[2] Originally, Levin wrote a short story featuring the protagonist of Bubblegum, Belt Magnet, which he has referred to as "terrible".

[3] The story was not published, and Levin later combined some of its elements with an instruction manual for the in-universe curios featured in Bubblegum, producing the earliest versions of the book.

It begins in the 1980s with Belt's childhood memories of growing up near Chicago and developing friendships in school using derogatory family phrases to defend one's honor or to get a laugh.

After his mother's passing, Belt wrote a book called No Please Don’t which was not a big hit but is mentioned many times throughout the novel.

Belt believes he can (and possibly actually can) communicate with inanimate objects, called "inans," and as a young teen helps several local swing sets "end their suffering" by bashing them with a baseball bat.

These pets, called a "Botimal" or "Curio" are a newly engineered flesh-and-bone "robot" that fits in your hand and purports to help people cope with issues like depression.

"Cures," as they are eventually called, can dance, do tricks, mimic sounds, are exceedingly cute, and can even clone themselves.

Most people believe they are not sentient creatures and Belt develops a significant attachment to his Curio, which he names Blank.

In 2013 (present day), Jonboat has become a billionaire astronaut married to Fondajane Henry, one of the most beautiful people in the world, and his 15-year old son "Triple J" experiments with new and innovative ways to kill and injure curios.

Triple J has created a video collage of clips showing Curios being experimented on, tortured, and changed to make them even cuter or to do new things.

He reaches out to apologize and later asks Belt to write the transcript of his video collage, which he claims will be a major new work of art when it is presented to the world.

The clerk suggests an “Executioner’s Set,” and Belt clarifies he doesn’t want a toy that’ll harm or kill his Curio.

Belt gifts Blank a new nest, celebrates his achievements with a drink, and plays with the curio, but realizes it is sneezing green goo and rushes it to a vet.

Clyde chooses to take a trip to Europe and sends postcards to Belt explaining his adventures including meeting the author of the book, Adam Levin.

Jonboat's right hand man informs Belt that Triple J's big screening of the video collage has been canceled because of the release of new AOL-related clips, which obviates Trip’s attempts to innovate new ways of torturing curios.

Belt is given a curio named Blank, which is hatched from a marble, smells like bubblegum, and is smart, cute, and requires body heat (or cuddles) to survive.

Levin introduces the concept of the owner "overloading," meaning the master is so insanely obsessed with the cure and its cuteness that they go as far as to murder it or squeeze it to death.

Some have critiqued the novel for sickening scenes such as these, while some admire the imagination and dark humor required to create such a unique and baffling concept.

Besides the pain of losing his mother, growing up in a single-parent household, and having a psychological disorder, Belt also struggles to fend for himself and still lives with his father at age 38.

The primary sources of suffering that the reader observes in the novel are either from Belt's negative inner thoughts or the curios receiving abuse from their owners.

It shares similarities with the internet; after being popularized, people quickly found a way to abuse it for morally wrong purposes.