Black Bag

by Luke Kennard

In Luke Kennard's audacious new novel, a penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr Blend's students react to someone zipped into on oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of autumn term lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own, in particular can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag? Meanwhile, the actor's childhood friend and flatmate forms a vision for monetising this new situation...

A warped campus novel, an investigation into the crisis of masculinity and an off-kilter love story, Black Bag is a firework of a blazingly funny and profoundly humane.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Literary Fiction, Humor, Literature, Book Club, Novels

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 2026

Reviews

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4

Black Bag is a bizarre but compelling novel that follows an unnamed out of work actor who gets a job where he is required to sit in lectures from inside a black bag. Dr Blend, who employs the actor, insists he remain silent and not move; he must not speak to the students and preferably arrive and leave as black bag.

As the experiment continues the actor becomes more comfortable remaining as black bag outside of the classroom and the results of his non-interactions with others begins to bring about surprising results.

Perhaps to appreciate the weird nature of the book it should be noted that the original black bag experiment was first conducted by Charles Goetzinger in 1967 at Oregon State University.

In the original experiment it was the students reactions that were observed but Luke Kennard has flipped this on its head by being solely interested in the person inside the bag.

Black Bag is strange, surprising, funny in parts, most definitely not like anything I've read before and it makes me want to read more of his work.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Zando for the digital review copy.

[Hayden Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh god, I just adored this. I’d read a thousand more pages about Black Bag, then turn back to the beginning and read them all again.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The world disappointed them, so they disappointed the world."

There’s no sugarcoating this, so I won’t even try. The cover for this is one of the weirdest I have ever seen. We all know my fondness of weird, that meant that this was a no brainer for me. Weird it was but also disappointing.

I wasn’t sure how the author would take a simple idea and turn it into a full fledged novel, but here we are and the outcome wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped. Now, parts of this were absolutely ridiculous and enjoyable. While others were dull and stretched out. Plus that conclusion bored me. I almost given up on this a few times but there was something about this that kept me going. It was a car wreck and you couldn’t help but look at it.

My favorite character was Justine. She was totally wild and I loved her. You never knew what was going to come out of her mouth, plus she was a straight up freak and didn’t care who knew. She was perfect. I swear, her character was the only standout one.

‘Black Bag’ was an interesting tale but about two hundred pages too long. There were a lot of unnecessary situations happening and it just wasn’t interesting. Everything that took place around campus had me intrigued, other than that I wasn’t impressed. It was worth the read once but definitely not an instant classic.

[Charlie Alcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are all black bag, and such.

[Anuradha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the kinda book that has many, many deep and introspective things to say about society, art, sexuality, identity, the nature of man, and the inherent loneliness of performing a part in our lives everyday, but you're distracted by the fact that there's a man walking around pant-less in a black leather bag. Hate when that happens.

This also reminded me that I still have no idea what tf an NFT is and why anyone would ever be stupid enough to invest in it. Maybe that's why I haven't made it big yet.

[Tara :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully crafted, strange but not overly so, story. Not for everyone but definitely for me. WOW.

[Heather Flaherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to #Netgalley and #ZandoProjects for the book #BlackBag by #LukeKennard. This book is about a struggling actor who is hired to sit in a black bag and not say or interact with the students. It is to see how the students will interact with the bag.

[Salty Swift · Rating 4 out of 5]

When an unemployed London actor gets recommended to a professor for his latest assignment, the last thing he'd expected was to spend the next few months walking around the university campus dressed in a large black bag. What starts off as an absurd experiment (based on a real one from 1967) turns into a performance and then becomes nothing but dull reality. Wonderful and quirky take on the male ego and all its feral permutations.

[maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

unexpectedly kinky in a way i really enjoyed. a good meditation on art and being an artist in 2026 - are we ever really doing things for a greater theme or just for attention? what is the point when nothing we create or do is probably wholly 100% original? how do we justify creation when everything creative has to be churned through capitalism? how do we justify creation when the chance of our work being put through AI slop models is high? is there even a point to doing it anymore?

but also. kind of messy and meandering in a way where ymmv. i was obsessed with this until the 75% mark where it lost me a little. saw a few reviews saying this was "fine until the dog started talking and there was weird sex" which is hilarious bc that all starts like 30 pages in and also was deeply cool and worth picking it up alone for.

[Lydia Hephzibah]

DNF @ 10%

Setting: UK
Rep: n/a

Sometimes I wish we could read samples on Netgalley as, unless you already know the author, a request is based only on a cover and a description. Based on those this sounded right up my street but I just can't bear the writing style and after 10% I realized I was just annoyed and getting more annoyed and if I push through, chances are I'll regret it.

[Jainaba Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tailed off a bit at the end but 5 stars because it made me laugh so much. Excited to read more of his stuff.

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Black Bag by Luke Kennard is a book I can honestly say wasn’t written for a reader like me. I only found it moderately funny I did think once Justine joined the story it would get better and it did a bit but not enough to save it I found hardly anything that was entertaining to me I didn’t like his best friend Claudio but then again there were many things I didn’t like about this book. Someone will like it I did not read it at your own risk. #NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview,

[Dr. Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre experience this was. A struggling actor is hired to sit in a black bag in the back of a college psychology class. And some weird things happen. I actually started to enjoy this more as it slipped into the absurd towards the end. I think I wish it had gone ~full weird~ instead of mostly being grounded in reality. Thanks Zando for sending me an early copy!

[rookisaghost · Rating 5 out of 5]

an irreverent and grossly intimate exploration of the narrator and our intentional and unintentional destructions of identities in a modern world. also, as said by another reviewer, unexpectedly kinky. not exclusively or perhaps at all about sexual assault, but certainly about weird sex, and about the desire for or habit of dissociation from sex that is happening to you

[Olive Anju · Rating 5 out of 5]

New favourite genre is weird dudes just trying to get by.

[J. Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rough one, because it has a message and in summary it sounds weird and right up my alley. However, I unfortunately found it rather dull and too long for what it gives back to the reader. This is based on a real psychology experiment, but it felt like either the idea needed to be a novella or that something of more substance needed to be in the prose. A lot of the scenes blended (ha, ironic given the researcher’s name) together and therefore felt repetitive.

I don’t want to only talk negatively, though! The examination of masculinity — specifically the crisis of masculinity — was biting. There were critiques of everything from new school “gamer bros” to old school “refined masculinity” and everything in between. It was full of deep questions about the human condition and how we relax into the comfortable regardless what we personally find comfortable and regardless whether we even wanted that to be “comforting”. I guess I just wish the book’s bones had been filled out differently. It’s not a bad idea, it’s just not executed for me as a reader.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

You Too Could Have a Body Like Mine but for British masculinity… fascinating

[Megan James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be thinking about Black Bag, & the philosophical questions it raises about life/art/love/meaning, for a very long time.

[Chelsea (gofetchabook)]

I liked the premise behind this book, but I was bored from the start and didn’t even get to the actual story. It just didn’t hook me.

[Kaysey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Black Bag

[Megan Magee · Rating 3 out of 5]

An out of work actor- a starving artist- strikes out when it comes to jobs and anyone worthy of keeping his steady attention. When a professor hires him to linger inside of a black bag during his lectures, with the explanation of a social experiment as the reasoning, our MC begins a quite intense exploration of self and relationships. The bag can represent a plethora or things to me- oppression, delineation, submission, sameness. It is up to the reader to choose the "why" for the entirety/ maybe majority of this one. The writing is jilted, sometimes jarring in its lilt, and the way the dialogue is written at times makes this a confusing combination. Our MC is the type to smoke one cigarette a year, and that's kind of his personality throughout. There wasn't a ton about him I didn't find bland, but that may be the point here. I'd like it to have been a bit shorter- I think this would have caused me to rate it higher. Thanks so much to Zando and Netgalley for the digital eARC. All opinions are entirely my own.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very strange book. I love a good weird book, and enjoyed many aspects of this one. It's a unique premise and has a lot of fun and interesting moments. I found myself wishing for more plot, though. There wasn't anything to propel you forward as a reader. I kept being like "where is this going? is it going somewhere or nowhere?" In the final 25% or so, I thought he was going to pull off some really cool, mind-blowing ending, but I feel like it fizzled and fell apart a bit.

I loved the scene with black bag paddling the swan paddleboat to the warehouse. That was WILD.

I hated the scenes with Elliott the dog.

There were a lot of odd choices, like representing his parents as stones, that I didn't know what to make of them.

I did love the love between him and Claudio. That was really sweet.

An interesting book. Didn't do a ton for me in the end, but it might for you!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Erin Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this was fabulous, and some of it was really boring. I think I wish it was a collection of short stories rather than a novel. Or perhaps just 100 pages shorter. It doesn't feel like there's enough here to support 350 pages, and it gets kind of scattered.

But there are passages and moments that are hilarious, witty, absurd, well-said. I appreciate a lot of the writing, and some moments really shine. So it was worth the read, but I did get tired toward the end.

The concept was silly and fresh - man takes job to wear a black bag that covers everything but his feet, and he starts to really like it. I might have liked it more if it got more absurd and satirical than it did. Or if it picked a lane - Justine and the sexual realtionship, Claudio and the monetization, Blend and the experiment - there's just a lot going on that felt unevenly developed.

I think I'd like a short story collection from Kennard if he ever wrote one.

[Elliot Joseph Burr]

really funny smart charismatic but missing something -- has that issue literary novels sometimes have where there's barely any plot for the first 80% (fine i guess) but then the writer remembers you're supposed to have a climax and so all incident is backloaded in the last 50 pages. in this case the problem is exacerbated by the fact that much of this last-minute plot happens off-page and is left to exposition by characters who've been having a more interesting time than the protagonist

could also have done with flashier sentences but that's just me i guess

still i feel very warmly towards this thing and will refrain from giving it the 3 stars i feel it deserves so as not to reduce its rating

(justine is hot)

[Aliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uhhhh??? A wild and weird journey of an out of work actor looking to make some cash wearing a black bag as part of a psych experiment and the weird ways it changes his perception of self and the world. Minus points for the ending, it felt deflated and aimless.

[Chelsea Knowles]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.*

Black Bag follows an actor who gets a job working for a university professor. The professor is conducting a psychological experiment so the actor will need to sit in the lecture theatre wearing a black bag with eyeholes cut out. The professor is doing the experiment to see how the students will react and whilst this is going on the actor meets another professor and has a relationship with her.

To be completely honest this wasn’t for me. I thought this would be good because of the strange premise but it just didn’t pay off for me. I didn’t understand this and none of it made sense to me. It just felt like a lot of words to say nothing. That said, I would recommend this for readers who like strange books and are willing to take a chance on a different kind of story.

[Ashley Moen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was real weird

[Vee 27 · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the reviews told me it was "laugh out loud funny". Not once did I crack a smile. I was somewhat entertained for a day, though. This book was fine.

[Mybookish.odyssey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️/4
I can definitely say, this is not my average type of book. It is a quirky book! The book is about a out-of-work actor; down on his lap unable to maintain employment he ultimately picks up a job working for Dr. Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment.
Part of this employment entails him spending most of his day during lectures and on campus in a black bag .There are several funny movements throughout the book and main character is interesting to say the least.
I really enjoyed the premises of the book. It did make me ponder in regards to what the “black bag”actually could represent; so needless to say I was roped into the psychological aspect.
I must admit there was some elements in the story that was unclear throughout the book and the pace was a bit slow.
I was especially surprise on how the book ended.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Zando Projects for this advanced reader copy.

[Marcus Mackenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The strangest book I have read in a really long time. It’s decisively weird, which is sort of what I was looking for when I started it, but I fear I may just be basic, cause it didn’t really do it for me.