Out On the Drink by Bill Bunn

Out On the Drink Reviews

• 
  Amanda (abookishinvasion)

  Actual Rating: 1 Star
  
  Trigger Warnings:Alcohol abuse, physical abuse
  
  I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
  
  I just want to get this out there right now: if you have a phobia of rats or are at all uncomfortable with vivid and, at times, disturbing discussion of rats then you don't want to go near this book. There are some things you can't unread.
  
  I don't think there is anything I liked about this book. The characters were flat, even the main character who directly addresses the reader on many occasions. The writer is creative in some ways, but it needed serious editing. There were typos and misused words everywhere. Beyond that, there were so many inconsistencies, plot holes, and just things that don't make sense that they were impossible to overlook.
  
  There was almost no plot. For most of the book, the main character is stuck on a boat where nothing happens besides him talking to the rats, and doing a poor job of surviving.
  
  Overall, between the mediocre writing and editing, rats, vomit, and being stuck on a boat where nothing happens for 50% of the book I was bored and slightly nauseated.
• 
  Fran

  This is a tale of survival....from the clutches of a severely dysfunctional family, to being stranded at sea. At times this was hard to stomach, but ultimately hard to put down. Not your average adventure tale....
• 
  Lisa

  I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review... even if my review is not a positive one.
  
  The story for Out on the Drink was fine, if a little oddly paced. You spend a good 80% of the book kind of drifting (pun intended) until suddenly BAM! - everything happens all at once and you really have to keep up if you don't want to miss everything. And even then, you'll miss things, because a lot of points just aren't explained as clearly as they could be.
  
  For example (and I'd say "Spoilers!" but...), why did the people are Carly's party send Sean to the cruise ship? Did they intend to have him stranded in the middle of the ocean, slowly dying of thirst and starvation? When what's-his-name said "I'm going to save your life" did he intend to actually help Sean with his drinking problem? Did they plan any of this, or were the really just going to give Sean that bottle of gin if he succeeded? It's all very confusing. And by confusing, I mean convenient.
  
  And that may be my biggest problem with the story. Everything that happens in the story is convenience. Sean conveniently gets stranded at sea (although I'm still calling possibly pre-meditated attempted murder from Sean's classmates), Sean conveniently finds such-and-such items on board, Sean... conveniently gets rescued, and then pirates attack, and then I think he nearly gets made into a slave? I'm not sure, everything happened very quickly...
  
  It wasn't an awful story - self-discovery, character-focused plots are my favourite, but there just wasn't much too it, especially with handling such a heavy subject like alcoholism (and it's very hard to believe Sean would just be left in this self-abusive lifestyle. Other characters obviously knew he had a problem, but no one did anything? Teachers? That one bus driver? Literally no-one thought to help this obviously self-destructive minor?). It could have been handled better, I guess is my thoughts on it.
  
  Here, I feel like I would have gone on to talk about the characters, but there really is only one and it's Sean. Everyone else is just the backdrop to his story and there wasn't much need to pay any attention to them. Sean, like the story, was fine, but (and I mean this is the gentlest kind of way) has the author never spoken to a real 16 year old before? I'm glad Sean reminds us of his age every now and then, otherwise you could read the story thinking Sean was an old man. Although I'll admit, his dialogue was one of the highlights, even if they were mostly dad-jokes...
  
  Overlooking the grammar mistakes (which I can forgive, being a ARC), what's left is story that's... fine. I can't say I was bored reading, but I also wasn't on the edge of my seat weeping away with Sean and his struggles, which is a shame because I feel like it really could have worked. A little bit of extra care and a comb-through of the story, and there definitely could be something wonderful there.
• 
  Nic

  Reviewed for Netgalley
  If you can ignore the many, many typos, misspellings, missing words, and misused words, Bill Bunn’s Out on the Drink is an engaging, unique tale which follows young alcoholic Sean on his biggest, dumbest blunder yet. In the middle of Newfoundland snow storm, he accepts a dare to climb aboard an abandoned cruise ship, where he promptly passes out and awakens much later to find that the ship has torn aware from its moorings and is adrift on the ocean.
  
  Sean must learn not only how to live without alcohol, but how to live alone on a decrepit ship with little water and food that expired almost three years prior to his misadventure. His very survival depends on it.
  
  Bunn did a nice job with the pacing of the story. Sean’s stint aboard the Lyubov Orlova slows the momentum a bit, but I think that was intentional to show how long Sean is stuck aboard the cruise ship and how lonely he is during this time. The pace definitely picks up again when company comes aboard.
  
  The story is original and engaging. Despite Sean’s many stupid mistakes, I found myself hoping he and his ship-imposed sobriety would both survive. I recommend this book despite the many errors.
  
• 
  Violet

  I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
  Don't read this book, okay?
  
  This book has little plot.
  Grammatical and spelling errors (at least the ARC I read did).
  An excessive amount of gross things described in detail.
  
  I have to say the last 50 pages of the book were the most interesting, but not interesting enough to read through the other 150 plus pages to get to.
• 
  RedRobinXXX

  I am reviewing this book for Bill Bunn, Biting Duck Press, and NetGalley who gave me a copy of their book for an honest review.
  I usually like adventure / survival stories but I found this one so hard to get into.