This is a grown-up coming of age travel story with plenty of spice and dark humor. The narrator dream walks through a playground of a world, where nothing seems like it can kill him. He's an anti-hero who, I suspect, a lot of adult readers won’t really get. It revolves around the powerlessness of a young idealist in a crushingly capitalistic world.  I, for one, can get behind this book because of the narrator's sense of humor about life and death.

He travels aimless, looking for meaning while still trying to remain his own free agent. If you’ve ever seen the movie I <3 Huckabees, this is a similar philosophical journey. In the plot: he steals from a non-profit which he helped co-found and uses the money to buy tickets to Japan. Once there, he promptly starts making a mess of his friend’s life by having too good of a time.

If you enjoy travel tales or stories with tomfoolery and unsavory vices you’ll find a lot to like about Lights Out. It may also give you some perspective on the downtrodden experience of youth in today’s uncertain world.