from locals, a few typos seem to have wedged in. That, or else no one has ever pointed me to the secret tunnel making it so easy to flit back and forth from the Summerlin Parkway to Green Valley. And I *really* don't recommend trying to take Maryland down to Boulder Hwy from Flamingo. As for those "west side ghettos" - his characters are far too young to use that term of yesteryear. Nowadays the "west side" is areas like "The Lakes" - a swanky place, as featured in the book.)

Like the main character, I'm a high school teacher in LV, and yes, in my school I have taught at least one student who (I knew) was a prostitute and yes, many kids see summer school as almost inevitable. It's not a great place for teens if you don't choose your schools carefully. So, I won't pretend our town doesn't have a gritty side, and it was interesting (albeit unoriginal) to see someone tackle it in fiction. But, every city with this kind of population and population growth has a gritty side, so it's hardly worthy of the "OMG Kids in Las Vegas live like this!!?!!" hype that some would bestow on this novel that, street names and temperature aside, could have been set in Chicago or Baltimore. Kids who don't get their emotional needs met sometimes do stupid or dangerous things. It probably even happens in Iowa.

If I were going to be really nit-picky, I'd ask why a book published in 2008 goes on (and on) about Wet 'n Wild (but never mentions that it's been closed for several years now - which may have been significant to Chase) and also names the Stardust as the only casino for which Chase has chips that hasn't been imploded, when at time of publication it had been almost 18 months since we all said good-bye to that property. For that matter, why does Chase "discover" that his inherited chips are (almost) all for demolished casinos? Why didn't he or his mother cash in those chips before the casinos went out of business? They're locals; they would've had months of warning to do so. It's not like we Las Vegans are going to wake up, grab the newspaper, and suddenly call out, "Cripes. They blew up the Venetian last night. Who knew?"

But on to the actual writing. If you're into the stone-youth-wankery of Bret Easton Ellis, you might like this. If not, you might still like this, as it flows quickly and makes for a nice "beach book." None of the sex is too explicit (for better or for worse), which perhaps helps nudge this into the "literary" genre (as opposed to "dude lit"). Me, I didn't find any of the characters likable, but I respected that the author didn't (seem to) expect me to. They're all losers. (Really. And don't fool yourself into thinking that makes them more "real." If you believe that, get a better life.) It's like playing your birthday numbers on the roulette wheel: pick a character to root for, but don't expect anyone at the table to win. ( )