Book Review: SOFT TARGETS by Carson Winter

Wow, what an INSANE book.

First of all, let me just say that Soft Targets is probably not for everyone; if you are easily triggered by violence—especially gun violence—you may want to stay clear. That being said, if you can handle it, I think you should read it. I kind of think everyone living in the U.S. should read this.

Yeah—I think Soft Targets is essential American reading, especially for the day and age we find ourselves in.

Here is a singular work that effectively, and yes, violently, satirizes our current desensitized, capitalistic workaholic culture and more specifically, our culture of gun violence (and our growing desensitization to it). Yes, the violence is hard to read—like, really hard to read at certain points—but it HAS to be. It's part of the point Winter is trying to make, how violence stains the soul and psyche. And I can't help but think the timey-wimey Groundhog Day framework that serves as the impetus for this story is also an inspired commentary on how we, as Americans, seem to be living the same horrific day over and over and over again when it comes to mass shootings.

All said, Carson Winter's Soft Targets is an absurdly bleak, excoriating reflection of the even bleaker, more horrifically absurd reality we find ourselves living in today.