LitPick Review
Please Let Me Destroy You is a contemporary fiction book by Rupert Taylor that tells the story of a young man as he strives through adventures to find his true self. Apollo's goal is to publish a TV series. As a filmmaker, he tried his best to provide evidence of his filmmaking skills, but it always did not end well. While searching for some social media content for a company, he stumbled upon a young lady named Nhu and the two got acquainted and were in a relationship for a while. Soon, things began to take a drastic turn when Apollo began his adventures of traveling to countries. One of the places he traveled to was Cambodia where he was introduced to a casino heist by Uncle Frank, a man he was staying with. Seeing that this could be the first story for his TV series, he decided to join Uncle Frank. He told Nhu about the heist and urged her to join him as he was sure it would end up well, but she refused. At last, he ended up going, unsure of what series of events lay ahead. Do you think he would end up being successful? And if things did not turn out well, what do you think might happen?
Opinion:
The book focuses on Apollo and the struggles he had to deal with to make his filmmaking job a success. Most times he got rejected, and other times, people did not see him as a real filmmaker. Despite all these, he did not stop searching for stories to kickstart his TV series plan, even if it meant stealing his best friend's story and doing away with the people he loved. It actually shows the length through which people go to be able to reach their desired place. I came to like the relationship between Apollo and Nhu, but when Nhu strictly told him not to contact her, I felt sad because Apollo really liked her, but he screwed the whole relationship up. Furthermore, the friendship that existed between Apollo and Anaru was something I also liked. When Apollo was new to Japantown, he would always see Anaru and one day he walked up to him requesting a room for karaoke and that was how their relationship started. It was going smoothly, even though it did not end well due to Apollo's selfishness. The characters suited the story and the names which were Vietnamese fitted them as well. Even though the characters played their roles well, I did not like Uncle Frank; the action of cutting Apollo's pinky finger because of a failed heist was just too much and more so very gross. I felt sorry for Apollo for going through that.
The plot itself is fast-paced, and the author's writing and use of understandable language made it easy to read. The book can be considered an adventure story as I read about Apollo's travel to places and countries like Cambodia, Sydney, and even Japantown where he experienced life and got to meet Anaru who ended up becoming his friend. Apart from that, the novel was spiced up with a bit of humor by Apollo, the main character. For example, on page 169, he made a joke about forcing himself to eat the remaining nine of his fingers if he did not make money due to the failure of his TV series. The addition of humor balanced Apollo's sad life, and I got to giggle and let out a soft laugh at some points. Overall, I would describe the novel as an engrossing one and one that I would love to read again.
