Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia

Zoey Ashe, Book 3

By: Jason Pargin

Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans

Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Zoey is Too Drunk for This Dystopia is the latest installment in New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin's thrilling Zoey Ashe sci-fi series.

Zoey Ashe wakes up every day feeling like she’s trying to steer a battleship while tied to the propeller. The twenty-three-year-old heiress to a criminal empire is navigating a futuristic world of high-tech liars and cutthroats, forced to learn the rules of a devious game she never asked to play. Now she’s facing a crisis that is both bigger and stranger than all that came before:

The gleaming new city of Tabula Ra$a is hosting its massive annual music festival, which every year precedes the equally massive annual drunken riot. This is all organized by Zoey's people, including the riot. As her advisors explain, the citizens need a little controlled chaos now and then. Zoey, however, fears the chaos will not stay controlled for long.

When a horrific crime is broadcast live on an all-seeing social network, Zoey and her team suspect a carefully stage hoax arranged by one of the Tabula Ra$a’s shadowy power players. But in a city in which lies are always served in layers, even that explanation will prove far too simple.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

©2023 Jason Pargin (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Expecting cyberpunk and got Law and Order

I absolutely loved the first 2 books, and have been hoping it would continue. I was super excited to see a 3rd book until I listened to it. Don't get me wrong it's not bad by any means, but it not as good as the first 2. There was so much tech and cool things that could have made this book so fun, however all that was set aside for a political scandal book. There's not a lot of action or edge of your seat moments in this one. It was a how are we going to outsmart a politician while trying to solve a murder mystery on the side. It's worth a listen, but I was disappointed in the direction this book went.

Best one yet

This was the best book of the series. Did not want it to end!!! Heart, drama and funny moments!! Worth it

Entertaining and Thought Provoking

Another fun story from the Zoey universe. Jason Pargin is a great storyteller, and this one reflects on so many contemporary issues, without being preachy. I believe he’s among the great American writer/philosophers, even if his humor is a bit over the edge!

Fun, heart warming, goofy and weird

Fun, heart warming, goofy and weird. Who could ask for more? I started this series in the middle jusy looking for something to tide me over till another series I'm listening to came out with a new book. Super glad I did! I've now listened to all three out currently. Looking for more.

Ps I was not prepared to feel emotional about Zoey's adventure. But the end made an old man tear up. I hope ur happy 😊!

JP Does it again!

JP has done it again! Such an amazing read from start to finish. Absolutely cannot wait for the next book. This series just keeps getting better and has some of the best characters.

Grabbing life by the balls.

They exploded a dick! This book has it all. Would highly recommend over and over and over again. Read with hard alcohol and gird your loins for this dystopia.

I really hope there’s an next installment 

This is a good book. A good sequel to the first two. Some people on Goodreads mention the dude humor as a drawback, or how the author writes a female character, but I was familiar with the author’s writing and expected what I got with this. I still enjoy these books, and all of Jason Pargin stuff, it’s a great escape from my life with the humor and the outrageousness of everything when times are stressful.
My only describe with the performance of this book was the accent that reader gave the character of mega boss Alonzo. He’s a black dude and it’s jarring to hear him portrayed with a kind of Brooklynish mobster type accent.

I came for a book and found a mirror instead.

I’m a passionate fanboy of all Jason Pargin works and pre-ordered this at the first opportunity and waited patiently. The first act was bliss and continued the pace and tone of the first two books of the Zoe series. Then the second and third acts held up a mirror of our current political distopia that is playing out. It does so rather accurately and with little exaggeration.

I’m not a liberal but I came away certain that I can’t vote for a MAGA candidate. It laid bare the hypocrisy and naked self-serving ambition while not praising the alternative at all. In the end it made clear that you must decide between empowering brutality in the name of one version of order or letting things continue mostly as they have for the past 300 years. Our choices are always a bit bleak but lately one candidate favors throwing away our system entirely while claiming to want to return to better days. Logically that makes no sense and it takes a bit of a slap to break out from the spell. Society in the US(and most of the world) has continued in one direction for most of the last 500 years. It’s slow enough that you can’t always see the speed of progress while in it, but when you look back you can see that things have continually become a little better for most people. So when a candidate tells you that we are in a decline and only they can fix it and the whole system needs to be changed, you can be sure you are listening to a conman. Pargin highlights this with careful plot development and emphasizing character traits that seem cartoonish out of context but familiar in current politics.

My eyes are open and I hope we can eke out a similar continuation of society outside of the novel. I was also quite entertained for most of the book beyond some cringe and frustrating elements where social media users act like a wild mob and not like logical human beings on their own. It was realistic but hard to witness even in fiction. It’s all too familiar. In the book the choice came down to antipathy vs empathy and I suppose that is our choice in the real world as well,

I choose a world that fosters empathy and kindness at a basic level without qualifiers. I reject this notion that getting revenge is warranted and to be celebrated, by the same people who now claim we are a nation by and for Christians only. It’s absurdist and falls apart under cursory examination. Again, the book highlights this basic choice without proselytizing for one or the other.

Well done Mr Pargin. You have done your part. Hopefully readers take the lessons subconsciously, at least.

Classic Jason Pargin anecdotes weaved into a fun story

This is really all I want from a Zoey or JDATE novel. Check it out.

Another incredible story by Jason Pargin

Why is there to say? If you loved the first two books, you'll love this one. My only complaint is that it's over.