Chameleon in a Candy Store

by Anonymous

Anonymous is back with the intoxicating, darkly dangerous, and wildly addictive sequel to his New York Times bestselling debut novel Diary of an Oxygen Thief. Picking up the story where it left off, the controversial protagonist of cult classic Diary of an Oxygen Thief retools his advertising skills to seduce women online. It's a pursuit that quickly becomes a dangerous fixation, often requiring even more creativity and deception than his award-winning ad campaigns. Dazzling, daunting, and darkly hilarious, this spellbinding sequel is a spectacular indictment of a modern love twisted beyond recognition. This title was previously published as Chameleon on a Kaleidoscope.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Poetry, Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Adult, Audiobook

195 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Hope Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

very happy the author was anonymous, i wanted to fight him the whole time (:

[Alain · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't want to talk about it.

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Diary of an Oxygen Thief was so spectacular, and this one....just...wasn't. I don't know. Maybe I got sick of listening to the dude ramble about sex for so long (Spoiler alert: it's the whole book). The writing gets pretty meta at times, too, which normally I enjoy, but I'm not sure it worked for this narration. I'm just "meh" about this one. It lacked the fire the first one had.

[sawah · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars only because one of anon's girlfriends nicknames him 'poopie-head'

[Meli · Rating 1 out of 5]

Same sociopathic anon narrator from 02 Thief meets girl via online dating. Narrator tells readers that she's very attractive and that her ass is nice. Narrator sleeps with her. Narrator moves on to the next girl. Repeat. That's it, that's literally the whole book.

*Mark Cuban Voice* And for that reason, I'm out.

[Kerran Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sequel to Diary of an Oxygen Thief is just as dark and sexual, and the narrator just as unlikable. But even though he's unlikable his voice is so honest and that really hooked me in. I really enjoyed both of these books, though I don't know who I would recomend them to as they are pretty twisted.

[Abbie Ainsley · Rating 1 out of 5]

If reading 200 pages of an incels inner monologue is your ideal friday night, then this is the perfect book for you

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

this series will never fail to make me so pissed off in men. i hated how much i was intrigued by it. hearing from the authors side of life events is really weird.

[sophie weeb · Rating 3 out of 5]

he was like kind of nicer in this one

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s so much worse than the first one, I totally get why the author is anonymous

[honeybean · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the first in this series, 'Diary of an Oxygen Thief', seemed somewhat Bukowski-esque to me (in the way women are portrayed, criticized, sexualized, etc), this book just seems like a lame ploy for the author to make more money. Indeed the degradation of women continues, and the thoughtless ploys for attention are stated by the author (making a fake woman-dating online account to sell more copies is clearly written about, as well as the author including an interaction "outing" him as the author (Oh whoops, I accidentally mentioned my company's name in the first book?! On page 109...oh golly, please go check it out. and oh yeah guys, I'm the guy! I'm that guy who wrote the first anonymous book!) lol what a creep.

[An-chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Or maybe I yearned for the familiarity of unhappiness, choosing self-sabotage over uncertainty. I'd rather fuck it up than not know."


This book is so brutally honest it hurts. The feelings and emotions so raw you could see through the fantasized version of a perfect relationship. When you are so lonely for so long and just so used in fucking every relationship you ever had, you'd think that love is just the same story over and over again, people playing a part repeatedly and with different muses every time. It's reliving a moment in your life when you wanted to escape the silence so you try to fall in love with someone as desperate to get out the drowning void of loneliness. This book is not about the best love story of your life. This is what happened between here and there. The obscured pages of getting where you are now, the people you met, the briefest love you shared, the secret you're too ashamed to admit. Go on, read and feast on your own guilt.



The saddest part in the book is that when he realized that he was finally happy, he wasn't able to accept that he is allowed to be happy and that he was so paranoid waiting for the moment when he realized that he made a mistake, played the part of a fool and got hurt again. So what he does is that he sabotaged his already perfect relationship because the more he felt happy, the more it will hurt in the future. So why not end it now and save himself from more agony? It's twisted, yea. But broken people have their own ways of protecting themselves even if it means hurting their own feelings in the end.

[Thelma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, this one is definitely like a 3-3.5/5 book. Like it wasn’t good but it wasn’t bad either. If anything I felt more played because I could see how it is a continuation but at the same time not.

❊❊❊❊❊The Review❊❊❊❊❊
(might contain some spoilers)

There were a LOT of women in this book. If people hated the first book because of graphic nature, then this one definitely took the cake between both works. It was graphic because it felt too real to be considered fiction. The experience the narrator had with women spans not only experiences within America but also abroad, along with internalized notions of what he deemed to be ‘americanism’. So it honestly led me to wonder how men outside of America act, more than anything because everything came back to him wanting to be in New York.

What had been difficult about this book would definitely be the timeline of this book. I felt that it was breaking the fourth wall more than what I had been anticipating. Because it seemed as though this was written during the publication process of Diary of an Oxygen Thief. So the timeline for that also felt off as I am assuming he was in his mid thirties when it was written and now he was in forties, essentially I was confused of the span of this book more than I thought I would be.

What made up for this had been the theme of love. It really goes to show that our narrator did in fact want it but would end up sabotaging it. There is something about it could simply be based on his experience with love, in the sense that he barely received it from his parents and also he was sexaully abused as minor by a celergyman, which ultimately manifested in a twisted reasoning behind how relationships should be treated. There is more that could be unpacked with the problems but that requires a more literary-tuned person compared to a casual reader.

❊❊❊❊❊Quotes that might convince you to read❊❊❊❊❊
“Broken people learn how to keep the peace at the expense of our own needs, We merged into any given situation. When two chameleons successfully take on each other’s hues, there is nothing there.”

“She was getting too close to the inner sanctum, She was almost in. With my defenses reduced to rubble around me, I felt it was time to surrender or self-destuct, Or maybe I yearned for the familiarity of unhappiness, choosing self-sabotage over uncertainty, I’d rather fuck it up than not know.”

“I had become that most dangerous of propositions: a beautiful girl with the mind of a man.”

[Sydney Reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The addictive quality of the Oxygen Thief Diaries, for me, lies in the voice of Anonymous. I can't think of a book in which I despised the narrator as much as him. However, I think it is because Anonymous is so horrific and HONEST a person that I keep reading. This unabashed insight into such a mind is somewhat rare in a world of altruistic protagonists. The sequel to Diary of an Oxygen Thief presents Anonymous in a light that shows his shortcomings and weaknesses without making him vulnerable and deserving of sympathy. Without a doubt, I will keep reading.

[Evangeline Polymeneas · Rating 4 out of 5]

As anyone who’s seen me recently knows, I loved diary of an oxygen thief - it’s catapulted to one of my favourite all time books, so when I discovered it was the first of a trilogy I was beyond excited. This book was great! It just was missing that gruesome, brutal, edge that made the first book in the series such an enamouring read. I will continue with the series out of respect and pray the third returns to the series’ masterful roots.

[lucyann · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/5⭐️

i want to wash my eyes with bleach and lose all recollection of reading this book

[Ruby Chessell · Rating 3 out of 5]

the ending wasn’t adequate, in fact, made the whole book seem worthless.

[Myrah · Rating 1 out of 5]

yeah okay yeah alright whatever yeah

[Ruby Lyons ♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

"After all, I didn't want anyone else. To me she was perfect. Yes, of course, I saw attractive women every- where, but compared to Marian they were just unknown accumulations of organs and limbs. They would never represent the bittersweet, unknowable concoction that only she possessed. She was exquisite confusion. Being touched by her was a triumphant, luxurious sensation. It was so flat- tering that she should even want to make me feel pleasure that somehow my guilt dissolved into gratitude under her touch."

[Danté E. Corrales · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an incels fantasy. I have never hated a main character more than I hated Mr. Anonymous. While his ego is not as huge as in the first one, he is still the most pathetic person to read about. There is was no substance in this book, and if you found any, then kudos to you

[Sophie Bugg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Misogynistic Irish sex addict prattles on about women and self-pity for way too long while somehow managing to insult everyone around him as if he’s somehow any better and not a massive dickhead.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

sophie............

[Suzie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anonymous is still as hateful a character as in Diary of an Oxygen Thief. This time he delves into the life of online dating, and whilst he can be quite abhorrent about his attitude to women, some of his words carry the element of uncomfortable truth.
I'm happy I read it but truly don't know who I'd recommend it to.

[Emily S.]

Chameleon in a candy store book review.
I was pleasantly surprised to be as impressed with the sequel to this book as i was to the prequel. Usually i'm not as pleased with a sequel to a book. But i enjoyed this book just as much if not more. The anonymous author starts out the story with his familiar sense of sarcasm and no filter. You warm up to him quickly because of his honestly with you. He talks about his situation as far as alcoholism goes and his 15 years at AA. When the story starts out, he is seeing a french girl he had met when he had first come to the Us, she has been new to the US as well. He goes in depth about the extents of their relationship. But much like his situation in his first book, “Diary of an oxygen thief,” he has no interest in commitment nor settling down. So he decides to experiment with online dating. Through his online relationships he meets girls simply for physical reasons and drops them. This online method provides him exactly what he wants at not cost. Meanwhile he is surviving his job as a commercial marketer where is coworkers drive him absolutely insane. Anonymous begins seeing a therapist, of who he just wants to engage in sexual activity. However he dives deeper into his past with her, mentioning him being taken advantage of by another guy at a young age. This leads him to finally start healing now that he understands part of his actions taken place now. I thoroughly enjoy how the author puts you inside his head and thoughts. Quite frankly i enjoyed this book much more than his first, diary of an oxygen. I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone. The language and topics can be racey and crude. However if you're a reader who enjoys brutally honest like me, i'd certainly recommend this book.

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reasonably well written yet hatefully cynical and predictable. Although it merely continues the first book, the loathing of women the character suffers from quickly becomes unbearable. Nor can it hide behind any originality the first book possessed. The marketing of the first book as a true story darkens the tale since this is a man who represents the worst symptoms of what capitalism and the patriarchy has done to men. The methods to gain access to women's bodies which require deception and dishonesty are not secrets, they are tiresome and destructive. This is a book mostly about the author's issues with sex, which means there will be attempts to shock you. Since you likely are aware of the Internet, it will fail in that respect. The self-congratulatory ending proves the author wasn't even trying to learn more about women or better himself, merely to sell books and trick people. As a testament to our times it is accurate; women are constantly degraded and seen as property for men to accumulate. Should they act in any way like a person or outside the confines of the author's expectations, he rudely casts them aside. This is not enough, he must insult their bodies too. This book also has lots of that. As a book in its own right, it is disappointing.

[Freya Entrup · Rating 5 out of 5]

This continuation of "A Diary of an Oxygen Thief" proved worth it. Even though the author's misogyny gets annoying and cheap towards the end, it's a highly entertaining, sadistic, evil, filthy little book.
It's a perfect observation of what crippling lust and a knack for manipulation can do to you.
It's honest. The author lies to almost everyone in his life, but not to his readers. He reveals all. If I had written such a detailed portrayal of what was going on in my mind, I would stay anonymous as well.
Nobody wants to face the brutal truths of male-female interaction which the author observes.
Sure, there is also a lot "there" to be said about his childhood trauma (I assume it is a he, I would love it if a woman wrote this, and yes I fully think a woman could write this), and his relationship to his family. Also, he is Irish from Deekwood so what can do... But never mind that. We are all fucked up in our own special way, so let's not let childhood trauma justify our shitty adult behavior. But please write it down so I can enjoy another book by anonymous!

[Canice Kenealy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even better than the first one. Full of great one liners. Loved it.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed this first one more but still very good

[Alejandro · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m not usually a “kill all men” kind of guy but DAMN this author makes a really compelling argument. This guy fucking suuuuuuucks.

[Aria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.

Chameleon in a Candy Store is the second installment to The Oxygen Thief Diaries and unfortunately, it isn’t as great as the first book.

My main issue with this is the disjointed narrative caused by the sectioning. Diary of an Oxygen Thief worked for me, despite the repetitions, rants/rambles, diversions and fourth-wall breaking, because it wasn’t sectioned. The whole book felt like one long talk with a real person and I really love this aspect of that book. Unfortunately, anonymous didn’t do the same for Chameleon in a Candy Store . Although there are pros in the book being neater due to the sectioning since there are an awful lot of women included here, it made the narrative feel less genuine and more clinical. Moreover, some of the jumps from one section/woman to the another aren’t smooth, and that singular footnote should never be included. I found no point in it at all since it’s only one footnote. What’s the point of that? The Google Gods exist for a reason and if someone didn’t understand something, they can Google it or ask someone else. If there’s a footnote for each new slang that appears, cool, but no, it’s only used once and that just frustrates me a lot since this singular footnote and the not-smooth transitioning assists the narrative in being clinical.

There’s also a shift in writing style when the narrator talks about certain moments. Although I like the difference since the ‘other’ style which I assume is one used when coming up with a story line or directive or something like that in advertising, it’s a slight nuisance to me. This is because it makes—assuming that Chameleon in a Candy Store is a “semi-fictionalized memoir” like Diary of an Oxygen Thief —the book feel less like a memoir. On top of that, there’s the ending. I’m definitely still intrigued enough by the narrator’s life to want to buy the next book, and I think he’s rather a genius for using a dating site to promote his book, but by the end of Chameleon in a Candy Store, the entire book feels more like a advertisement than a continuation. Thus, these two aspects are the ones that contribute to the aforementioned ‘less genuine’ feel.

Nevertheless, the overall writing in this book has improved, though I prefer the one in Diary of an Oxygen Thief since a coherent and detectable plot line exists there. There is some imagery that I really like too, such as “[w]e cowered in some god-awful seaside restaurant that looked like it might have been on the shores of the Styx, and wordlessly stared out the window as angry white-knuckled waves repeatedly tried to grip the mainland and drag it under” (p.98). Also, I don’t know if the snippets at the end of the book are actual messages the author received from the dating site or not, but they’re a nice touch.