Friday, March 10, 2023

Book Review: "Your Driver is Waiting" by Priya Guns

Your Driver is Waiting is a darkly satirical, thought-provoking look at our culture of protest and selfishness.

Damani is a rideshare (like Uber or Lyft) driver who lives in an unnamed city. Since her father died at his fast-food job, she’s been taking care of her mother, barely scraping by, living paycheck to paycheck. (In order to eke out a living, she has to drive constantly, despite the rules set by her employer.)

All throughout the city there are protests for every conceivable cause and issue. At the same time, the rideshare drivers are banding together to protest their pay constantly getting cut and other adverse conditions.

One day, Damani picks up Jolene, a beautiful white woman. Their attraction to one another is evident and their chemistry is palpable. Damani has never dated anyone with money before (especially a white woman), but Jolene seems to get her. They quickly fall into a relationship, which seems perfect—until Damani discovers that Jolene isn’t quite who she seems to be.

I’ve heard this book is a gender-flipped adaptation of Taxi Driver, but I didn’t feel that. It seemed to me like the book wanted to provide sharp social commentary but at the same time be a romance, and those two styles didn’t quite mesh. I’ll admit I don’t love when authors play coy with the locale of their book, so I found it difficult to completely settle into the culture.

I’ve seen some strong reviews of this, so it might just be me. Give it a shot if the description intrigues you.

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