Scapegoated

by Jeff Oliver

There's a global fainting pandemic that affects everyone but the Jews. Naturally, the world goes upside down (both literally and figuratively), and the Schtinklers are no exception.
Sara is a quirky goat scientist whose expertise on "Fainting Goat Syndrome" becomes suddenly relevant, thrusting her into the limelight. Her husband, Reuven, an anxiety-prone reality TV producer, joins a secret society of Jewish men who beat up neo-Nazis for sport. And their son, Joshua, who is fifteen and yet still pre-pubescent, is hurled into reluctant popularity at his new school for being a non-fainter.
When Sara comes up with a formula that requires all the Jews on the planet to be separated from the gentile fainters, the world complies, if it means an end to the fainting. But dark forces emerge, and a race for power leads to a showdown so shocking that you may feel... a little faint.

298 pages, Paperback

Published June 5, 2022

Reviews

[Dakota Dawe · Rating 5 out of 5]

All across the world, humans under high levels of stress are freezing up and “fainting”, causing car crashes, work place accidents, and occasionally funny gags. It’s a new condition likened to that of fainting goats, and in a strange turn of events, this new epidemic is hitting everyone except for those of Jewish lineage.

Luckily, Sara has been studying fainting goats for years. Her work with these majestic creatures shoots her into the public eye as she brainstorms ways to solve this global issue. Along with her endeavors are subplots involving her husband beating up neo-Nazis and her bullied son suddenly becoming one of the most popular kids at school.

Scapegoated has its charms, and Jeff Oliver injects a good dose of comedy into this story. His brand of comedy keeps things lighthearted in a world suddenly struck with a fainting disease. It doesn’t take long for the story to kick itself into gear, and as soon as it does it felt like a whirlwind of events happening and I couldn’t stomp on the brakes, finishing this book faster than I originally intended to.

[Petra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Binged through this wildly imaginative alternate reality in which a global fainting pandemic affecting everyone but the Jews catapults a “normal” New Jersey family into the center of the universe: The Stinklers are Sara, a highly competent goat scientist whose research on “Fainting Goat Syndrome” turns her into a sort of accidental Anthony Fauci; her husband Reuven, who, let’s just say, is not great in a crisis, and Joshua, their 15-year-old son, who luckily takes more after his mother. The story feels like someone put the question “what if” into a rackety wooden cart, took it to the highest mountain, and let go. It zooms through hills and valleys, sharp turns (definitely taken on two wheels), through tunnels and one-way streets — over bumps and slippery stretches before screeching to a halt in a scatological finale — all momentum and magical centrifugal power, unbelievably never veering off course. Oliver orchestrates it all like a master puppeteer, from outlandish premise to shockingly neat bundle of an end, making you laugh and cringe and leaving you exhilarated that in storytelling you can literally do anything, that a plot and its characters can be so outrageous and relatable all at once, and that humor and speculative shenanigans don't preclude unpacking individual and collective psychologies that are as convoluted as fascinating.