The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

By: Rhett McLaughlin, Link Neal

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

From the authors of the number-one New York Times best seller Rhett & Link's Book of Mythicality and creators of the internet’s most-watched daily show, Good Mythical Morning, a thrilling and darkly funny novel about two best friends fighting the sinister forces at the heart of their Southern town.

It's 1992 in Bleak Creek, North Carolina, a sleepy little place with all the trappings of an ordinary Southern town: two Baptist churches, friendly smiles coupled with silent judgments, and a seemingly unquenchable appetite for pork products. Beneath the town’s cheerful façade, however, Bleak Creek teens live in constant fear of being sent to The Whitewood School, a local reformatory with a record of putting unruly teens back on the straight and narrow - a record so impeccable that almost everyone is willing to ignore the mysterious deaths that have occurred there over the past decade.

At first, high school freshmen Rex McClendon and Leif Nelson believe what they’ve been told - that the students’ strange demises were all tragic accidents. But when the shoot for their low-budget horror masterpiece, PolterDog, goes horribly awry - and their best friend, Alicia Boykins, is sent to Whitewood as punishment - Rex and Leif are forced to question everything they know about their unassuming hometown and its cherished school for delinquents.

Eager to rescue their friend, Rex and Leif pair up with recent NYU film school grad Janine Blitstein to begin piecing together the unsettling truth of the school and its mysterious founder, Wayne Whitewood. What they find, with Alicia's life hanging in the balance, will leave them battling an evil beyond their wildest teenage imaginations - one that will shake Bleak Creek to its core.

This Audible book includes an exclusive interview with Rhett and Link, conducted by Stevie Levine, host of the Good Mythical Morning recap show, Let's Talk About That. In this conversation, Rhett and Link dive into their childhoods in Buies Creek and how they influenced their lives and writing.

About the authors:

Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, raised in North Carolina and best friends since the first grade, are an LA-based comedy duo known for hosting the most-watched daily talk show on the internet, Good Mythical Morning, their narrative series Rhett & Link's Buddy System, the award-winning weekly podcast Ear Biscuits, and their instant number-one New York Times best seller, Rhett & Link's Book of Mythicality. Their YouTube channels have a combined subscriber base of over 24 million people with seven billion total views. They have been featured on and in The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Live with Kelly & Ryan, The Conan O'Brien Show, Variety, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker.

©2019 Rhett James McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln "Link" Neal III (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Does it hold up beyond the R&L fandom?

The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek is the first novel by Youtube stars Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. I have been a fan of Rhett and Link for several years now, watching GMM, listening to Ear Biscuits and reading their first book, which was not a novel. R&L promoted this book a lot on all of their mediums and more, so as a long time fan of this duo I was excited and curious to see what they would do with a totally fictional novel. To me, it seemed like I was being exposed to a lot of promotion for this book but I also understood that they needed to talk about it as much as possible in hopes of breaking the news to those outside of the R&L. sphere, subjecting themselves to awkward morning and nighttime television talk shows to promote their novel.

Getting into this audio book, I really didn't know what to expect besides the fact that it featured characters that were essentially Rhett and Link (Rex and Leif), that Bleak Creek was based on their own hometown, and that it was going to be a sort of "Hardy Boys" mystery. The book featured a lot of "fan service" as I would call it - references to little personal traits and stories that Rhett and Link fans would know and love. It also contains a fair amount of 90's references, which at the beginning serve as a fun way to establish the setting, but at times were intrusive and would be un-relatable to younger readers. Because I wasn't sure what I was getting into, I found the pacing of the story to be kind of jarring sometimes. I think I felt comforted by the fun Rhett & Link references in the Rex & Leif characters, but then felt kind of blindsided when the novel took a particularly dark and magical turn a little more than halfway through the book. The underlying story of the Creek was somewhat interesting, a little cliche but most horror seems to be. Some parts were very gripping and others (a lot of Jeanine's personal backstory, for example) were kind of boring. The pacing of the story seemed to be out of balance overall.

I knew that I was going to be listening to this book so I was interested to see that Rhett and Link chose to have someone else narrate it. It made sense I guess, it is a novel and not a memoir like their last book, so having someone else read it seems appropriate. I have some mixed feelings about the performance, but overall I didn't like it. The general narration tone is incredible dry and boring, and easy to phase out and ignore. I know a lot of audiobooks sound like this, but come on. This monotonous narration was juxtaposed by some colorful character impressions, some of which I liked quite a bit (Whitewood, Rex) and I think they saved the performance. However, there were times when Gam-Gam or Ruby were talking and I could BARELY get through listening to it. Gam-Gam had a lot of dialogue early on and it was incredibly irritating to listen to.

Overall, this is a a fun and twisted first novel by Rhett and Link but it has a few shortcomings. I know that a lot of their fans are going to love this book, but I am curious to see how it is perceived by people who don't know anything about the duo.

The book the Mythical Beasts would have written...

At first when I noticed Rhett & Link were not the narrators of this book I was a bit disappointed. There choice in Vikas was the right one. He really did deliver the characters the way they needed to be. If you have been a Mythical Beast for a long time or this is your 1st introduction to Rhett & Link you will enjoy this book. There is a fantastic story inserted with fun facts about Rhett and Link and a lot of 90's references...very funny 90's references. If you are in the 40+ age group it will really make you laugh....scooter leg, NKOTB, bike pegs and multiple pagers taking us back to a time before AOL, internet and cell phones. Thank you for creating a place where we can grow with these characters...I hope this story will get to move forward very very soon.

Exceeds expectations

I used to be an avid reader but after a string of lackluster books I had slowed almost to a crawl. While I've been a fan of Good Mythical Morning for years as well as The Book of Mythicality, I didn't know what to expect in a novel. Well this novel blew my socks off. I am super impressed by the talent and story telling that went into it. I genuinely looked forward to continuing the novel after work and listened to it twice back to back. The only negative thing I can say is it ended. I would like to continue hearing about their lives. Start working on the sequel!!!

Pretty ok

Ok for a first novel, though a bit tedious at times and the "mystery" is disappointing.
Fans of R&L will find their fill, the best parts are probably the ones born out of their special brand of comedy. I'd say that Bleek Creek itself is the best character, the description and stories of the community and its surroundings are quite vivid and I simply enjoyed spending imaginary time there with the boys by the cape fear river.
Reading and voice acting is really good.
I give it a 5/10, middle of the road with highs and lows. Probably more suited for younger readers in the 11-18 yo span.

Funny, Creepy, and Excellent.

As a southerner, I feared two things in this book.

1. The narrator not being able to adequately handle central NC drawl.
2. The authors taking the quick way out and relying on degrading tropes.

I was thrilled to be proven baseless in my fears. The performance by Vikas Adam was flawless, and the story was engaging, fun, creepy, and very well done.

Well done, all.

Fun and Engaging

Honestly did not expect this book to be this good. Probably in my top five for the year. Excellent characters. Great story. Painfully accurate metaphor for the Jesusland South Machine. Couldn’t put it down.

disappointing

kinda disappointed in this book. I love Rhett and Link but this book seems to be written for teenagers but with 90s references that only people older than 30 would get. but I also think I would have liked it better with a different narrator.

Phenomenal

Just finished this book and absolutely love the charm and story told. Narrator did an amazing job at capturing the personality of each character and I look forward to future novels! And definitely a better love story than Twilight. Semper Curiosus

Hard to finish.. I was disappointed

I think the narration contributed to my dissatisfaction of the book. Made it seem very juvenile. I read such great reviews on this book but it wasn’t for me.

Sequel please!

A fun ride! Sometimes cliche, sometimes predictable, but always a fun adventure. Definitely a worthy step into the new realm of creative endeavors for Rhett & Link! This story leaves so much more to unfold and I hope there will be future novels to come to unravel the mysteries ahead.

I love Rhett and Link

I have been watching Rhett and Link on YouTube for a while and I really enjoy their humour. This book stands on it's own as an excellent story and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Funny and disturbing in equal measure!

Like anything you’d expect from Rhett and Link, The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek is filled with lots of humour and great observations on life. But this story also has a much darker side, and ends on a really creepy note. So much so I’ve just told my husband he needs to read it pronto so that I have somebody to discuss it with!

The narration is brilliant and easy to follow, and the story flows so well. I listened to it over the course of a few days and will be listening to it again in the near future I’m sure.

The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

i dont usualy listen to this kind of book, but as i watch Good Mythical Morning every day i thought i would give it a go. I realy enjoyed this book, it made me smile, laugh and cry. well done Rhett and Link, you did your Mythical Best

It was okay

it had an okay story line however it was not as good as it was promoted it to be but i would still recommend it to you if you needed something extra in your life

A captivating story which was performed amazingly

This book was a wonderful surprise. I'm a fan of Rhett and link and "read" this more out of curiosity than anything. It was interesting and kept my attention throughout. The reading by Vikas Adam's was remarkable and I will be searching for more books read by him.

I love Rhett and Link

but this book made me cringe. Not the plot or the writing but the concept. It’s a story of mindless child abusers. Not only „the villans” but also parents sending their children to die and not really caring. Strange idea.

a good read

enjoyed the story...can see rhe similarity with stranger things, Stephen King and Southern States of America...just a tad long and drawn out after the main plot had been revealed...but glad I persisted through yo the epilogue

A mythical adventure

This was a fun read, the narrator really nails the characters from the start. Mythical beasts of all ages will enjoy this adventure and be pleading for more.

There is also a fun Q&A at the end with Rhett, Link, and Stevie.

I am a fan of GMM,

but I did not like this book. The story did not really speak to me. Great read thou. :)

Sweet, Chilling, Thrilling

Sweet and chilling. Not a dipping sauce, but my description of this fantastic thriller about immense evil in a small town.

LOVED

I loved almost everything. The following are the highlights.

- This is a classic tale of good versus evil with a solid, creative premise.

- In a story told through the eyes of children, I found their perspectives funny, charming, annoying, heartbreaking and, above all, impressively authentic.

- The tone overall achieved a delicate balance between creepiness and humour.

- Vikas Adam has that comforting, wry “Wonder Years” quality as the voices of Rex and Lief.

COULD HAVE LOVED MORE

Rex and Lief. This is in no way a criticism, rather exasperation at the thought processes of 14 year old boys.

SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO...

This was advertised as perfect for fans of Stranger Things. Spot on.