Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson | Teen Ink

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

May 14, 2013
By Anonymous

The first sentence reads “ We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold...” A few lines later Dr. Hunter S. Thompson describes swarms of non-existent bats attacking a red convertible. Maybe I’m weird but I found all of this very amusing and thought it was a very good book. Humans turn into reptiles, a friend appears as a devil out of a horror film, and the complete breakdown and attempted suicide in a bathtub. All at the hand of a drug driven weekend in Las Vegas. Thompson draws people in with an outrageous start to the book and once he’s there he never lets up.
The first three pages of the book set the tempo for the rest of the book, going down the highway in a rented car drunk, on acid, and smoking a joint. Then Raoul Duke (the character based on Hunter S. Thompson in this autobiographical novel) decides to stop for a hitch hiker. Hitch hiker are usually stereotypically weird or dangerous but when picked up by a fat Samoan lawyer and a crazy looking man wearing a hawaiian shirt and green sunglasses, they seem like the dangerous ones. This first scene really sets the tone for the rest of the book. That tone being the humorous and messed up kind.
The idea of a drug filled weekend in Vegas filled with every kind of upper, downer, and hallucinogen imaginable doesn’t sound too funny. But when Thompson put it down on paper with his insane metaphors and crazy style of writing it turns into something that will make you laugh out loud.
After reading this book I really became interested in the author as well. Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is one of the most interesting people I have ever read about. With his own style of Gonzo journalism, where he puts himself into the story but as another character that is not himself, that really makes for a better read. That along with his notorious exaggerations of everything and his very outspoken opinions of people and ideas make him one of my favorite authors to read.
When combined Thompson’s ability to pull you in and keep you reading makes it a very funny and overall great book. It’s unlike anything I have ever read before, and probably one of only books I’ll enjoy reading all that much. And it all started with a journalist with a button up shirt on smoking a cigarette talking to himself.



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