Meth-DTF.

by Shane Jesse Christmass, SJXSJC (Pseudonym)

"One of the most ecstatic, deranged, and propulsive books I've read, Meth-DTF careens wildly through the fucked dreamscape of Los Angeles. The love child of Gasper Noé and Édouard Levé, Shane Jesse Christmass is one of our great cult novelists." - Kate Durbin (author, Hoarders ) "METH-DTF is a hypnotic, lunatic thrill ride. With the antic, paranoiac stutter of William S. Burroughs's cut-ups and fold-ins and Rudolph Wurlitzer's altered apocalyptic '70s novels, Shane Jesse Christmass creates a hothouse mindspace meltdown where sex, booze, and drugs build and dismantle worlds. Our narrator guides us through a jangling, porous Los Angeles. Where we're going, we don't know, but it's all velocity and addled noticing. The details jump and rattle. We are absolutely flying, and it's gritty, funny, and scary." - Nate Lippens (author, My Dead Book ) "METH-DTF is a schizophrenic landfill of corpses, pill bottles, crop circles, Burger King, horny billionaires, flip flops, tobacco, aliens, orgasms, crying infants, designer aphrodisiacs - and it's all on fire. Shane Jesse Christmass writes with the discordant rhythm of an erratic heartbeat, rendering the reader restless. Enter at your own risk." - Danielle Chelosky (author, Cheat & founder of The Waiting Room ) "Entering Shane Jesse Christmass' world is always a thrill, and Meth-DTF confirms this but somehow this time it is with an even wilder abandon that feels new. VHS tracking blurs through our imagination as we try and keep up with the latest literary death-trip that SJXSJX has strapped us to. We're going through American suburbs and cities with a nihilistic pace, trying to get rest in damp and sweaty motels where nothing stands still and the paranoia practically drips from the paragraphs - the radio is constantly changing, so are the clothes, the era and faces of those around you. The narrator and his sidekick Samuel - who maybe died a little while back but who maybe didn't - not that it even matters because there's some new fresh hell coming already - try to offer some guidance along their hallucinatory mission as the pages continually cause my pulse to increase and my imagination to rattle. Christmass' has a knack of writing sentences that have a way of connecting with you in a real, physical way. You feel it in your chest. They raise your stomach acid to your throat. If you're holding this book and your hands aren't shaking, then you're doing it wrong." - Thomas Moore (author, In Your Dreams, Alone)This is a story about an imaginary city. an imaginary city called Los Angeles.I am a science fiction novel with no science fiction references.

154 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 2023

About the author

Shane Jesse Christmass is the author of ‘Acid Shottas'. He’s a member of the band Mattress Grave, and firmly believes that the future of the word, the novel, will be in synthetic telepathy.

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shanejessechristmass.bigcartel.com/
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vimeo.com/sjx
twitter.com/SJXSJC
facebook.com/SJXSJC

get in touch

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alternative but less titillating title for this novel could be Drugs and Sex (“DTF” = “down to fuck”). If it were a film, almost every sentence—even sentence fragments a la Burroughs’s cut-ups—would be a splice to a different scene. For example:

"Cold spades digging up ancient bodies. Coffin lids discarded across Bel Air Estates. Houston as a post-industrial warzone—Samuel turns psychotic—his deep anxiety—gas station robberies and hideouts at movie theatres—the violent language of North America—minimum wage jobs in slow motion. I drive to Mexico to purchase McDonalds—parasites in some Gucci camping tent—this recession economy—drug blowout causes extreme blood pressure. A heavy smoker sits beneath some citrus trees—my defective skin pigmentation—cigarettes in my trouser pocket."

Almost every paragraph of this 150-page book describes a fractured delirium experienced by the nameless narrator and his boyfriend, Samuel, who crash on beaches and park benches, live in a series of decrepit apartments, spend their days and nights reeling from drugs and alcohol, find themselves in and out of hospitals, and see themselves as subjects of and witnesses to street violence—all without any sense of where the money comes from to finance this 24/7 debauchery. If this horrorscape is meant to illustrate a future dystopia (the book’s back cover proclaims, “I am a science fiction novel with no science fiction references”), then the future has arrived, minus climate change.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[Paige Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.8 Reading after their ft. in Small Birds. This seems a tad more tangible. LA gay dude on meth written in fragments. Way more mundane than assumed. Flashes of sunsets and cars and a hot-and-cold friend. Must be relatively well-to-do in Walmart suits and many rooms to flop. The language isn’t that poetic. Occasional violent and alien hallucinations—super brisk. As much Pepsi as uppers.

I always confuse the author’s name w/ South by Southwest SXSW. I would suggest he stick to poems so the repetitive >10word sentences don’t lose their luster. The setting is pretty even when literally describing hot garbage, so seems suited for songs.

Though it’s a short book, it would be better if the first few pages were saved then a third were skipped because that’s when anything starts to happen, when the addiction grows medical consequences. Even so, there are no emotions or dialogue or any reality/stakes to ever latch to, so I never care about the characters at all.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Samuel is immobile and says unusual things - something about nervous breakdowns. Missiles over Mandeville Canyon. Body in the bedroom. Electric cord wrapped around neck - motor oil on the carpet - ratchet cogs inside Samuel's skull. Our bodies shudder - auditory hallucinations ... dark animals on the Alvarado Freeway."

Review updated as of my re-read (4.2.25-5.2.25) loved it even more than the first time.

4.5

Meth-DTF could have just as easily been titled Sex, Drugs, Death the novella, though, that's not exactly what one could call an impactful title, is it? Books as experimental as this one present such a challenge when it comes to describing them, because even now, all these years into my reading journey, this is still the most experimental, drug fueled fever-dream I've ever experienced. Meth-DTF is a nightmarish hellscape, an enrapturing apocalypse where each paragraph screams of delirium from a drugged up protagonist and his maybe boyfriend who might be dead, actually, but, also might not be dead because hallucination and reality have begun to blur too much. What even is this novel? What the actual fuck did I subject myself to?

In its most simple form, Meth-DTF is a deranged, dystopic, and fucking depressing novel full of depravity and violence. It paints the most beautifully wretched picture of an L.A. that's completely soaked in neon and blood, this is the perfect novel for those who are in desperate need of a lobotomy. Brutal as all hell, erratic as fuck, shocking vivid and horrible, Meth-DTF reads like the ravings of a complete lunatic who is dead-set on forcing us to lose our minds within an acid washed and eroding city. It's a schizophrenic, kaleidoscopic, hedonistic masterpiece that's equal parts beautiful and horrific. It's streets lined with corpses, dingy motel rooms that never lose their tobacco stench, it's intimacy with the person you adore the most, and it's all doused in nihilism and gasoline and left to burn.

"Samuel and I go out ... The sky above Hermosa Beach. I am happy. I know my heart is still in there ... inside me ... barely working. That little bit of me is almost gone ... far away ... the whole thing ... just gone. When Samuel comes back ... to the motel room ... he will understand ... sadness."

Paranoia in print form is the perfect phrase to describe this book. Never has there been a book that so greatly made me want to stab myself. This is a tale for the distressed - stripped back and left it at its most disgustingly plain. Meth-DTF is painful to experience in the very best possible way, it's the sort of ruinous, catastrophic novel that rewires your entire brain. It's utterly nasty, Meth-DTF is full of some of the most sickening yet striking and enthralling words. If you're looking for a book that will make you feel as if you're trapped in an asylum slowly losing your mind, then this is the very book for you. It is the singular novel to welcome us into the future. The future being a pit from which we shall never, ever escape.

"I see how little I deserve to live. Samuel and I are all one entity - flesh - and bones. All this life is one. There is no death. Lights out. Light up."

[James Wimbridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Atrocity Exhibition if it was written by Bret Easton Ellis.

Vivid, colourful and a tad nasty. I liked it.

[Cleo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the most beautiful disgusting sentences

[Brendan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I just read but it sure had vibes

[Trevor Church · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept putting this down and reading other books instead because of how bad it was. It’s someone trying really hard to be a mix of Burroughs and House of Leaves, while saying “I like meth.” It wasn’t edgy or exciting. There is no plot. No character development. No prose. No exciting imagery. No poetics. If you were to hand someone a pound of meth and lock yourself in an elevator with them and listen to them rant, it’s this book. I love supporting all press and queer (I think the author is queer) writers but Jesus this sucked.

[Jake Tavares · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t have to visit the dispensary once while reading, so this book saved me money. Really, the narrative was intoxicating enough. At first I didn’t think this one was for me, but then I couldn’t stop till the end. Reminded me of Dennis Cooper’s less “accessible” writing. METH-DTF is hot and cold, a bit dizzying, but filled with obsessive thinking and thoughts which I really liked, as well as all the “Walmart suits.” Recommended? Yeah. Recommended.

[Kate Durbin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I blurbed this book:

One of the most ecstatic, deranged, and propulsive books I’ve read, Meth-DTF careens wildly through the fucked dreamscape of Los Angeles. The love child of Gasper Noé and Édouard Levé, Shane Jesse Christmass is one of our great cult novelists

[Christian Kramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a possessed card catalog filled with a collection of fugue-state-semi-dystopian, shapeshifting encounters primarily experienced between two codependent beings who may or may not be dead. Samuel was high maintenance. My eye is still twitching.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a rhythm and a cadence that lulls you into its nightmarish, fever dream landscape, all the while rewiring your brain in the process. Amazing work of fiction!

[Blair Hoyle]

Meth-DTF is quite possibly the most experimental novella I have ever read.

[nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burroughs meets k Dick meets ai image prompting. Structurally demanding and impressive in what it gets away with

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella feels like it wants to be something else; a poem, a playlist, maybe a song

[MR. OMAR KING · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book!

For novella, it was very engaging reading the narrator’s meth trip.

It was like reading Fear and Loathing… but in LA.

The narrator is an enigma. Can’t tell if the narrator is a man or a woman. It’s up for the reader’s interpretation.

Jumping from one place to another from reading a sentence or two are the parts that stood out the me the most.

Shane has captured the essence of a meth trip and I applaud him.

I am happy to have read this book.