Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun

Four days before the 2016 Presidential Election, disgraced teacher Scott Bonneville foils a mass shooting at the Pizza Galley Family Fun Center by shooting the would-be perpetrator. He is hailed as a hero, but what the public doesn’t know is that Bonneville walked into Pizza Galley with violent intentions of his own, nurtured by urban myths, conspiracy theories, and deep-seated delusions. Meanwhile, his former student Blake Mesman, inspired by Catcher in the Rye and a not-so-secret brotherhood of aspiring alpha males, reshapes himself into the man he always felt he should be and embarks on his own journey of destruction.

A black-hearted satire of our new reality, Hashtag Good Guy With a Gun tells a story of the real carnage of Trump’s America: guns, the toxic radicalization of young men, fake news, the endless anger and resentment we feel towards one another, spirits broken by a world we refuse to acknowledge as of our own making, and how we convince ourselves of horrible absurdities, rather than face something even more disturbing: our own essential truth.
Notices

“A boots-on-the-ground dispatch from the suburban wastelands of Incel-vania (population: you), all told in the shadow of the Korean grim reaper. James Ellroy said noir is the genre of male self-pity, but there’s nothing to pity here in Chon’s smart, cogent, and morbidly comedic exploration of men’s breaking points. Ambitious, gripping, and snickeringly quotable.”


“Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun is one of the boldest, smartest, and weirdest books I’ve read in years. I haven’t seen anyone, anywhere, write so expertly, clearly, and empathetically about the ways online culture is wrecking young men. Jeff Chon pulls off a remarkable feat in this novel, tackling dark and frightening subject matter in a way that never feels overbearing or preachy. Plus, it’s funny.”

—Tom McAllister, author of How to Be Safe

“Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun is a rhizomatic literary thriller with bursts of Robert Anton Wilson’s cosmic comedy and sparks of Conrad’s darkness. Chon’s carefully crafted characters are the purple-hearted veterans of the culture wars, the feral philosophers and cagey sages of a post-truth #world. This is a nervy novel that will simultaneously frighten and delight.”

—Ryan Ridge, author of New Bad News

“Jeff Chon’s wide-ranging debut takes us deep down the rabbit hole. Chon’s web of characters seek meaning in the everyday as the chaos of our media-saturated world swirls around them. Hashtag Good Guy with a Gun bursts with humor, feeling, and timely commentary. Chon is an author you’ll want to follow.

Author: Jeff Chon

Publisher: Sagging Meniscus

Released Date: 2020

ISBN: 9781952386022