***Disclaimer: This article may contain spoilers***
Everyone always says, “never judge a book by its cover,” but I am a hypocrite who almost always judges a book by it’s cover. As I was walking through Books-A-Million a small, bright red cover caught my eye. The book was entitled Supermarket. It seemed like such a simple title, but the book inside was anything but simple.
Supermarket is the debut novel of Bobby Hall, but he is better known as the rapper Logic. I was a little skeptical about reading a novel written by a rapper because I have seen artists try to go out of their element before and completely flop. Surprisingly, this book was no flop. I loved it.
Before I even read the synopsis of a book I read the first line. I was immediately hooked. Here’s the synopsis from Simon and Schuster.
“Flynn is stuck—depressed, recently dumped, and living at his mom’s house. The supermarket was supposed to change all that. An ordinary job and a steady check. Work isn’t work when it’s saving you from yourself. But things aren’t quite as they seem in these aisles. Arriving to work one day to a crime scene, “Flynn’s world collapses as the secrets of his tortured mind are revealed. And Flynn doesn’t want to go looking for answers at the supermarket. Because something there seems to be looking for him. A darkly funny psychological thriller, Supermarket is a gripping exploration into madness and creativity. Who knew you could find sex, drugs, and murder all in aisle nine?”
The novel is not the first time Logic has addressed mental health issues in his work: His song “1-800-273-8255,” titled after the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, started a conversation around the stigma of mental health after it debuted in 2017. Supermarket addresses a lot of mental health issues and in an interview with the New York Times, Logic said a lot of his research for the novel was very personal and stemmed from personal experiences.
NYT-“Supermarket” deals with a number of mental health issues — from anxiety and depression to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. What research did you do before writing the book?
Logic- The research I did was all personal. I had an anxiety attack and almost passed out when I was in line to see “Star Wars” in December 2015. I was in the most depressed, anxiety-ridden place of my life. My mother was bipolar. She took heavy medication to deal with it, and I grew up with friends who were schizophrenic, so I experienced that firsthand.
One of my favorite parts of the book is the frequent fourth-wall-breaking moments, where Flynn directly addresses the reader. These moments are often quite humorous, settling the reader in before the story gets darker. It’s a very unique writing style, further developing Flynn’s character.
Another concept I found really interesting is the fact that Supermarket is like reading a book within a book. I have never really read anything with this concept before. I felt like I was reading the novel being written in the book while becoming invested in the characters created in the novel being written and the characters they were being based on. The way characters are described and the way conversations are written made me feel like I was right in the middle of all the action.
Additionally, another unique aspect of Supermarket is Logic released an album to go with it by the same name. While Bobby is more well known for his hip-hop style of music, the album leans more towards alternative rock and feels more like artists such as Mac DeMarco and Tame Impala, who are some of Flynn’s favorite artists in the book.
The inclusion of actual songs from artists and actual books made the story come to life for me. I would look up songs the main character would mention and listen to them while I read the scene. It made me feel very involved in the story. I think the addition of music is one way Logic intended on making readers feel more personally connected to the story.
Supermarket is exciting and has some crazy turn of events in the story. The book had so much depth and detail. The story was very well-written and exceeded the expectations I had for it. Once I started reading I couldn’t put the book down. This book was an easy read that didn’t complicate things with complex wording. It made it easy to truly enjoy the story at hand. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in psychologic thriller type books.