Your Driver Is Waiting

A Novel

By: Priya Guns

Narrated by: Priya Guns

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Autostraddle, Shondaland, Booklist • In this electrifyingly fierce and funny social satire—inspired by the iconic 1970s film Taxi Driver—a ride share driver is barely holding it together on the hunt for love, dignity, and financial security...until she decides she's done waiting.

“What you are about to read is a call to arms. Best to prepare for a confrontation."—New York Times Book Review

"A perfect gut punch of a novel…Full of love and real friendship and frustrations boiled over and the urge to burn everything down…This is a hard-hitting masterpiece."—Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things

Damani is tired. Her father just died on the job at a fast-food joint, and now she lives paycheck to paycheck in a basement, caring for her mom and driving for an app that is constantly cutting her take. The city is roiling in protests—everybody's in solidarity with somebody—but while she keeps hearing that they’re fighting for change on behalf of people like her, she literally can’t afford to pay attention.

Then she gives a ride to Jolene (five stars, obviously). Jolene seems like she could be the perfect girlfriend—attentive, attractive, an ally—and their chemistry is off the charts. Jolene’s done the reading, she goes to every protest, and she says all the right things. So maybe Damani can look past the one thing that's holding her back: she’s never dated anyone with money before, not to mention a white girl with money. But just as their romance intensifies and Damani finally lets her guard down, Jolene does something unforgivable, setting off an explosive chain of events.

A wild, one-sitting listen brimming with dark comedy, and piercing social commentary and announcing Priya Guns's feverishly original voice, Your Driver Is Waiting is a crackling send-up of our culture of modern alienation.

©2023 Priya Guns (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by BuzzFeed, Vogue, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Nylon, Autostraddle, Bustle, LitHub, The Millions, Good Housekeeping, & more

"Your Driver Is Waiting is an ambitious project, taking on performative allyship, racial discrimination and the class system all at once...The novel's greatest strength [is] a ferocity of voice that belongs to Guns alone...What you are about to read is a call to arms. Best to prepare for a confrontation."—Camille Perri, New York Times Book Review

"Priya Guns turns Martin Scorsese’s 'Taxi Driver' upside down and inside out. Readers are advised to buckle their seat belts before opening these pages...Priya Guns deserves a big tip for taking us on such an enthralling ride."—Washington Post

"Travis Bickle, meet Toni Morrison, in a socially probing, fiercely fun debut novel...From the book’s opening pages, our protagonist’s life of not-so-quiet desperation is driven home by her creator’s powerful prose...It’s rare for a writer to marry such deep social consciousness with a comic, sultry romance, rarer still to pull that off in a way that satisfies and provokes the reader."—Los Angeles Times

brown bisexual taxi driver?

some of the passages about queerness and class felt powerful. I love the leftist lean. but overall I think this wasn't my cup of tea. the comparison to taxi driver has interesting but maybe forced. the protagonists' motivations were muddy.

Perspective of story

While stereotypical tropes are used throughout… it is good to hear a story from a different perspective, all be it from a broken protagonist who is full of herself.

Unreliable narrators are fine…unless they’re women??

I can’t believe some of the reviews for Your Driver Is Waiting. The main gripe? That the protagonist is “unreliable” or “unlikeable.” Really? Did these same people give The Silent Patient, Goodnight Beautiful, or You on Netflix a pass? Because those are full of unreliable, messy, and downright terrible characters—usually men—and they get praised as “complex” or “genius.”

Here’s the deal: as soon as a female character isn’t humble, perfect, or likable, people lose their minds. But if a dude is a stalker, liar, or manipulative creep (cough Joe Goldberg cough), it’s suddenly “brilliant storytelling.” The double standard is glaring.
And let’s talk about people calling this story “ridiculous.” Is it really any more far-fetched than Joe getting away with murder while somehow charming everyone? Or the completely wild twists in The Silent Patient? No, it’s not. Priya’s story is sharp, raw, and unapologetic. It tackles class, race, and privilege in ways that might make some people uncomfortable—but honestly, that’s what makes it so compelling.

So yeah, I loved this book. The protagonist isn’t here to make you like her, and that’s the point. It’s refreshing, bold, and nowhere near as “ridiculous” as some of the stalker-weirdo stories everyone seems to worship. Huge shoutout to Priya for telling this story—flaws and all. Highly recommend it if you can handle a story that doesn’t sugarcoat or apologize for itself.

Loved this!

Really great story! I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book. I loved the characters and following the story as it unfolded. Well written. I’d highly recommend!

Great delve into another life

Well done! Well written and narrated. It takes you to a different life a different perspective.

The main character

Her personality is genuinely awful. She is too flawed. I like flawed MCs, it makes the character and story relatable. However, stalking and harassment are not relatable and should not be condoned. How did she not receive consequences? What absurd fantasy is this? This is the worst book I've read in several years.

Did not deliver

This just did not deliver. There was potential and promise, but it just fell reallllly short of delivering.

We have Damani, a modern day taxi driver (AKA Uber/Lyft driver), who is living in an unnamed city, maybe based in the US? I thought that was stated, but later in the book they talk about speed limits in kilometers, so maybe not.

She has a mother who is grieving after losing her husband and becomes the sole caregiver and monetary provider. Would be a great story line about how Damani has to give up her dreams of opening up a food truck, but never really gets dived into. It's brought up maybe twice and that's it.

Ok, so maybe Damani is interested in activism, that gets mentioned a few times....NOPE, it's another thing that is just mentioned, but Damani avoids.

So what is she into? Her muscles, specifically her biceps. Listening to a talk therapist, Dr. Thelma Hermin Hesse, who adds absolutely no value to the story. And, Jolene, the girl that she says she has chemistry with, but that chemistry is not on the pages that is for sure.

This entire book comes off as trying too hard to hit all of the major socio-issues we are facing in our world today without actually tackling any of them or adding any value to bringing them up.

fascinating

fascinating look into a perspective not my own. made me reevaluate thoughts about needing to fight the man

Worst book I’ve read in a while.

What was the point of this book? Main character is nauseating. Every other scene is the same. Her driving, making dumb small talk and crass comments, obsessing over her muscles, masterbating, identifying weapons in her car, and crowds of protesters. Oh and the brown girl’s obsession with a white blonde. Also why did the main character turn into a literal violent chasing stalker? Don’t even get me started with the terrorist topic. Nothing about this book was good. Only finished it for a book club. Can’t wait to shit talk it in real life. Not many books can piss me off, so that’s the only congratulations I’ll give to the writer.

Excellent storytelling while painting the truth for those who may be unwilling to see it.

Priya Guns storytelling is masterful straight out of the gate. The characters feel like people you know and can reach out and touch, laugh and dance with or even kiss and maybe kill? I kept waiting on the edge of my seat until the end! The narrator was excellent giving each character their own cadence to the point when I could feel them talking to me. Absolutely loved this debut novel and look forward to more.