Diary of an oxygen thief

This is a strange book. I don't mean it has endearing quirks or interesting oddball ideas -- it's strange because the writing is irregular in tone and quality, the pacing erratic, the settings somehow clear yet myopic, rambling. Not bad per se, but definitely adventurous down the wrong fork in the road. 

It's a book about a self-loathing and reads like an extended greentext. The author drags you through his demented world as if he's recanting the events to a therapist, complete with the expectation that you'll pick through the narrated wreckage and refrain from kicking him out in disgust. 

Not that your disgust should be very visceral, that is. The infantile "beatdowns" delivered in the first half of the novel were so glib as to be almost not worth the space they take up. A simple "I like abusing women -- that's the premise" would have been as effective. 

As for the entire ending scene...if you were able to cultivate any sort of emotional response from beneath the author's hack affectations (switching to second-person? stripping dialogue? why, to illustrate his mental haze and absurd paranoia? He's sober for god's sake!) and bizarre chain of events, you would probably be left thinking...is that it? Is that all they can muster? He hurts them and they stage weird pantomimes about his manhood and spike his drinks? Why are there so many people just hanging around like villainous stooges, laughing like extras in a comedy?

The narrator is 35 or thereabouts by the time the novel ends, but I'm betting Anonymous is in his early twenties. If you want to real novel about sexist misanthropy read Mishima's Forbidden Colours instead.

annalyse! 

Kendall McClain

I have no problem reading about truly villainous people when it’s for a reason but this is so purposeless. This author so just wanted to go on a misogynistic rant and I am not the audience for that. Gross and bad but I knew I would think that lol

riss

mari

I do not understand why this book is so popular on tiktok. I think I wasted my time. The narration is mediocre and there is no real plot, unless you consider whatever that was a proper plot. I would not recommend it unless you want to feel absolutely nothing other than disappointment while reading

Melissa Alice 

Wow, this book was really bad. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, it’s just bad.

hera

normally 1 star but i gave the second star for this mans misery being funny.

Jessica Geddis 

I understand the point of the book, but I still hate it all the same. I just found it boring and forced. There is plot, but it’s not really engrossing in any way. I know it’s meant to be written from the mind of a misogynist/sexist, but it makes me cringe hard. Good idea, wrong execution.

taryn a.

I almost kept expecting a note in the back of the book to decry anyone who enjoyed Diary of An Oxygen Thief. A "Ha. Got you. You read through this crap." jotted in the margins of the last page to prove the protagonist-"author"'s point about real-advertising and pseudo-love.

And yet I'll still give it 4 stars.

Yes, it's pretentious. Yes, it's fucked up. It almost seems like a stunt, and you might feel a little cheated reading it. But I think that's part of the experience of Diary Of An Oxygen Thief: you can love it or hate it, put preferably do both at once.

Emelie

1,5owls 

So this book was... interesting to say the least. Since I was sure to hate it (based on others reviews), I was truly chocked that I actually finished the book. Was it good? No, absolutely not.. can I tell you what it was about? Also no, not sure there even was a plot. It’s was basically just a lot of rambling about all the women he hurt and slept with, and how much he’s life sucked. But did I hate the way I expected to do? No, and I truly don’t know why! The man sucks!

Tegan Bell

As a bookseller, I wanted to understand why this had become a TikTok book. I don’t understand why at all. The author cannot stick with a consistent narrative, and chops and changes anecdote in the middle of a paragraph. Waste of time

Maya Elize

Misogynistic and pretentious 😍😍 the writing is okay though

Saima A

I honestly don't know why I picked this up. Maybe it was to just see what the hype was.

Honestly I began this and immediately thought what a sick f*****. But then as I continued, I guess it all began making sense.

Katie Kuegler

carla watson 

it gave me new perspectives on different things

Kennedy Schneider

The beginning of this story had gotten me hooked through the first chapter, but soon after it became very boring and I found myself skipping a bunch of paragraphs, letting my mind wander. It felt like an obligation to read it rather than an interest. I was very excited for this book but it was a real letdown for me. 
The writing style was great but where the book went was just not as good as where it could have gone.

Diary of an oxygen thief

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