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How to Be a Vigilante: A Diary

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How to Be a Vigilante: A Diary

By: Luke Smitherd
Narrated by: Luke Smitherd
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About this listen

From the author of the international best-seller The Stone Man, shortlisted for Audible UK's Book of the Year Award 2015.

In the late 1990s, a laptop was found in a service station just outside of Manchester. It contained a digital journal entitled 'TO THE FINDER: OPEN NOW TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE!' Now, for the first time, that infamous diary is being published in its entirety.

It's 1998. The Internet age is still in its infancy. Google has just been founded. Eighteen-year-old supermarket shelf-stacker Nigel Carmelite has decided that he's going to become a vigilante.

There are a few problems: how is he going to even find crime to fight on the streets of Derbyshire? How will he create a superhero costume - and an arsenal of crime-fighting weaponry - on a shoestring budget? And will his history of blackouts and crippling social inadequacy affect his chances? This is Nigel's account of his journey; part diary, part deluded self-help manual, tragically comic and slowly descending into what is arguably Luke Smitherd's darkest and most violent novel.

What do you believe in? And more importantly, should you?

©2016 Luke Smitherd (P)2016 Luke Smitherd Crime Crime Fiction Dark Humour Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Superhero Vigilante Justice Exciting Funny Scary Witty Comedy

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All stars
Most relevant  
starts off jovial then comes the turn... effing brilliant book the first book to make me actually say "no....no way" 10/10 would recommend

Bloody brilliant

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Apparently, this was the first book Smitherd wrote and lost the manuscript. Then the movie KickAss came out which basically seems to be an exact copy of the first half of this book.

However, as much as I enjoyed KickAss, this was the gritty, Danny Boyle version of the shiny Hollywood version of a similar story.

Comedically great turning dark and psychologically disturbing, this book draws you in to a light hearted, laugh out loud story before flooring you with a deeply worrying insight into the mind of a disturbed young lad.

A great book and typically like nothing I have read before and typically different to his other books

Narrated brilliantly by Smitherd....a cracking listen

Fab - cracked out the park by Smitherd

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My first book by Luke S. Enjoyed it and will definitely listen to more by this guy.

Pretty good. Def worth a listen.

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Clever and darkly humorous treatment of the super hero genre set in the Midlands of England. Well read by the author.

Excellent

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This is the first Luke Smitherd book that I have read and I have to say that the buzz surrounding this author is well deserved, this is a gripping story that constantly has you yearning to hear more.

A cracking audiobook

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Loved it, different and engaging. Loved the story, loved the Audible reading of it, by the author.

Loved it, different and engaging.

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What can I say apart from if you’ve not read/listened to Mr Luke Smitherd, unlucky. You’d best get started and even though you’d be on a winner with any of his works your here looking at this review so makes sense to start right here with this novel. Seriously definitely in my top three authors. Keep up the excellent work Luke I’ve read/listened to all your books now so we’d best have something new in 2020

Brilliant as per usual

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I like different, I like unpredictable. This read was a disorientating journey from start to finish. When a story is told in the first person, they are typically the hero. With this narrator I was not sure whether to feel sorry for him, admire him, be angry with him or despise him. Each time I could foresee a way things could resolve, the tale took a different direction. A light read, but a heavy journey. I feel like I learned something ... but I can’t quite place what!

Untimely, I’m not sure this one was for me. Definitely not one I’d Go back to. Yet am I glad I read it?, yes. Luke Smithard is an author outside the typical mould, which always makes for interesting reading.

Always different

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I love luke smitherd's story's and how different they are to the "norm". Had me gripped from start to finish.

very enjoyable

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I'm not really sure why I liked this, but I did. I loved the first half which I found proper laugh out loud funny, imagining Nigel out and about in his superhero outfit, and then it all turned dark and sad. The Stone Man still remains my favourite of all Luke Smitherd's books but this was yet again something totally different and Luke's afterword explained a lot.
Looking forward to his next book coming out.

Strangely enjoyable

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