If judged by the cover alone, this book would lead to disappointment. The title proposed an intriguing question. The summary spurs the reader to question Hollywood’s motives, to look deeper into each movie’s themes, and entices with some movie trivia to bait the reader. But in reality, the book is something else.

Written by Matyie Abahaydar, a lecturer, scriptwriter, musician, and author, ‘Kau Percaya Hollywood’ is a collection of a dozen conspiracies, theories, and observations with a movie as a gateway and a list of sources at the exit.

After the initial disappointment that this book was not what I expected, I admit it’s interesting. The core idea in each ‘chapter’ is compelling and is written like a well-done video essay on YouTube, complete with casual language and a disclaimer that this is not an academic text.

Looking closer, the quality of each ‘chapter’ is mixed. As thought-provoking as most of the 12 theses presented in this book are, some are better explained than others, while others have more to do with the movie than some. For example, the ‘chapter’ on ‘Waterworld’ ended up talking about electric cars and an introduction to the geopolitics of oil. There’s also the ‘chapter’ on ‘The Matrix’ that rambles into communism and socialism before fizzling.

I don’t blame the writer. Without the movies and Hollywood as a hook, this book would be a tough sell for casual readers, which is its target market. But perhaps if given the freedom to choose whichever movie and documentary to use as the lure, the flow would be better.

Looking even closer, the book is peppered with spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors. Stumbling across mistakes, such as someone named Van Diesel being in Saving Private Ryan when it’s supposed to be Vin Diesel, takes away the point from the book. Like a misspelt clap-back, it becomes a blowback.

The occasional slips also made me question what was being read and led me to Google words and names from the book. I didn’t check any of the references because although most of them are great, almost none of them are easy to type in or short. It’ll require some work, but a website with all the links would be nice.

As is, I think ‘Kau Percaya Hollywood?’ is a good mind-opening read. However, a couple more passes through the editorial, and it could be an excellent, mind-blowing one.

Kau Percaya Hollywood? is written Matyie Abahaydar. It is published by Rabak Literature Publication (under Syarikat Radikal). ISBN 978-967-25560-6-0.

Get your copy of Kau Percaya Holywood? or other books published by Rabak-Lit at http://www.rabaklit.com.