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Silverfish
Enter the world of Silverfish, where a young man attempts to discover his identity amidst a world of increasing isolation and horror. His basement room is full of wires, rats, and silverfish. He doesn't know his name or where he came from, only that he is the caretaker in a house of drugs, sex, and mindless violence.
The Caretaker finds himself in the middle of a horrible, slithering conspiracy that threatens all of humanity. He finds that he is its unwitting accomplice. Without it, he would not have a home.
He enters a romance with Olwyn, a young woman ravaged by drugs and the menace of LaMore, the man who runs the house and supplies her drugs. Suddenly, she makes things less clear, a choice must be made. They will soon uncover a terrible secret which threatens all of humanity.
With taut language and gritty description, readers will be wrapped tight by the tentacles in the story. This novella was inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, and Edgar Allen Poe. If you are a fan of Chuck Palahniuk, this is a good choice for you. This is literary fiction with an edge, language that'll bite you back.
The Caretaker finds himself in the middle of a horrible, slithering conspiracy that threatens all of humanity. He finds that he is its unwitting accomplice. Without it, he would not have a home.
He enters a romance with Olwyn, a young woman ravaged by drugs and the menace of LaMore, the man who runs the house and supplies her drugs. Suddenly, she makes things less clear, a choice must be made. They will soon uncover a terrible secret which threatens all of humanity.
With taut language and gritty description, readers will be wrapped tight by the tentacles in the story. This novella was inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, Philip K. Dick, and Edgar Allen Poe. If you are a fan of Chuck Palahniuk, this is a good choice for you. This is literary fiction with an edge, language that'll bite you back.
28 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 30, 2011
3 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 12, 2018
I don't usually gravitate towards this genre (I lean more towards traditional literary fiction), but I appreciated a lot of the stories in here. The book is a collection of loosely connected narratives that follow the lives of people living in a bleak, dystopian future, in which drugs and prostitution are some of the limits options for people trying to survive amidst a takeover of our society. The last story, "Mercy" applealed to me the most, as its emotional core rang truest to me. Although this book might not be for everyone, if this genre is up your alley, give this book a try.
October 19, 2011
Disturbing and thought-provoking.
Like good fiction should be.
This isn't some YA/paranormal bullshit.
This is a book for adults who haven't surrendered.
Like good fiction should be.
This isn't some YA/paranormal bullshit.
This is a book for adults who haven't surrendered.
April 14, 2018
Silverfish was 100% unique. It's so cutting edge, unlike any other book I've ever read. I didn't know what they meant by a "novel-in-stories," and it took a while to figure it out, but I loved it! The characters changed around in each chapter, but a few (the big bad) remained. The themes and images have been swirling around in my mind for a few weeks since I finished it.
I mean, you'll read one chapter and it'll be a self-contained trip through terror. The next chapter seems totally different until the connections start to form. They grow together and you start seeing a wider, larger picture.
I’m always on the look out for new writers supported by independent publishers. This one is totally unique. I mean, I read a lot, but this one stands out for its brutal vision of humanity, the stark writing, the brilliant overall structure, and even the surprisingly tender moments.
If you like science fiction but are looking to go a bit deeper into human stories and the human condition, this is a great book. It'll refresh how you think about avant garde literature in the 21st century.
I mean, you'll read one chapter and it'll be a self-contained trip through terror. The next chapter seems totally different until the connections start to form. They grow together and you start seeing a wider, larger picture.
I’m always on the look out for new writers supported by independent publishers. This one is totally unique. I mean, I read a lot, but this one stands out for its brutal vision of humanity, the stark writing, the brilliant overall structure, and even the surprisingly tender moments.
If you like science fiction but are looking to go a bit deeper into human stories and the human condition, this is a great book. It'll refresh how you think about avant garde literature in the 21st century.
December 24, 2022
(This is a review for the book also called 'Silverfish' put out by Whisk(e)yTit press. This volume includes the novella 'Silverfish', as well as a handful of other stories that take place in the same world.)
This book starts out strong. The title novella 'Silverfish' is a taut, well written and gripping story about a man with amnesia who lives in the basement of a horrific drug house and does errands for the sadistic and psychotic drug lord who runs the house named LaMore. The narrator runs errands for LaMore and, later, takes in a doomed woman. They fall in love and he struggles with how to deal with LaMore's command to kill her.
There is no descriptive back matter for this book, and it is natural to assume at first that it is a novel. But after the opening novella there is an apparently unrelated short story about Oprah. After reading a few more stories it becomes clear that all the stories in this volume take place in the same 'world', albeit during few different times periods, some occurring roughly in 'our own time' and a few somewhere in a dystopian near-future. The stories all have different central characters, though a few characters pop up in various stories, most notably LaMore.
The gist is that some alien group (represented by inscrutable men in dark suits who turn their appendages into tentacles and live in a victorian house in the forest in rural Oregon) is attempting to create human/alien hybrids in order to take over the world. A minor recurring element is that the aliens are helped by Oprah, and there is a short story depicting her interactions with the aliens. Most of the stories are concerned with the resistance against the alien group. The aliens and the resistance are sort of peripheral to the human drama, and the characters the stories are concerned about are drug addicts, strippers, unemployed delivery boys and the like. In those stories set in the future the aliens have succeeded, and have put into place a repressive despotic dystopia. It's a cool premise, and the start of a promising execution which is less interested in spelling everything out or resolving every open question than creating a strong world.
Unfortunately the later stories are marred by a serious lack of editing and some cringey-misogynistic and borderline racist writing. Pretty much every piece aside from the opening novella had sloppy prose and there are far more typos and errors than is acceptable in a published book. Too, every female character exists to be saved by a man or as a sex object. Anthony has described this book as transgressive, but the (many, interminable) sex scenes are just rote fantasy, and are more boring than shocking or transgressive. Dezi, the stripper at the heart of the third story, is graphically sexually assaulted by her skeezy boss, but the scene just details her change from resisting to enjoying being raped. Nolon, the fallen, black preacher who is the subject of 'Philistines' is, at one point, described as having 'nappy crackhead hair'. I won't accuse Anthony of being a racist or misogynist - I'm sure he's a totally nice guy - but this is lazy writing, it doesn't fly anymore and it serves to overshadow and kill any of the strengths found of the rest of this work.
This book starts out strong. The title novella 'Silverfish' is a taut, well written and gripping story about a man with amnesia who lives in the basement of a horrific drug house and does errands for the sadistic and psychotic drug lord who runs the house named LaMore. The narrator runs errands for LaMore and, later, takes in a doomed woman. They fall in love and he struggles with how to deal with LaMore's command to kill her.
There is no descriptive back matter for this book, and it is natural to assume at first that it is a novel. But after the opening novella there is an apparently unrelated short story about Oprah. After reading a few more stories it becomes clear that all the stories in this volume take place in the same 'world', albeit during few different times periods, some occurring roughly in 'our own time' and a few somewhere in a dystopian near-future. The stories all have different central characters, though a few characters pop up in various stories, most notably LaMore.
The gist is that some alien group (represented by inscrutable men in dark suits who turn their appendages into tentacles and live in a victorian house in the forest in rural Oregon) is attempting to create human/alien hybrids in order to take over the world. A minor recurring element is that the aliens are helped by Oprah, and there is a short story depicting her interactions with the aliens. Most of the stories are concerned with the resistance against the alien group. The aliens and the resistance are sort of peripheral to the human drama, and the characters the stories are concerned about are drug addicts, strippers, unemployed delivery boys and the like. In those stories set in the future the aliens have succeeded, and have put into place a repressive despotic dystopia. It's a cool premise, and the start of a promising execution which is less interested in spelling everything out or resolving every open question than creating a strong world.
Unfortunately the later stories are marred by a serious lack of editing and some cringey-misogynistic and borderline racist writing. Pretty much every piece aside from the opening novella had sloppy prose and there are far more typos and errors than is acceptable in a published book. Too, every female character exists to be saved by a man or as a sex object. Anthony has described this book as transgressive, but the (many, interminable) sex scenes are just rote fantasy, and are more boring than shocking or transgressive. Dezi, the stripper at the heart of the third story, is graphically sexually assaulted by her skeezy boss, but the scene just details her change from resisting to enjoying being raped. Nolon, the fallen, black preacher who is the subject of 'Philistines' is, at one point, described as having 'nappy crackhead hair'. I won't accuse Anthony of being a racist or misogynist - I'm sure he's a totally nice guy - but this is lazy writing, it doesn't fly anymore and it serves to overshadow and kill any of the strengths found of the rest of this work.
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July 16, 2019I hardly read fiction. I'm glad I jumped ship with this one. Great book. One I definitely will read again.
May 4, 2022
Superb writing. Good sections on drug taking and descriptions of sex.
October 14, 2011
Kindle for iPhone.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews