SUPERMARKET, by Bobby Hall (aka Logic) – A Book Review

SUPERMARKET is the 2019 debut novel from acclaimed rapper/producer/actor and, as of this writing, filmmaker Bobby Hall, aka Logic. Logic exploded onto the hip-scene in 2009 and has been a mainstay in the genre ever since. Logic’s complex lyrics and uncompromised rapping style tackle subjects like grief, struggle, self-realization, identity, race, violence, anxiety, and ultimately a message of peace, love, and positivity. His two biggest hits are “1-800-273-8255 (National Suicide Prevention Lifeline)” and “Homicide,” ft. Eminem.

Bobby made a splash recently by starring in Kevin Smith‘s The 4:30 Movie as Astro Blaster. The titular hero of the film-within-the-film, Astro Blaster and the Beaver Men. That collaboration marked the start of a beautiful friendship, and Hall has returned to the big screen with the film Paradise Records. Which he wrote, directed, and stars in. The picture, produced and edited by Kevin Smith, went to the venerated Tribeca Film Festival last week and delighted audiences with its blend of metacommentary and hilarious situational comedy. Indeed, a fresh new voice has arrived at the cinema.

Before that, however, Bobby Hall chose to channel his cinematic thoughts into a brash and brave debut novel, SUPERMARKET. Which hit the bookshelves in 2019. The cover art was a simple and ominous yellow script on a red background, reminiscent of the wildly popular “Stranger Things” phenomenon, and the connection doesn’t end there. I bought the book for my wife, who was a voracious reader at the time, and also a disciple at the altar of hip-hop, thinking she’d enjoy the intersection of her two passions.

She didn’t.

I don’t know that I should blame Logic for her love of reading evaporating overnight, but when I did pick up the book earlier this month I saw that she had read two chapters. Curiously, she never went back, to this or any book. Undeterred, I decided to read the book to coincide with the cinematic debut of the creator, and to my surprise, found that the first page of the book is a white page with large black script that reads “Written and Directed by Bobby Hall.” Clearly, your boy Logic has cinematic aspirations.

This is particularly true of SUPERMARKET, which is split into a Part One, Part Two, and an epilogue called “The End.” The book tells the story of Flynnigan Montgomery, a 24-year-old false-starter trying to complete something, anything. After meeting with a publisher and landing a lucrative book deal, Flynn decides he needs to work at the local supermarket to flesh out his novel about the mundanity of small-town life in a boring patch of Oregon. Once there, he meets the colorful characters. Their lives interchanging and affecting one another in irrefutable ways. However, not all is as it seems – Flynn has been dissociating, fracturing from reality due to grief and imposter syndrome and maybe even a few chemical imbalances, and the world of the supermarket becomes at once all-encompassing and microcosmic in relation to his own imagination.

The novel starts at the end, working forward through Flynn’s experiences, and we learn quickly that very little is to be taken at face value. Hall understands foreshadowing, and I recently reread the first two chapters to review just how much attention is paid to continuity and prescience. The overall theme and arc of the novel are ambitious and well planned, and a pervasive sense of humor keeps the proceedings from weighing too heavily on the reader. Some of the language choices in the exposition are elementary, but as the story is told in first person from a frequently fourth-wall breaking narrator, that is forgiven.

If I had one criticism of the novel it would be that all the characters sound the same. Having seen The 4:30 Movie and Paradise Records, I know Bobby Hall’s voice, and I would read the narrator in his voice. However, I noted that I could do that with all of the characters, far too easily. The authority figures, the love interests, even Flynn’s mother all sound like Bobby Hall, in both tone and word choices. It sounds like the fantasy of a lonely boy making the world around him, which is what a lot of fiction is, to be honest.

SUPERMARKET is a fun read, full of colloquialisms, modern vernacular, clever jokes, references, callbacks, and a carefully monitored narrative thread. You’ll enjoy this book if you enjoy Logic as an entertainer, Fight Club, “The Office,” “Superstore,” and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but think they’d all sound better with more Kevin Smith-inspired dialogue, SUPERMARKET is for you. Hall has since published two more books – a science fiction novel called Ultra 85 in 2024 and a memoir called This Bright Future in 2021 – and I’ll likely check those out thanks to his conversational writing tone and candid honesty in storytelling. Paradise Records is still looking for distribution and making the festival circuit, but with the cameos and acumen behind the film, it’s only a matter of time until it hits theaters or streaming. In the meantime, if you want something cinematic from Bobby Hall, you can pick that up in aisle nine at the SUPERMARKET.

SUPERMARKET: 7/10

So, have you read SUPERMARKET? Or Ultra 85 or This Bright Future? Have you seen The 4:30 Movie and are you looking forward to Paradise Records? Let us know your thoughts below and remember to check out our other Book Reviews on the site and let us know what you’d like to see reviewed. Cheers, nerds!