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Abortion Arcade
Abortion Arcade is a collection of three novellas by one of the shining young stars of bizarro fiction. Cameron Pierce's work is an intoxicating blend of body horror and midnight movie madness, reminiscent of early David Lynch and the splatterpunks at their most sublime. His fiction will punch you in the brain and leave you gasping for more.
NO CHILDREN
The apocalypse is over. Now zombies farm humans for their brains. As the imprisoned human cattle drift further from their humanity, the zombies flourish in a primitive renaissance, flying around in helicopters and living in smart houses made of human brains.
THE ROADKILL QUARTERBACK OF HEAVY METAL HIGH
After Heavy Metal High's star quarterback dies in a car accident, Danny the Dio-worshipping werewolf must transform from loser to gridiron star in this surreal pulp tragedy about teenage anxiety, high school violence, and heavy fucking metal.
THE DESTROYED ROOM
In a near-future city where automobiles have been outlawed and exotic animals roam the streets, a man wakes up one morning to discover that everyone in the world is a marionette. Now his wife is dead and he must find the answer, or else lose everything to the Great Shark Head in the Sky.
NO CHILDREN
The apocalypse is over. Now zombies farm humans for their brains. As the imprisoned human cattle drift further from their humanity, the zombies flourish in a primitive renaissance, flying around in helicopters and living in smart houses made of human brains.
THE ROADKILL QUARTERBACK OF HEAVY METAL HIGH
After Heavy Metal High's star quarterback dies in a car accident, Danny the Dio-worshipping werewolf must transform from loser to gridiron star in this surreal pulp tragedy about teenage anxiety, high school violence, and heavy fucking metal.
THE DESTROYED ROOM
In a near-future city where automobiles have been outlawed and exotic animals roam the streets, a man wakes up one morning to discover that everyone in the world is a marionette. Now his wife is dead and he must find the answer, or else lose everything to the Great Shark Head in the Sky.
172 pages, Paperback
First published April 11, 2011
9 people are currently reading
550 people want to read
About the author
Cameron Pierce
54 books196 followersCameron Pierce is the author of eleven books, including the Wonderland Book Award-winning collection Lost in Cat Brain Land. His work has appeared in The Barcelona Review, Gray's Sporting Journal, Hobart, The Big Click, and Vol. I Brooklyn, and has been reviewed and featured on Comedy Central and The Guardian. He was also the author of the column Fishing and Beer, where he interviewed acclaimed angler Bill Dance and John Lurie of Fishing with John. Pierce is the head editor of Lazy Fascist Press and has edited three anthologies, including The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade. He lives with his wife in Astoria, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
July 11, 2011
Three well-written, surreal novellas, highlighted by the third one, "The Destroyed Room". The first story, a unique zombie tale called "No Children" depicts a time when zombies rule the world and humans are kept in pens like cattle and forced to breed through forced marriages.
The second tale, "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High" is about a teen-angst-riddled werewolf who must fill the shoes of the football team's dead starting quarterback. Absurdity rules at Heavy Metal High, where Skeletor (from He-Man) is the head security guard. Lots of fun ideas and silly scenarios, but this one felt a bit rushed. And Skeletor never actually makes an appearance, which was a bit of a downer.
"The Destroyed Room", as I mentioned, was the best of the three stories. A man discovers that every living thing, in a world filled with fake trees and rogue sloths and tiny elephants that infest homes like mice, is controlled by strings from the sky like marionettes. Sureal, odd, touching, and gentle but still visceral, this is Cameron Pierce at his best.
The second tale, "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High" is about a teen-angst-riddled werewolf who must fill the shoes of the football team's dead starting quarterback. Absurdity rules at Heavy Metal High, where Skeletor (from He-Man) is the head security guard. Lots of fun ideas and silly scenarios, but this one felt a bit rushed. And Skeletor never actually makes an appearance, which was a bit of a downer.
"The Destroyed Room", as I mentioned, was the best of the three stories. A man discovers that every living thing, in a world filled with fake trees and rogue sloths and tiny elephants that infest homes like mice, is controlled by strings from the sky like marionettes. Sureal, odd, touching, and gentle but still visceral, this is Cameron Pierce at his best.
May 3, 2011
A lot of work gets called "original", "groundbreaking" and "unique". Cameron Pierce's books make it look like the people that use these words don't know what they mean. In this collection of three novellas, each of them is "unique", each is "original" and one is "groundbreaking". The first, "No Children" is the story of a young man in love. Like all young men in love, he's got a problem. Unlike most young men in love, he lives in a world where zombies harvest human organs for food and force people to breed. And the one girl he loves, the one he wants to breed with is breeding with somebody else. Pierce takes the propaganda out of food ethics and gets to the heart of them in this piece, that, as the best of Cameron Pierce tends to be, is so gutwrenching and imaginative that you're willing to follow it anywhere it goes. The second, "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High" combines elements of Tetsuo the Iron Man and Gravedale High or Groovie Ghoulies. It's a fun but thoughtful piece about teen angst, expectation, puberty and Heavy Metal and possibly a twisted reflection on Pierce's own high school experiences. It's the weakest of the three, but still better than most things you'll read. The third, The Destroyed Room is a dreamlike masterpiece akin to Lynch's Eraserhead and just as full of terror, wonder and suffering. It might be the best thing Pierce has written. Though the middle novella didn't impress me quite as much as it could have, Abortion Arcade is more than worth your money and time.
May 28, 2011
I LOVED "Assgoblins of Auschwitz," so, naturally, I needed to read Cameron Pierce's new book as quickly as I could get my hands on it.
I'm glad I did. It is a mix of stories that, in all honesty, is very difficult to explain and review. Probably one of the more difficult titles that I have have felt compelled to review. I feel that if I say too much, I will give away what makes each of the stories so good, because each one has some kind of twisted idea that runs throughout and is the basis for the whole plot. That's what makes it fun to read-the not knowing, and not always understanding right away, what's going on.
The first story was somewhat reminiscent of "Assgoblins." It's got the weird feeling to it that I really like in Bizarro. It's just enough to make you feel slightly uncomfortable and maybe a little queasy, but he makes you enjoy it. The second story was like a tween cartoon gone terribly awry. It was funny, and in a matter of pages he created some really interesting characters. The last story is the best, in my opinion. It was dream-like and oddly pleasant. Again, I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil a good thing for you.
It took me a few days to really figure out how I felt about the whole book. I eventually came to a consensus that it's well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a good collection with three entirely unique stories. I really enjoyed that about this book. Buy it...read it...find out for yourself.
I'm glad I did. It is a mix of stories that, in all honesty, is very difficult to explain and review. Probably one of the more difficult titles that I have have felt compelled to review. I feel that if I say too much, I will give away what makes each of the stories so good, because each one has some kind of twisted idea that runs throughout and is the basis for the whole plot. That's what makes it fun to read-the not knowing, and not always understanding right away, what's going on.
The first story was somewhat reminiscent of "Assgoblins." It's got the weird feeling to it that I really like in Bizarro. It's just enough to make you feel slightly uncomfortable and maybe a little queasy, but he makes you enjoy it. The second story was like a tween cartoon gone terribly awry. It was funny, and in a matter of pages he created some really interesting characters. The last story is the best, in my opinion. It was dream-like and oddly pleasant. Again, I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil a good thing for you.
It took me a few days to really figure out how I felt about the whole book. I eventually came to a consensus that it's well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a good collection with three entirely unique stories. I really enjoyed that about this book. Buy it...read it...find out for yourself.
May 25, 2014
I realize, yes, the title of this collection of three novellas may be slightly off-putting, but, rest assured, this is a terrific kaleidoscope of candy-flavored-surreal psychedelia.
First off we have an original-in-concept zombie tale (sort of a sci-fi zombie work) entitled "No Children" that is pretty eerie and Phillip K. Dick-like, although even more pulpy (yes, that is possible); the doomed/grotesque love story at its center is very Carlton Mellick III-esque (I was reminded, at times, of The Cannibals of Candyland(which this does not surpass(in terms of greatness)).
Then we turn to our next tale: "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High"--which is my favorite of the collection. In a dystopian future flavored with the perversity of J.G. Ballard's Crash, students studying heavy metal 24/7 must stage accidents; our hero, a werewolf, manages to stage a magnificent accident--the aftereffects of which lead to one of the most baffling/hilarious scenes I have ever read. Long live Dio.
"The Destroyed Room" was also fantastic. I especially loved how casually these little blue elephants just wandered in through the walls. The shark head in the sky visual is also one of incendiary power.
Step in to Cameron Pierce's dreams or nightmares. Step inside today.
First off we have an original-in-concept zombie tale (sort of a sci-fi zombie work) entitled "No Children" that is pretty eerie and Phillip K. Dick-like, although even more pulpy (yes, that is possible); the doomed/grotesque love story at its center is very Carlton Mellick III-esque (I was reminded, at times, of The Cannibals of Candyland(which this does not surpass(in terms of greatness)).
Then we turn to our next tale: "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High"--which is my favorite of the collection. In a dystopian future flavored with the perversity of J.G. Ballard's Crash, students studying heavy metal 24/7 must stage accidents; our hero, a werewolf, manages to stage a magnificent accident--the aftereffects of which lead to one of the most baffling/hilarious scenes I have ever read. Long live Dio.
"The Destroyed Room" was also fantastic. I especially loved how casually these little blue elephants just wandered in through the walls. The shark head in the sky visual is also one of incendiary power.
Step in to Cameron Pierce's dreams or nightmares. Step inside today.
October 3, 2012
Get extra socks, because each of these stories will knock them the fuck off. Probably do some other stuff to them, too. Seriously, each one of these stories is better than the last. Essential bizarro reading.
June 27, 2011
“When you have no one to turn to, no one to play games with, then you’re no better than the undead. We are all so much worse alone, and aren’t we always alone? Not me anymore. I’m in love.”
Cameron Pierce’s Abortion Arcade is a book of three stories united by a focus on the importance of love in an uncaring world. It is also the most literally nightmarish book I have ever read. Mind you, I have read other books that were more disgusting, unpleasant, violent, or repulsive, but that is not what I mean by nightmarish. Pierce managed all of these other things in his earlier book The Ass Goblins Of Auschwitz, though that book seemed so deliberate and crafted in its grotesqueries and offensiveness that it was clearly the product of a conscious mind. No matter how horrific it became, it never seemed dreamlike. Abortion Arcade, however, is rife with the stuff of nightmares. It’s not just the zombies and werewolves, but its pervasive senses of dread, paranoia, shame, and guilt, all potentially relieved by the presence of love, or exacerbated by its loss and filtered through an inexorable broken logic with ever-changing rules.
I am having difficulty elucidating how the book feels like a unified whole despite the three stories being so wildly disparate. How can I explain that I feel there is a humanist core and a kind of Gnosticism throughout, and then tell you about the scene where a werewolf dies when he accidentally chainsaws all his limbs off while crashing a truck and drowning in his own blood, then wakes up (still dead) to go play football as a truck/werewolf/chainsaw hybrid? These are not rhetorical questions. If somebody out there is a better essayist than I am, please tell me how to effectively synthesize these elements.
What’s so impressive about Pierce’s work is that he manages to have earnest sentiments about love and hope shining through shit-smeared pages that are otherwise dense with cannibalism, beheadings, blood, improvised auto-mastectomies, brushes with forced incest, mercy-killing your own mother, horrific congenital disfigurements, Ronnie James Dio, and the concept of accidentally murdering your wife and unborn child while only trying to help them.
One thing that I think helps the tone of the book, paradoxically, is the fact that it’s a collection of three unrelated novellas. Each of the novellas (No Children, The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High, and The Destroyed Room) has dreamlike elements of their own, but their succession and order makes reading the book straight through seem like a snooze-button smashing morning, lapsing in and out of consciousness, dreaming while slowly becoming more and more aware that there is a world out there, feeling nothing wrong with the madness behind your eyes until you finally wake up screaming.
NO CHILDREN
The stories share no characters or settings whatsoever, but there is a tonal arc to each story that allows it to flow into the next one easily, and to unite the book as a whole. The first novella, No Children, is the most clearly outlandish- it’s set in a kind of concentration camp where humans are used as cattle for zombies, forced to breed to produce new brains for zombie consumption, while the rest of their bodies are used as construction materials by the zombies or fed back to the other human cattle. The humans have no choice in their breeding partners, and men are killed immediately after impregnating their bride for the first time, whereas women are bred repeatedly. Pierce does not halfass the conceptualization or explication of the horrifying details of this process. It is all clearly designed to be as soul-shattering and dehumanizing as possible, and the story follows one of the human cattle, a man in love, trying to maintain his humanity, escape his slaughterhouse of a home, and live a life with his true love before he is 1.) forced to incestuously impregnate his own mother 2.) executed, and 3.) cannibalized by the other cattle.
It’s horrific, yes, but so hyperbolic that it’s difficult to process the enormity of the situation. Every page is dense with blood, gore, cannibalism, and shit, but these are so common in the narrator’s world that they are overshadowed by love, which is comparatively rare. This seems a bit ironic, given that the title of the story is taken from the song of the same name by The Mountain Goats, from their 2002 album Tallahassee, which is all about a married couple who hate each other so intensely that they do not even want to get a divorce, but instead to mutually destroy each other’s lives through a slow process of complete alienation and intense alcoholism. Meanwhile, Pierce’s No Children is about the inspiring power of love in the face of seemingly insurmountable bleakness and horror. And involves forced impregnation. So, there’s a disparity there.
THE ROADKILL QUARTERBACK OF HEAVY METAL HIGH
The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High is the most overtly comical of the three- it's about a teenaged werewolf living in a town where the rite of passage into respectable manhood is to be involved in the most gruesomely violent accident possible without actually dying, who is unfortunately forced into having to stage an accident for himself and be quarterback in the Big Important Football Game after the former quarterback stages an accident that's SO METAL that he does die. Despite the cartoonish gore, the story is remarkably good at evoking the dread of puberty, high school, and the encroaching expectations of Adulthood upon the adolescent. There are a few points where I do feel the narrative falters- a running commentary on the climactic football game is formatted as a transcript of a conversation between two announcers, one of whom manages to be so senseless that he seems exist outside the logic of the story, eve though the story does, at one point, involve being resurrected as a truck with human arms.
THE DESTROYED ROOM
The final story, The Destroyed Room, is a goddamn masterpiece. It's the best thing I've ever read from Cameron Pierce. It is one of the most deeply terrifying and unsettling stories I have ever read. It is easily the most nightmarish thing I have ever read. Where No Children works in gore and guts and disgust and redeems it with Love, The Destroyed Room works in the opposite direction. The Destroyed Room begins with love, takes it away with a single yank, and falls slowly. Most of the story is the narrator wandering around in a world that seems familiar but broken, surrounded by guilt and shame, purposeless. A nightmare. I cannot bear to spoil the story for you, but suffice it to say it ends on an image of an uncaring, Gnostic universe that disturbed me more than anything in Lovecraft. It ends on a still moment with a silence and understatement that are so different from the chaos and gore that has come from every preceding story that you almost want back the threat of imminent violent death and cannibalization. Instead, the final, climactic horror of Abortion Arcade is a simple one: Being alive and alone.
In Pierce’s worlds, as in ours, there are terrors, and we can’t face them alone. But we can face them.
Cameron Pierce’s Abortion Arcade is a book of three stories united by a focus on the importance of love in an uncaring world. It is also the most literally nightmarish book I have ever read. Mind you, I have read other books that were more disgusting, unpleasant, violent, or repulsive, but that is not what I mean by nightmarish. Pierce managed all of these other things in his earlier book The Ass Goblins Of Auschwitz, though that book seemed so deliberate and crafted in its grotesqueries and offensiveness that it was clearly the product of a conscious mind. No matter how horrific it became, it never seemed dreamlike. Abortion Arcade, however, is rife with the stuff of nightmares. It’s not just the zombies and werewolves, but its pervasive senses of dread, paranoia, shame, and guilt, all potentially relieved by the presence of love, or exacerbated by its loss and filtered through an inexorable broken logic with ever-changing rules.
I am having difficulty elucidating how the book feels like a unified whole despite the three stories being so wildly disparate. How can I explain that I feel there is a humanist core and a kind of Gnosticism throughout, and then tell you about the scene where a werewolf dies when he accidentally chainsaws all his limbs off while crashing a truck and drowning in his own blood, then wakes up (still dead) to go play football as a truck/werewolf/chainsaw hybrid? These are not rhetorical questions. If somebody out there is a better essayist than I am, please tell me how to effectively synthesize these elements.
What’s so impressive about Pierce’s work is that he manages to have earnest sentiments about love and hope shining through shit-smeared pages that are otherwise dense with cannibalism, beheadings, blood, improvised auto-mastectomies, brushes with forced incest, mercy-killing your own mother, horrific congenital disfigurements, Ronnie James Dio, and the concept of accidentally murdering your wife and unborn child while only trying to help them.
One thing that I think helps the tone of the book, paradoxically, is the fact that it’s a collection of three unrelated novellas. Each of the novellas (No Children, The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High, and The Destroyed Room) has dreamlike elements of their own, but their succession and order makes reading the book straight through seem like a snooze-button smashing morning, lapsing in and out of consciousness, dreaming while slowly becoming more and more aware that there is a world out there, feeling nothing wrong with the madness behind your eyes until you finally wake up screaming.
NO CHILDREN
The stories share no characters or settings whatsoever, but there is a tonal arc to each story that allows it to flow into the next one easily, and to unite the book as a whole. The first novella, No Children, is the most clearly outlandish- it’s set in a kind of concentration camp where humans are used as cattle for zombies, forced to breed to produce new brains for zombie consumption, while the rest of their bodies are used as construction materials by the zombies or fed back to the other human cattle. The humans have no choice in their breeding partners, and men are killed immediately after impregnating their bride for the first time, whereas women are bred repeatedly. Pierce does not halfass the conceptualization or explication of the horrifying details of this process. It is all clearly designed to be as soul-shattering and dehumanizing as possible, and the story follows one of the human cattle, a man in love, trying to maintain his humanity, escape his slaughterhouse of a home, and live a life with his true love before he is 1.) forced to incestuously impregnate his own mother 2.) executed, and 3.) cannibalized by the other cattle.
It’s horrific, yes, but so hyperbolic that it’s difficult to process the enormity of the situation. Every page is dense with blood, gore, cannibalism, and shit, but these are so common in the narrator’s world that they are overshadowed by love, which is comparatively rare. This seems a bit ironic, given that the title of the story is taken from the song of the same name by The Mountain Goats, from their 2002 album Tallahassee, which is all about a married couple who hate each other so intensely that they do not even want to get a divorce, but instead to mutually destroy each other’s lives through a slow process of complete alienation and intense alcoholism. Meanwhile, Pierce’s No Children is about the inspiring power of love in the face of seemingly insurmountable bleakness and horror. And involves forced impregnation. So, there’s a disparity there.
THE ROADKILL QUARTERBACK OF HEAVY METAL HIGH
The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High is the most overtly comical of the three- it's about a teenaged werewolf living in a town where the rite of passage into respectable manhood is to be involved in the most gruesomely violent accident possible without actually dying, who is unfortunately forced into having to stage an accident for himself and be quarterback in the Big Important Football Game after the former quarterback stages an accident that's SO METAL that he does die. Despite the cartoonish gore, the story is remarkably good at evoking the dread of puberty, high school, and the encroaching expectations of Adulthood upon the adolescent. There are a few points where I do feel the narrative falters- a running commentary on the climactic football game is formatted as a transcript of a conversation between two announcers, one of whom manages to be so senseless that he seems exist outside the logic of the story, eve though the story does, at one point, involve being resurrected as a truck with human arms.
THE DESTROYED ROOM
The final story, The Destroyed Room, is a goddamn masterpiece. It's the best thing I've ever read from Cameron Pierce. It is one of the most deeply terrifying and unsettling stories I have ever read. It is easily the most nightmarish thing I have ever read. Where No Children works in gore and guts and disgust and redeems it with Love, The Destroyed Room works in the opposite direction. The Destroyed Room begins with love, takes it away with a single yank, and falls slowly. Most of the story is the narrator wandering around in a world that seems familiar but broken, surrounded by guilt and shame, purposeless. A nightmare. I cannot bear to spoil the story for you, but suffice it to say it ends on an image of an uncaring, Gnostic universe that disturbed me more than anything in Lovecraft. It ends on a still moment with a silence and understatement that are so different from the chaos and gore that has come from every preceding story that you almost want back the threat of imminent violent death and cannibalization. Instead, the final, climactic horror of Abortion Arcade is a simple one: Being alive and alone.
In Pierce’s worlds, as in ours, there are terrors, and we can’t face them alone. But we can face them.
March 30, 2020
This was my first experience with Cameron Pierce's straight bizarro fiction. While it didn't have the same impact on me as his later, more mature work (Our Love Will Go the Way of the Salmon should be required weird fiction reading), there was still a lot to love here. Pierce's ability to build weird worlds rivals any other writer. Each of the three novellas in this collection take place in uniquely strange settings, with Pierce going all-in with the ridiculousness. Things get gory, crass and at times juvenile, but at the end, each of these stories contain a humanity that many authors who write in this style miss. My favorite of the three was "The Destroyed Room," a novelette that explores grief and despair while still maintaining a level of weirdness and levity. Its conclusion was crushing, yet very satisfying. This is a good one for established fans of the genre, or those who like their weirdness with substance.
December 3, 2023
I’m trying to get in the Christmas spirit.
This is pretty solidly fucked up, which is the point I think. Honestly, not really my jam, but to each their own.
This is pretty solidly fucked up, which is the point I think. Honestly, not really my jam, but to each their own.
August 8, 2011
The defining mark of Bizarro is its level of weird. Some stories have an element of whimsy and fun, others more thought-provoking, and still others emotionally gripping. Cameron Pierce seamlessly brings together all of these elements in his collection Abortion Arcade.
Composed of three novellas, Abortion Arcade showcases Pierce's talent through different lenses. With “No Children” we see a bit of social criticism in the form of a unique zombie story. “The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High” is just plain weird and fun. Lastly “The Destroyed Room” is a heart-rending tale of love lost and the confusion that follows.
All three tales are well written examples of the best that Bizarro can offer. The above statements are just the main impressions. Each shares thematic elements with the others, just in different amounts. Think of Abortion Arcade as the literary equivalent of Iron Chef. There is a core ingredient, used in different ways to create a surprisingly pleasant three-course meal.
In the final analysis, you can't go wrong with this collection. It is reminiscent of the early Bizarros, while proudly showing a strong individual voice of its own. Cameron Pierce does not disappoint.
June 8, 2018
A free book from the bizarro genre. There really is no definition for bizarro fiction that can sufficiently explain it. I've read a few others. Bizarro puts the "B" in B-movie schlock. Let's just say there are people using amputated breasts as suction cups for climbing.
There are three novellas in this book: one has humans farmed by zombies, one is kinda "Teen Wolf"-ish, and the last is kind of an avantgarde piece with symbolism, but it doesn't really make sense. Actually, none of the stories make sense. But that's not really what bothers me -- stories don't have to make sense as long as they're cohesive. But the first novella ends before it concludes (and it was my favorite, so I was sad), the second had no firm plot and poor characters, and the third was just incoherent.
Like B-movies, they're shocking for the sake of being shocking, with gross concepts, blood, and "eww" moments. Not my favorite bizarro work.
There are three novellas in this book: one has humans farmed by zombies, one is kinda "Teen Wolf"-ish, and the last is kind of an avantgarde piece with symbolism, but it doesn't really make sense. Actually, none of the stories make sense. But that's not really what bothers me -- stories don't have to make sense as long as they're cohesive. But the first novella ends before it concludes (and it was my favorite, so I was sad), the second had no firm plot and poor characters, and the third was just incoherent.
Like B-movies, they're shocking for the sake of being shocking, with gross concepts, blood, and "eww" moments. Not my favorite bizarro work.
May 24, 2011
This book is interesting...some people will find the content...offensive, disgusting, or sick. BUT I need to remind you this is only a novel. For those who do complain about the obscenity of it all, may I need to remind you some of the worst human atrocities have already been done in the name of religion and a true God. Those looking for a target to rant on, go protest in front of your local church.
May 10, 2022
An (almost) pleasant collection of three short stories.
No Children, in all it's weirdness and vulgarity was actually very compelling, and I'm sure that if it wasn't for it's profanity would work great as a young adult novel (please don't let any underage people read this by the way)
The Quarterback Of Heavy Metal High is a though one to review because I think I'm biased due to the fact that I don't really enjoy school dramas. Netflix has saturated the market with those kind of silly and quippy stories about misfits in HS trying to be the cool kid, this one is no exception.
On top of that, this is all about football, a game which rules I really really REALLY don't understand plus I have no intention to learn since I dislike the sport.
And if this makes you go "this isn't bizarre at all" it's because the weird comes from the fact that the protagonist is a metal-lover werewolf trying to impress the girl of his dreams after he bit her face off earlier.
I don't get the cameos either, this one's absurdity flew way to high for me. Easily the one that could make you drop the book.
The Destroyed Room is the highlight however.
A tragic-comedy that is essentially an essay in apathy and grief that tells us that sometimes god is just an agonizing shark in the sky. Surreal, touching and very bizarre. The best one of this collection.
No Children, in all it's weirdness and vulgarity was actually very compelling, and I'm sure that if it wasn't for it's profanity would work great as a young adult novel (please don't let any underage people read this by the way)
The Quarterback Of Heavy Metal High is a though one to review because I think I'm biased due to the fact that I don't really enjoy school dramas. Netflix has saturated the market with those kind of silly and quippy stories about misfits in HS trying to be the cool kid, this one is no exception.
On top of that, this is all about football, a game which rules I really really REALLY don't understand plus I have no intention to learn since I dislike the sport.
And if this makes you go "this isn't bizarre at all" it's because the weird comes from the fact that the protagonist is a metal-lover werewolf trying to impress the girl of his dreams after he bit her face off earlier.
I don't get the cameos either, this one's absurdity flew way to high for me. Easily the one that could make you drop the book.
The Destroyed Room is the highlight however.
A tragic-comedy that is essentially an essay in apathy and grief that tells us that sometimes god is just an agonizing shark in the sky. Surreal, touching and very bizarre. The best one of this collection.
June 14, 2024
Primera historia:
Da muchos detalles asqueroso e innecesarios pero es lo que estaba buscando últimamente así que no me ha desagradado. Además está todo muy bien escrito y eso hace mucho. También hay que decir que la historia es más realista, por así decirlo, y entonces te puedes imaginar perfectamente que te pasa a tí.
Segunda historia:
No la entendí muy bien. El principio me gustó mucho pero el final es una mierda, es la razón por la cual no le pongo 5 estrellas a este libro. No hay nada más que decir.
Tercera historia:
Es la historia que más me ha gustado y es la más "imaginativa". En comparación a la primera, esta no puedes imaginar que te pasa a tí pq es completamente ciencia ficción pero no la típica de los superhéroes o de las ciudades hiper desarrolladas, ese mundo es mágico. Está lleno de animales que no te imaginas e inventos interesantes, además los personajes también son muy chulos. Si quieres leer más libros que se parezcan a esta historia te recomiendo "Organes Invisibles" en francés (no sé si está traducido al español o al inglés).
Da muchos detalles asqueroso e innecesarios pero es lo que estaba buscando últimamente así que no me ha desagradado. Además está todo muy bien escrito y eso hace mucho. También hay que decir que la historia es más realista, por así decirlo, y entonces te puedes imaginar perfectamente que te pasa a tí.
Segunda historia:
No la entendí muy bien. El principio me gustó mucho pero el final es una mierda, es la razón por la cual no le pongo 5 estrellas a este libro. No hay nada más que decir.
Tercera historia:
Es la historia que más me ha gustado y es la más "imaginativa". En comparación a la primera, esta no puedes imaginar que te pasa a tí pq es completamente ciencia ficción pero no la típica de los superhéroes o de las ciudades hiper desarrolladas, ese mundo es mágico. Está lleno de animales que no te imaginas e inventos interesantes, además los personajes también son muy chulos. Si quieres leer más libros que se parezcan a esta historia te recomiendo "Organes Invisibles" en francés (no sé si está traducido al español o al inglés).
July 4, 2022
Por favor como me gustan estos libros
June 20, 2023
I love the development of romantic story’s in such bizarre, depressing and disgusting contexts.
February 23, 2024
Where's the abortion!?!?!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 23, 2024
Lo terminé de leer en una ponencia de la uat hahaha conferencias aburridas
September 25, 2011
The Abortion Arcade showcases three novellas, each one more absurd than the last. The first of these is No Children, which very well may be the most unique zombie story I’ve ever read. It tells about a farm ran by zombies and their obvious “crop”, which is people. We follow our narrator Grieves as he makes his way through what is to be the short journey of his life. But he has different plans, and with a little help he might become more than just food for the undead. With a wedding ceremony that involves cannibalism and death, Cameron Pierce starts out strong with this story.
The second story, The Roadkill Quarter Back of Heavy Metal High, is my personal favorite of the trio. Danny the werewolf is becoming accustomed to life as the backup quarterback, which makes him a loser. After a freak accident he gets thrust into playing in the conference game against the Old Time Country Vampires, and the entire school is depending on him. Add to it the heavy flow of metal references and you can see just how fun it is to be a Bizarro writer.
And finally there is The Destroyed Room. Cameron Pierce shows us the strange world that Simon and Celia live in, where sloths have moved into the city and tiny elephants infest homes like rats. Simon’s curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers strings attached to living objects, and he gets a curious surprise trying to find what they lead to.
I found this book to be quite enjoyable, very well written and extremely imaginative. Outlandish, morbid tales of sadness and love like this is exactly what I look for in Bizarro. And with this being my first from Cameron Pierce I’m looking forward to checking out his other books.
The second story, The Roadkill Quarter Back of Heavy Metal High, is my personal favorite of the trio. Danny the werewolf is becoming accustomed to life as the backup quarterback, which makes him a loser. After a freak accident he gets thrust into playing in the conference game against the Old Time Country Vampires, and the entire school is depending on him. Add to it the heavy flow of metal references and you can see just how fun it is to be a Bizarro writer.
And finally there is The Destroyed Room. Cameron Pierce shows us the strange world that Simon and Celia live in, where sloths have moved into the city and tiny elephants infest homes like rats. Simon’s curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers strings attached to living objects, and he gets a curious surprise trying to find what they lead to.
I found this book to be quite enjoyable, very well written and extremely imaginative. Outlandish, morbid tales of sadness and love like this is exactly what I look for in Bizarro. And with this being my first from Cameron Pierce I’m looking forward to checking out his other books.
August 30, 2012
A fantastic trio of tales from a great writer.
In the first story Cameron Pierce manages to turn the zombie story on its head whilst seamlessly blending a romantic tale of heroism and escape. Perhaps it can be read as a commentary on modern society, but regardless, its a fascinating take on zombies and consumerism. The prose and characters are typically engaging of Pierce. Though not as interesting as his novel SHARK HUNTING IN PARADISE GARDEN, this book is probably my favourite collection of his shorter works thus far.
The second story is simply a wtf kind of tale. It begins with a back-up quarterback at Heavy Metal High School being an outsider, a laughing stock almost. Oh, and a werewolf. He must get in an accident, part of the initiation of the world Cameron crafts. A series of events leads him to his Heaven, which turns out to be not as great as he imagined, typical Pierce then. Funny, bizarre and certainly different. I enjoyed the story.
The last story is a sad tale about a cycling enthusiast who wants to kill the elephants infesting his and his wife's apartment. It veers away from that angle quite sharply, becoming seriously poignant and weird at the same time. I don't want to spoil it at all, so go read it.
Pierce shows he has boundless imagination and a solid prose style in this book. Recommend it to pretty much everybody. The deeper themes are always sensible and interesting, only the surface may put people off. It's a shame because Pierce deserves to be recognised as a great writer.
In the first story Cameron Pierce manages to turn the zombie story on its head whilst seamlessly blending a romantic tale of heroism and escape. Perhaps it can be read as a commentary on modern society, but regardless, its a fascinating take on zombies and consumerism. The prose and characters are typically engaging of Pierce. Though not as interesting as his novel SHARK HUNTING IN PARADISE GARDEN, this book is probably my favourite collection of his shorter works thus far.
The second story is simply a wtf kind of tale. It begins with a back-up quarterback at Heavy Metal High School being an outsider, a laughing stock almost. Oh, and a werewolf. He must get in an accident, part of the initiation of the world Cameron crafts. A series of events leads him to his Heaven, which turns out to be not as great as he imagined, typical Pierce then. Funny, bizarre and certainly different. I enjoyed the story.
The last story is a sad tale about a cycling enthusiast who wants to kill the elephants infesting his and his wife's apartment. It veers away from that angle quite sharply, becoming seriously poignant and weird at the same time. I don't want to spoil it at all, so go read it.
Pierce shows he has boundless imagination and a solid prose style in this book. Recommend it to pretty much everybody. The deeper themes are always sensible and interesting, only the surface may put people off. It's a shame because Pierce deserves to be recognised as a great writer.
August 20, 2015
I came across Cameron Pierce quite by accident, but was quite pleased that my first foray into his work was a collection of three novellas. That seemed the perfect introduction, especially for me, someone not terribly familiar with Bizarro Fiction. Having finished the book, however, I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
The first story, entitled “No Children,” takes place in an apocalyptic future where zombies rule and use humans as livestock. The first half is insane, dark, and wonderfully absurd, but then goes completely off the rails in the second half. We’re already in a Bizarro tale, so reality is loose, but it becomes a Looney Tunes episode. Next we have “The Roadkill Quarterback Of Heavy Metal High,” a piece that is complete ridiculous. Something dreamt up by Robert Rankin or Terry Pratchett on Meth, there’s humor here but it’s disjointed. Finally, we have the best story, “The Destroyed Room,” a beautiful, brilliant, and disturbing tale about a man who can see the strings that animate all life and who accidently murders his wife.
Perhaps the biggest problem with ABORTION ARCADE is that the three novellas feel so different. Or maybe that was the point. I suppose fans of the genre would gravitate to at least one in the collection, depending on their preference. For me, it makes me very curious to try more by Pierce, seeing all these styles by him. I would recommend this book for anyone with the blackest, most absurd of humor… you won’t be disappointed.
The first story, entitled “No Children,” takes place in an apocalyptic future where zombies rule and use humans as livestock. The first half is insane, dark, and wonderfully absurd, but then goes completely off the rails in the second half. We’re already in a Bizarro tale, so reality is loose, but it becomes a Looney Tunes episode. Next we have “The Roadkill Quarterback Of Heavy Metal High,” a piece that is complete ridiculous. Something dreamt up by Robert Rankin or Terry Pratchett on Meth, there’s humor here but it’s disjointed. Finally, we have the best story, “The Destroyed Room,” a beautiful, brilliant, and disturbing tale about a man who can see the strings that animate all life and who accidently murders his wife.
Perhaps the biggest problem with ABORTION ARCADE is that the three novellas feel so different. Or maybe that was the point. I suppose fans of the genre would gravitate to at least one in the collection, depending on their preference. For me, it makes me very curious to try more by Pierce, seeing all these styles by him. I would recommend this book for anyone with the blackest, most absurd of humor… you won’t be disappointed.
July 22, 2015
Three novellas in one book. Pretty good but typical bizarro fiction.
The first one, No Children: On the plus side, zombies. An interesting take on zombies ruling the world and keeping people as cattle and seeing the world from the point of view of the bottom of the food chain instead of the top. On the negative side, suction cup boobies. I realize this is bizarro fiction, but sometimes I like it to be at least somewhat make physical sense. Suction cup boobies are just too juvenile and ridiculous. The rest of the story was great, though.
The second, The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High - Teen angst and Heavy Metal. As a metal head myself, I loved the stereotypes portrayed in this story, right down to everything sucks, and just absurd levels of stupidity. OTOH, football & cheerleaders? Sorry, but true Heavy Metal and jocks and cheerleaders just don't mix.
The final one, The Destroyed Room - Do we really have free will, or are we all just puppets? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle whereby we all have strings tying us to a higher power but still have free will? And what happens when we try to take out those strings?
The first one, No Children: On the plus side, zombies. An interesting take on zombies ruling the world and keeping people as cattle and seeing the world from the point of view of the bottom of the food chain instead of the top. On the negative side, suction cup boobies. I realize this is bizarro fiction, but sometimes I like it to be at least somewhat make physical sense. Suction cup boobies are just too juvenile and ridiculous. The rest of the story was great, though.
The second, The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High - Teen angst and Heavy Metal. As a metal head myself, I loved the stereotypes portrayed in this story, right down to everything sucks, and just absurd levels of stupidity. OTOH, football & cheerleaders? Sorry, but true Heavy Metal and jocks and cheerleaders just don't mix.
The final one, The Destroyed Room - Do we really have free will, or are we all just puppets? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle whereby we all have strings tying us to a higher power but still have free will? And what happens when we try to take out those strings?
October 24, 2014
First bask in the glory of Hauke Vagt's cover art. (Also, don't read the story descriptions on the back cover, they give away all the secrets.) Now on to the three novellas contained within.
In each of these pieces, Pierce juxtaposes gore, absurdity, scatology, and irony with emotional sincerity. With direct, swift-moving prose, Pierce explores social outsiders and the search for true love amid images of brain-eating, bacon-stapling, and animal-maiming.
The first novella, No Children, is probably my favorite. It's a dystopian nightmare that shows how a subject as well-trod as the zombie apocalypse can still be used in new and strange ways. As with the other pieces it's reminiscent of vintage splatterpunk but spirals out into that wonderland known by the name of bizarro. The second novella, The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High, features a werewolf protagonist; it's the weakest piece, as it gets bogged down in tedious play-by-play descriptions of football. The third novella, The Destroyed Room, is probably the most original: lysergic, fairy tale-esque, and genuinely dreamlike.
Take a stroll down the Abortion Arcade. It's a disturbing delight.
In each of these pieces, Pierce juxtaposes gore, absurdity, scatology, and irony with emotional sincerity. With direct, swift-moving prose, Pierce explores social outsiders and the search for true love amid images of brain-eating, bacon-stapling, and animal-maiming.
The first novella, No Children, is probably my favorite. It's a dystopian nightmare that shows how a subject as well-trod as the zombie apocalypse can still be used in new and strange ways. As with the other pieces it's reminiscent of vintage splatterpunk but spirals out into that wonderland known by the name of bizarro. The second novella, The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High, features a werewolf protagonist; it's the weakest piece, as it gets bogged down in tedious play-by-play descriptions of football. The third novella, The Destroyed Room, is probably the most original: lysergic, fairy tale-esque, and genuinely dreamlike.
Take a stroll down the Abortion Arcade. It's a disturbing delight.
June 28, 2016
Quick Read. First story holds up okay but the two next are not that good. Review to come...
Three stories. Don't know if everyone of them should be considered Bizzaro but...
The first story is a zombie story where they rule humanity and humans are no more than forced to breed to feed the zombies. They are no more than chickens and cows. Interesting tale, with a ending that make us wonder. If you don't enjoy bizarro setting you will not enjoy it. Believe me...
Second story is about a teen-wolf trying to be accepted in his high school...
The last story reminds me of Eraserhead as someone told here. Yes, indeed it has some points that remind us that story by Barker. It's interesting piece but...
Bizzarro stories tend to be that.. Bizarro. But some are more Bizarre than others. I enjoy Wrath or Mellick but this writer had something on those stories that made not fully enjoy.
Three stories. Don't know if everyone of them should be considered Bizzaro but...
The first story is a zombie story where they rule humanity and humans are no more than forced to breed to feed the zombies. They are no more than chickens and cows. Interesting tale, with a ending that make us wonder. If you don't enjoy bizarro setting you will not enjoy it. Believe me...
Second story is about a teen-wolf trying to be accepted in his high school...
The last story reminds me of Eraserhead as someone told here. Yes, indeed it has some points that remind us that story by Barker. It's interesting piece but...
Bizzarro stories tend to be that.. Bizarro. But some are more Bizarre than others. I enjoy Wrath or Mellick but this writer had something on those stories that made not fully enjoy.
July 9, 2011
With Ronnie James Dio dying recently, the timing reading one of the three stories in this collection was perfect. Any story that involves football and Dio's famous "Holy Diver" song promises a creative read. This is the second story and my favorite of the bunch entitled "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High." This story was excellent.
The opening story, "No Children" involves a creative, ingenious scene. One involving using severed breasts in a unique, industrious fashion.
I didn't care much for the third story in the collection, "The Destroyed Room" which felt too gimmicky.
Overall this is a good bizarro story collection with one story being five star, another four star and the last story a two star. I'll round up to four overall because of the author's creativity, outstanding title and clever cover art. I would read another book by this author.
The opening story, "No Children" involves a creative, ingenious scene. One involving using severed breasts in a unique, industrious fashion.
I didn't care much for the third story in the collection, "The Destroyed Room" which felt too gimmicky.
Overall this is a good bizarro story collection with one story being five star, another four star and the last story a two star. I'll round up to four overall because of the author's creativity, outstanding title and clever cover art. I would read another book by this author.
April 10, 2013
Cameron Pierce's stories are as taut and food obsessed as ever. He uses a palette of absurdities to paint himself into literary corners, then dips his fingers into the still drying paint. Nowhere else will you find a dystopian tale about a boy/girl romance forbidden by a colony of sentient zombies.
Then there's 'Heavy Metal High' which is exactly what it sounds like as the HMH star quarterback dies unexpectedly in an accident he staged, and a teenage werewolf is poised to take his place. Problem is, he has never staged an accident of his own, thus his peers and family think he lacks spine.
The final story recalls Kafka at his most pointed, as a man accidentally kills his wife by ripping loose the strings growing from her stomach that only he can see. His grieving is treated as an inconvenience by everyone around him. The story is, to coin a phrase, 'bureaupathic'.
Then there's 'Heavy Metal High' which is exactly what it sounds like as the HMH star quarterback dies unexpectedly in an accident he staged, and a teenage werewolf is poised to take his place. Problem is, he has never staged an accident of his own, thus his peers and family think he lacks spine.
The final story recalls Kafka at his most pointed, as a man accidentally kills his wife by ripping loose the strings growing from her stomach that only he can see. His grieving is treated as an inconvenience by everyone around him. The story is, to coin a phrase, 'bureaupathic'.
May 8, 2023
Literalmente me dio pesadillas. Jamás había leído literatura surreal y fue un viaje interesante. Consta de tres cuentos. "No children", "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High" y "The Destroyed Room". A pesar de que son tramas 'sin sentido' te hace creer que tienen mucho sentido, eso es lo que lo hace especial. Definitivamente no es para pos débiles de estómago (como yo 😔). Quería vomitar pero me intrigaba saber que pasaba después. El último cuento fue el que más me gustó, creo que fue el 'más normal'. Me pareció una buena lectura pero no la recomiendo, me dejó una sensación rara como de mugre y olor a sangre.
« They had talked about that, how when they got to be a certain age they would meet in a dream and leave their bodies behind.
They said that’s how they’d live forever, by running away.
Now Simon is running away. It is not a dream; he’s doing it alone. »
« They had talked about that, how when they got to be a certain age they would meet in a dream and leave their bodies behind.
They said that’s how they’d live forever, by running away.
Now Simon is running away. It is not a dream; he’s doing it alone. »
April 15, 2012
This book changed my life. I think this is the first true bizarro fiction that i have read in my entire life. I have tried to get some books by other authors but I cannot simply find a free copy so it was a blessing from God when I found Cameron's blog post about his free book! I have been dreaming of reading years for days since I discovered this genre. I am so fucking happy today. I love the first novella because it is a love story against all odds despite the weirdness all over it. This book made my day! I literally read it in one sitting while eating some dried fish and dried shrimps fried with oil and tomatoes. A yummy surreal treat deserving with a stellar book to boot!
July 13, 2011
Three twisted, but strong, love-stories. I don't know how, but Cameron Pierce's weird visions fall into place, follow some kind of internal logic that makes the stories flow. I should take a star away for the abuse of present tense narration, but I feel it wouldn't be 100% fair. I never thought I'd say this about a bizarro book, but if I had to summarize Abortion Arcade in one word, it would be 'charming'.
Gods, that's so gay...
Gods, that's so gay...
June 9, 2011
I just finished reading these Three novellas that are by far the most interesting, hilarious,gross, heartfelt, bizarre, surreal, incredible, funny, fucked up, insane, disgusting,and weird stories I have ever read in my life. Pierce has been consistently brilliant, somehow getting better and better with each new book. A story about a rampaging Dio-loving emo teenage werewolf? Yes, Please!
August 8, 2012
This is my first introduction to the world of contemporary bizarro fiction which tries to put a unique spin on genre fiction often taking it to the absurd. Abortion Arcade is really three short stories. Highly uneven in quality, but I do believe No Children, the first of the three, is the most outstanding example of fiction in the zombie genre.
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