Bystander

by Mike Steeves

"I have never been faced with a moral crisis, let alone a matter of life or death." Peter Simons doesn't spend much time at home in his bachelor apartment. Thanks to his job at a multinational company, he is often flying around the world, enjoying a life of luxurious solitude in five star hotels. So when he returns after being away for nine months and notices a strange smell coming from his neighbour's apartment, he initially tries not to get involved, but when a body is discovered Peter's carefully cultivated detachment begins to crumble. And when new neighbours move into the vacant apartment he gets caught up in a petty dispute that will bring him to the brink of moral ruin. Bystander is a pitiless, bold work of intense psychological realism narrated by a professionally successful but socially bankrupt anti-hero who expects global connection and local anonymity. It excoriates the contingency of contemporary morality, and, at a time of growing isolation, forces the reader to examine what it means to be a good neighbour.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2022

Reviews

[Kid Ferrous · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mike Steeves’ “Bystander” is the story of Peter Simons, a pretty unpleasant man who is, to all intents and purposes, a misanthropic pseudo-Patrick Bateman from “American Psycho” who feels nothing for other people and is reluctant to get involved in the problems of his fellow neighbours. When not on international postings for his job, he spends his days in his apartment lethargically observing his neighbours and watching online videos of atrocities. After an unpleasant smell in his apartment leads to an horrific discovery he is experiences a moment of weakness that has a profound effect on him.
The story is told in the first person, so we get protracted passages of the lead character’s inner monologue about his outlook on life, which is almost entirely that of an indifferent observer. His recognition of the purposelessness of his life may be wearying to some readers, and there is no doubt that his nihilistic avoidance of responsibility doesn’t exactly endear him to us. Expect to read very many pages about the setup of his company, emails and TV show bingewatching, usually to the accompaniment of alcohol and cannabis.
This is a very well-written book with many pleasing turns of phrase and snappy, economical language. It is incredibly readable once you get into its rhythms, and even though the protagonist is unlikeable there is some dark humour to be derived from him. I don’t know whether Steeves originally intended this, or whether it’s just me, but the protagonist is often hilarious. In fact, Peter Simons may be the neurotic (anti)hero we need right now.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Might be the Best Read of the Year!

How did the book make me feel/think?

I crack the book open.

Page 1: A smile breaks on my face.

It won’t leave me. I haven’t felt this joyful in a long time.

Peter Simon is a mess, beyond the messiest of messes. He wants to be a hero, → thinking he’d be more than worthy if the right crisis moment presented.

But in reality, his mind is rioting in disarray. Peter wants to be the star in his life story as his stream-of-consciousness flows, no, blasts through his mind in tsunami after tsunami of what he really is → milquetoast to the nth degree. Plus 1.

We’re all conflicted.

On the one hand, we want to get off life’s sidelines and make a difference.

On the other, we realize we’re not the main character in our own lives, but, instead we have a bit part.

Loners constantly update their Social Media + read long-form articles as they desperately work at nothing but blending in. Gentrification attacks us all, hyperbolic on steroids. Unfortunately, there is no place to hide.

Our minds race.

Why am I laughing at a breaking mind? I’m lonely. Every page I read is about someone I know, or about me, my dreams, hopes, fears, and wondering who wants to sleep with me?

Is city life about hiding?

This might be the best read of the year.

Page 253: I’m still smiling.

I close the book, I’m spent, in a good way!

We all want to be heroes → but why bother?

Tomorrow brings a new day.

WRITTEN: 19 April 2022

[Laura Prindable · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Net Galley for an audio ARC of Bystander by Mike Steeves. Wow! I really liked this ! The author and narrator keeps you going through the entire book.

[Kim Rude · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book invites us into the head of Peter Simons, a corporate executive that spends most of his time on lavish work trips staying in luxurious hotels. Peter enjoys his solitude by smoking a joint or two and completely paying no mins to his neighbours or the people around him. After coming home from one of these trips he starts to smell something funky. Not wanting to get involved, he does nothing about it, but the smell continuously gets worse and it starts to intrude on his alone time.

I really enjoyed following Peter’s self absorbed descent into madness. The descriptions of mundane thoughts and actions are so accurate, and I felt like I could relate to the protagonist even though he is very unlikable. Peter Simons is self absorbed but also spends quite a bit of time thinking about every little thing, going off into different tangents and rants. I loved reading this because this is exactly how my brain works - just a lot of mundane and random thoughts spinning around, overthinking, creating imaginary situations, and getting annoyed over minor inconveniences.

This book can be a bleak account of human nature, or extremely entertaining depending on how you comprehend it. This book reminds me a lot of American Psycho. I was thoroughly entertained and I can’t wait to check out Mike Steeves’ other work!

Thank you @bookhug_press @zgstories and the author for sending me a copy of this book to review! 💙

[Katy Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morally vacuous? Sociopathic? Endemic of modern society?

3.5 stars

A hard one to review. Peter Simons, sadly, hit home with me. Feeling 'outside' of others, unable and also unwilling to connect with them, wasting time, keeping up appearances - it may not just be me, but I read the entirety feeling some sort of kinship.

Though Peter is also very much a singular creation. We are never really sure what he does for a living, but he's sent overseas for months at a time to exotic and prestigious locations, returning to acclaim that he feels is unjustified, then doing little besides read online articles until his next assignment.

In the same rundown apartment he's lived in for over a decade, a neighbour quietly commits suicide. Peter is unaware of this, even when the smell begins...

This starts a rather long monologue where Peter attempts to transfer and explain away the small amount of guilt he feels over not acting sooner, the worry he feels over being found out at work for, well, not working. And the ridiculous amounts of self-analysis he does when interacting through email, conversation and text.

It's short but also exhausting and a bit of a slog. Nothing really 'happens', Peter doesn't experience enlightenment or any sort of transformative event, he doesn't fall in love or have to find himself. The only humorous parts I found were the telephone conversations he has with his quirky parents.

It's quite dark and really won't be for everyone. It may or may not have something to tell us about contemporary living and society. I was both empathetic towards Peter and disgusted by him. He sees himself, as we all do, as the hero in our own story.
"I had always seen myself... as not only the hero in my own life story, but the hero in everyone else's life story as well."

He gets irritated by small talk. We all do (I hope?!). He lies to make himself look better in the eyes of others.
"In every situation... all I would think about was whether I might get caught saying or doing something wrong."

You can see the world as Peter sees it, then will probably worry about what that says about you. It's not a comfortable mirror view. And if you don't see that, you'll probably dislike this book.

It feels pessimistic, downbeat, and does not give a conclusion or final act denouement with a lesson or momentous act. It's left me feeling quite glum.

Which means it did affect me, but I am quite sure this is for a niche audience with its niche narrator. One I'll remember by how it made me feel.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

[Enid Wray]

I’ve tried. I really have. I am on page 124 of 257… but I just can’t take this anymore. And I’ve put so many hours into this last night and today… This title has to be read closely, and the dense text on the page demands concentration to follow along.

This is an odd little book - and I really was quite enjoying it… but any appeal has slowly been wearing off over the last 50 or so pages. Reading this is getting very, very, very, tiresome. I can’t begin to imagine persisting with this for another 130 pages… the thought of it terrifies me.

Initially I found it oddly compelling - despite the very ‘flat’ - monotonous - narration. The protagonist (appears to) understand himself - his strengths and weaknesses, his limitations both personal and professional. “It just is what it is”

I should have taken a cue, early on, from 4 pages of ‘transcript’ of the most inane telephone conversation with his parents (which I will admit I skimmed over…). But I kept at it. I even came to a point where I noted that I thought this was actually quite masterful… that we are in fact witnessing the character devolve, and where at the outset I just thought he was a totally arrogant SOB, he is actually riddled with deeply seated anxiety. There was actually some tension building, and my interest was piqued enough to want to keep with this.

But not long after this my interest has plummeted. I just can’t take it anymore, the narration… the constant repetition of his airs of grandeur, his snobbery, the incredible assumptions he makes about people, and his self-serving incredibly selfish attitude to life. I don’t have to like a character to like a book, but there has to be something else… and in this case he is all you get. I have no interest in listening to him any longer.

And then… shortly into Part Two, we are introduced to Lord Jim - yes, as in Conrad’s Lord Jim… and he goes on and on and on - for 7 or something pages - and the lightbulb goes off. I knew there had been something vaguely ‘familiar’ about this (but it’s been so long - like 40+ years long since I read Lord Jim)… and really, it amounts to a contemporary re-telling of Lord Jim. In these pages he describes all of the aspects of Jim’s life that compare to his - it may or may not be the intent, but that’s certainly how it reads.

Had this come 50 pages ago, I might have been persuaded to see where this goes… if, after the traumatic event, he decides to live ‘heroically’... ‘hellbent on proving that he is actually what he’d always imagined himself to be.’ (p118) But I’m so far past the point of caring now.

I am clearly not the reader for this title… If you like this kind of read, please do enjoy.

Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for granting me access to a digital ARC.

[Becki Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

I identified with the main character in quite an unsettling way. The way he thinks about himself and his place in the world, and how he fits into life comes across as fairly skewed but very me.

I enjoyed the banality of the protagonists life, the honesty that comes across and really connected with him.

The narrator was suitable to the role.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

[Lori Sinsel Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not know what to write about this book. This is a hard one. The writing style and the writing itself is very good, it is the story itself-well that is if there really is a story in here. It seems to be lacking. There is no point to the book. Peter the main character and narrator is a self-centered, egotistical, lazy loner who feels "apart" from everyone else he comes into contact with, which aren't many because he avoids everyone. For example, he lives in the same rinky dink, run down apartment that he has lived in since college, but he doesn't know any of his neighbors, the reason for this? The same reason that he doesn't move to a better place although he can clearly afford to do so, it would require too much effort on his part, too much effort to meet people and he just isn't interested enough to put the energy into it.
Peter does consider himself to be a person who when faced with an emergency situation would be the one to rush in first and save the day. He sees himself as a hero even though he has never actually been faced with such a situation. When he is eventually facing a situation such as this he folds under pressure, not rising to the occasion.
As Peter never comes to any self-actualization, there is no aha moment when the light goes on over his head, he is already aware of the way his life has no real purpose or aim, that he avoids any actual work and lives in fear of being found out, but nowhere in his tedious monologue of his apathetic existence is there a solution or improvement offered up.
This book isn't for everyone. Peter is a totally unlikeable protagonist who will irritate the reader to no end, but it is very readable, pleasingly well-written, despite Peter and his flaws. It is at times darkly humorous which makes up for what is lacking in Peter's character. The best parts are the conversations he has with his eccentric parents. These are truly amusing.
This is one I will let you judge for yourselves, it is too hard to say who will or will not enjoy this novel, it may be one that only appeals to certain readers and I am not one to deem whom those readers might be.
Thank you to Book Hug Press and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.

[O Prism · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t know quite what to make of this story. The writing is intelligent and and descriptions were accurate. This is the story of a man who spends most of his time out of town or out of the country, in luxurious hotels and surroundings for months at a time. Once he returns home to his apartment, he languishes, enjoying his quiet and privacy. He spots a neighbor on the balcony next door bringing inside a smoking hibachi grill. He pays no mind, and goes back to doing not much of anything. Then a smell arrives, and becomes worse by the day. Things go downhill fast from there. I did not get any point to this story. A self-absorbed man to the point of shutting out everyday life around him, things normal people would take notice of. He does much inner wailing and chest bearing, judging himself and those around him harshly. It reads like a descent into mental illness, madness, depression, take your pick. I wondered if he was making it all up. If you like stories about abject misery and depression, you might enjoy this, I wasn’t a fan. The writing format was vertical, like reading down a long, long list. Didn’t care for that either. There was nothing inspiring or uplifting about this story. 3 stars.
Thank you to Netgalley, Mike Steeves and Book*hug Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bystander by Mike Steeves was a book I considered to be pointless. I obviously missed something. Peter is a highly paid executive who has spent much of the previous 10 years traveling overseas for his company. Now he’s home and appears to me to be severely depressed. He spends most of his time in his head, creating conversations that will never take place and commentary on his surroundings. He goes to the office most days where he has nothing to do, or so he believes, and so spends the day on the Internet, reading articles, watching videos, and updating his social media. No one seems to care so he continues. When he goes home at night it is much the same, except he drinks or smokes dope and watches television, documentaries mostly. He seemed to have times of awakening during which I thought something would change. It never did. I kept reading because I thought something would happen. It didn’t.

The narrator, Greg Campbell, seemed just as out of it as Peter. At first his read was a little choppy but as he got into it, that improved. His voice was little more than monotone, which was probably appropriate for Peter.

I was invited to listen to a free e-ARC of Bystander by Book’hug Press, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #bookhugpress #mikesteeves #gregcampbell #bystander

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

A successful (right place right time) man who appears to be socially awkward and set in his ways, starts to work out friendships and relationships actually work. Has a work persona that gets him places with a decent enough salary, has parents who care and a stable home life yet something is not quite right with his life. Needs to feel he is following the crowd rather than forging a way forward, is this insecurity or lack of confidence? From an outside perspective it looks like he has life sorted. Ii was not sure what to expect as I went through this book, but it kept me gripped, I wanted to see that moment where emotions took over. I did enjoy this book and felt it was a realisation of what's happening in todays modern way of living, how many loners are there and will they ever break free from the world that keeps them locked in? Thank you #NetGalley for the audiobook to review.

[Bailey Marie (she/her) · Rating 3 out of 5]

In-Betweenie #8 -

I feel kind of in the middle about this one! It was interesting and definitely a big commentary on the mediocre white man/the general apathy of so many people (of plenty of genders and ethnicities).

It was very Holden Caulfield-esque. Which is not a bad thing, but is also not really my personal book style preference.

I did think it was a searing indictment of this character, and a great use of the untrustworthy narrator, and a well done character led story, I just tend to prefer more narrative stories!

I’d say if you loved Catcher in the Rye or other books with that similar style, you’ll probably also love this one, but if not, you might have a tough time.

It certainly wasn’t a bad book, I liked it overall and the writing was great, it’s just not my style!

[Holly Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange book, and I am finding it hard to figure out how I feel about it.

There is an element of sadness and emptiness, not only in the dead neighbour's life and the ending thereof, but also of the main character's life. He has a high flying job but other than that, no real relationships or meaningful interactions.

There was a lot of filler in this book - many interactions that i guess seemed rather pointless, but i feel that they indicate the lack of human interactions our main character has in his life.

An interesting book.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

BYSTANDER by Mike Steeves just dragged on and on. It’s about a man, Peter Simons, who notices a strange smell from his neighbour’s apartment. From then on we get an in depth narrative of his thoughts on morality, his day to day life and what it means to him to be a good neighbour. Please look up content warnings for this book. There are some detailed descriptions. I got tired of hearing the same words over and over again. It seemed like all I was reading about was prestige TV, long form articles, social media accounts and customer service personnel. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator Greg Campbell was a good fit.
.
Thank you to Book*hug Press via NetGalley for my ALC!

[Bobby · Rating 3 out of 5]

You are invited into the protagonist’s head for this entire book

His head is filled with paranoia, delusion and his thoughts are very, very repetitive. While there is some humour and it’s intriguing to experience his mental decline, it’s exhausting. Very exhausting, and his repetitive stream of consciousness made me very anxious and frustrated

[Collette Mcgaahan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will accept that the point some books just goes over my head and Bystander was one of them. Maybe it needs a more intellectual brain than mine but in all honestly I did try to get something out of what seemed just an endless outpouring which I was bored with after a few chapters.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit on the nose.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unattached and in his mid-thirties, Peter Simons works in client services for a multi-national corporation and is regularly dispatched to far-flung exotic locations, staying in luxury hotels for lengthy periods. His latest assignment has kept him away from home for nine months, and, as Mike Steeves’ unsettling novel Bystander opens, Peter has returned to his shabby apartment with a mix of relief and bemusement. Despite a job that pays him an obscene amount of money, Peter has lived for more than a decade in the same apartment he rented when he graduated from college, located in a run-down urban neighbourhood on the cusp of gentrification. Why? The answer probably has to do with his fear of and loathing for the personal upheaval that moving would entail and the social exchanges to which it would leave him exposed. Pathologically narcissistic and emotionally immature, Peter Simons finds himself in an unenviable position: he lives surrounded by humans but is profoundly averse to human interaction, which, more often than not, leaves him confused and frustrated. After returning home he notices an unpleasant smell emanating from his neighbour’s apartment. Most people, compelled to act out of simple neighbourliness, would check that all was well. But Peter, who lacks a moral compass and accepts no responsibility for the welfare of those around him, vacillates for weeks, doing nothing until the situation becomes untenable. The discovery of the body pushes him out of his comfort zone to a place where he is repeatedly being asked to account for himself. But the story he tells is only a version of reality: the one he thinks people want to hear, the one that makes him seem heroic. Later, after the apartment has been cleaned and repainted and new people have moved in, he is again ensnared in a socially awkward situation, an escalating contest of wills that disrupts his solitary lifestyle and reenforces his disdain for the human race. The book is structured as a relentless interior monologue with Peter incessantly doubting himself, second-guessing his every move, and endlessly dissecting other people’s motives and intentions. Since social responses do not come naturally to him, he expends inordinate mental effort trying to figure out how he should respond to whatever situation faces him at the moment, his chief aim: to avoid embarrassment and ridicule. In some respects, Bystander, in its stark truthfulness, is depressing. But it is also brazenly entertaining and can be wildly funny—Peter’s phone conversations with his parents work as hilarious set pieces that read like they could have been lifted straight from a Seinfeld script. The narrative that Mike Steeves has conjured in Bystander offers a bleak assessment of human society and comments in unflattering terms on the failures of modern urban life. It may not be uplifting, but anyone who reads this novel will not soon forget it, and it might even make you a more conscientious and caring neighbour.