I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 2 bc the last four chapters of this book were so depressing and kinda made up for having to read all the frustrating psychotic paranoid addict ramblings these mfs kept having. Reading this book could either make you wanna do drugs to stick it to PKD for his dismal, yet from the heart, writing here or it could drive you insane so much that you'd want to sober up so as to never have to think like Bob Arctor and co. again. The sexism in this book is oppressive lmao I usually don't focus on Men Writing Women™ stuff when reading male authors bc I think most times they're unintentionally stupid or they're funny or I just don't expect anything from men, really, but holy shit, this book was SOAKED in creepy, ridiculously sexist appraisals and descriptions. It was inescapable, eww. The only characters I felt something towards to were Jerry Fabin and Charles Freck but the MC and everything else was a slog (and I'm most likely too stupid to get it too so there's that). I've described some weird books before as the closest I'll ever get to experiencing drugs but this book literally is drugs lol unfortunately it was a bad trip for me, ha. But yeah, don't do drugs, kiddos. Or else you'll end up writing dreadful books like this one.

A total sleeper hit for me. I find myself thinking about A Scanner Darkly frequently and my appreciation of the novel has only increased since I read it a month ago. I prefer this to Do Androids... and thus have been inspired to continue reading PKD.

My initial impressions of A Scanner Darkly were that I was reading yet another sci-fi novel from the New Wave era featuring a hardened, sexist detective with a stupid name and shallow morals. A Scanner Darkly is something else entirely. It is an introspective examination of a man descending into depersonalization brought about by hard drug use (which he engages in as an undercover police officer attempting to bust his fellow addicts). I was not expecting the themes of this novel to be so intense and examined in such a dark way; self-annihilation, cycles, paranoia, ego death, and self-voyeurism are only some of the ideas addressed. Through the use of first person perspective, PKD subtly (and then overtly) illustrates Arctor's decaying sense of self. The perspective allows for the entire story to take place through an unreliable narrator who is surrounded by security cameras, lying addicts, and untrustworthy law enforcement officers. A sense of unease permeates the entire story and transfers to the reader. The vision of the future PKD paints in A Scanner Darkly is bleak while simultaneously very plausible; the best kind of dystopia. Understanding where PKD was in his life at the time is crucial- his own despair as a user of hard drugs is painful and comes through especially towards the end of the narrative, which features a depressing (but fitting) final moment that leaves the reader with the understanding that the cycle will continue.

I loved this book. I hope that I find other PKD works that are as excellent as this one. 

"I can't any longer these days see into myself." 

 'A Scanner Darkly' is supposed to be set in the 1990's but apart from some fancy police equipment and some Planet of the Apes sequels it's just the 1960's and everyone speaks like they're in a Cheech and Chong movie.
 Remember when you'd show up late to a party and all your friends were stoned or drunk and having what they thought was a very profound conversation but you were sober so it was just annoying nonsense. That's 98% of this book! 
 The plot doesn't really get going until about chapter twelve and then it ends just as it seems like something might actually happen. For most of the book there isn't really a plot, it's just some stoners talking crap and none of the characters have enough depth or character development for me to actually care what happens to them.
 The big reveal at the end could be used to ask some interesting questions about society, but it's not because that's the end and I sat through a whole lot of boring nothing to get there!
 

This was equally interesting and depressing. I'd heard a lot of buzz about this several years ago when I believe there was a movie coming out, which initially piqued my interest. It details a depressing life of a police agent working undercover as a drug addict in a drug den, but subsequently becomes addicted to drugs in the process. Side effects of this drug include psychotic breaks that lead to him being unable to distinguish reality from hallucination. I found the overall story to be sadly realistic in the way that addicts are both criminalized but also used as tools in the legal system only to be discarded when they have no more utility. The twists were interesting and unexpected, but some of the logic fails when you take a moment to think about it. For example, this seems to be a pretty technologically advanced setting with scramble suits and the ability to hide advanced monitoring software, but for some reason there is still a reliance on getting police officers addicted to drugs in order to infiltrate crime circles. Like.. surely there's a better way. The characters weren't as fleshed out as much as I would have hoped and were honestly just used as props to move the story forward, but there were times when characters did bring a sense of charming realism to a scene or two. Overall, this book was fine. Quick read, but nothing to write home about in my opinion.