The more I read this book, the more it feels like:

1. An author's self-insert story, though even the cover and back cover art don't help that (the man on the cover is Gary Wolf; the picture on the back is him sitting in a car with Jessica Rabbit);
2. A questionable allegory for segregation, using Toons as stand-ins for Black people;
3. A book that, like, is okay with talking shit about people from rural and poor communities, even though the detective is poor.

... I still think the movie took a lot of the positives and did them justice.