Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a novel by Hunter S. Thompson, first published in 1971. It is a story of a journalist and his lawyer traveling to Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race and their subsequent descent into the city's nightmarish underworld of drugs and excess. The title of the novel is derived from the phrase 'FEAR and loathing', which refers to the intense anxiety and disgust experienced by the protagonists as they explore the city.