In the Sight

by Tobias Carroll

Farrier had been raised in the East…

Furtive spaces on the outskirts of cities, truck stops in the middle of nowhere, and obscure research outposts — those are the places where Farrier did his work. What’s the nature of that work, you ask? DIY brain modification, for starters — highly experimental and in no way legal. When his past catches up with him, Farrier sets out on a road trip without end, frenetically crossing the country in search of redemption, revisiting old haunts along the way.

This tale of open roads, weird science, and endless reinvention draws inspiration from Destroyer’s 2002 album This Night. It also features aviaries gone wrong, obscure retail outlets, and coffee. So much coffee. Don’t try this at home, readers.

Genres: Fiction

180 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2024

Reviews

[Juan Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this novel! Weird, deadpan, grounded in highway culture and in the kinds of bar/hotel/nowhere spaces that are both super liminal and anonymous. I got lots of J.G. Ballard and some Don DeLillo, but the novel is definitely its own wonderful thing. The most fun I've had vicariously speeding through identity-erasing drug deliveries while navigating the remnants of a secret society and some heavy existential questions. Highly, highly recommended.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in one sitting.

A strange little story about a guy who travels from gas station to gas station hooking his clients up with a homemade drug that messes with their brains and turns them into someone completely different.

A gig that was working out pretty a-ok for him until, at one particular drop off, he's informed that someone is coming for him. And suddenly we're on a road trip from hell, hotel hopping across country as our dude reconnects with old friends and tries to stay one step ahead of whatever nightmare is following him.

Though with one last pill in his pocket, there's the hope that he can continue to run... until he can't, and then... well...

[Christopher Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm cheating, in that I heard the author read a section from this, in person, so I'm carrying that rhythmic, questing voice in my head. This book is part liminal America road movie, part existential pinball game, part weird-science. What a fun, strange read! (Maybe one part Kerouac, one part Vonnegut, with a pinch of DeLillo?) Highly recommended.

[Thomas Kendall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come

[AJ Maitland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journey novel about a mysterious protagonist driving around selling a drug that alters people into..well..other people. But he begins to change amidst his own esoteric existence, a morality descending upon him.

Like Reel, so understated and so f***ing good. I love Carroll's writing. An astonishing ability when the story comes off as so subtle and yet floors you at the same time. Reading Carroll is like reading life inside of a neural passage. It's so uncanny.

Another divine experience by one of the most unique and beautiful writers out there right now. Highly recommend.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a weird and fun little novel. Equal parts head trip and road trip.

[Dave Capers · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the feeling of a late night gas station with the fluorescent lights humming a little too loud and the road outside of their perimeter a little too quiet. You've done something terrible to someone who might be able to exact revenge but probably not. You're faster than them. You can disappear. By the end you have. They'll never find you behind that hotel bar. Right?

[Tobias · Rating 5 out of 5]

The greatest short novel inspired by the music of Destroyer ever written? I think so. Then again, I wrote it.

[Joshua Chaplinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A kind of shaggy dog mumble noir about identity, purpose, and living on the fringe. Highly recommended.

[Kevin Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific sentences. Tobias Carroll can really write!

4.5 ⭐️

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

vibey; a fun little read for a Cancun beach day