AUDIO – BOOK REVIEW –
April 14, 2025 – If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em on a multi-day, drunk-driving road trip in middle-class middle of America to find their missing father with a garbage goth girl named Yivi whom they met two weeks ago in an Airbnb basement. That seems to be the mantra for “Make Sure You Die Screaming,” Zee Carlstrom’s debut novel from Flatiron Books. The first-person narration follows no-name Gunderson, nonbinary queer person, at what surely must be their rock-bottom. They stole their ex-boyfriend Clinton’s car to drive from Chicago to Arkansas. Also the protagonist has killed their best friend, lost their job, and took an oath of radical honesty.
So yes, if you were immediately skeptical about this fun, road trip adventure novel due to the clear lack of morals, you’d be right to hesitate. But it’s not all drunken rages and horrible decisions in a misguided attempt to punch back at late-stage capitalism.
