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The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti
If drinking mercury from a thermometer didn’t kill him, maybe spray painting in an unventilated garage would. Or so Nolan’s father thought. One inspired yet failed suicide attempt after another, each with a note to his son—with only a hint of accusation.
But as Nolan sits in an empty office building, the last customer service employee for a nearly obsolete video game, those many suicide notes come back to haunt him. As do the levels of the game that no one plays anymore. And now a homicide detective is on the phone.
Maybe his father was right when he wrote that he was teaching Nolan not to give up, that the only way to understand what happened was to make it to the end of the game. But there’s no cheatcode that’s going to get Nolan through this . . .
But as Nolan sits in an empty office building, the last customer service employee for a nearly obsolete video game, those many suicide notes come back to haunt him. As do the levels of the game that no one plays anymore. And now a homicide detective is on the phone.
Maybe his father was right when he wrote that he was teaching Nolan not to give up, that the only way to understand what happened was to make it to the end of the game. But there’s no cheatcode that’s going to get Nolan through this . . .
114 pages, Paperback
First published August 5, 2008
53 people are currently reading
693 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Graham Jones
236 books14.7k followersStephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author thirty-five or so books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
March 24, 2024
This is a beautiful piece of creative writing. It is essentially about a man's relationship with his father, and how neither of them could be who the other one needs. It's startlingly, absurdly, completely bonkers funny throughout, until the very end, when it unexpectedly touches your heart.
I am so glad to have read this early work.
I am so glad to have read this early work.
November 19, 2024
Thank you Open Road Media for my free copy of The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti by Stephen Graham Jones — available now!
» READ IF YOU «
🪐 love a genre blend — literary/sci-fi/speculative
🐛 have complicated relationships with family
🎮 ever played an obscure video game
» SYNOPSIS «
Nolan is working his last shift as a customer service rep for an old video game no one plays, when the phone rings. Odd. It’s a homicide detective, and his questions bring back a montage of memories relating to Nolan’s chronically suicidal father. What is really going on, and how can Nolan escape this nightmare he’s trapped himself in?
» REVIEW «
My initial and immediate review of this was as follows: “Ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu” — but after a touch more time to sit with it (and regain the ability to form coherent sentences), here’s a more detailed one.
This story is sad, bleak, and full of guilt and grief. But it’s also…funny? Leave it to SGJ to make readers chuckle while reading suicide notes. I don’t even know what to say about that, truly!
Truthfully, some plot points in here touched me in personal ways I’m not really willing to detail in a book review, but I think it’s a stirring read for anyone who’s ever felt guilty or had to grieve a loved one. It’s a messy, complicated, non-traditional relationship between Nolan and his father, but honestly who even has simple, straightforward family ties?
If you like your literary reads heartfelt and vulnerable with a sprinkle of “wtf” and some science fiction, this short read is absolutely for you.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
» READ IF YOU «
🪐 love a genre blend — literary/sci-fi/speculative
🐛 have complicated relationships with family
🎮 ever played an obscure video game
» SYNOPSIS «
Nolan is working his last shift as a customer service rep for an old video game no one plays, when the phone rings. Odd. It’s a homicide detective, and his questions bring back a montage of memories relating to Nolan’s chronically suicidal father. What is really going on, and how can Nolan escape this nightmare he’s trapped himself in?
» REVIEW «
My initial and immediate review of this was as follows: “Ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuu” — but after a touch more time to sit with it (and regain the ability to form coherent sentences), here’s a more detailed one.
This story is sad, bleak, and full of guilt and grief. But it’s also…funny? Leave it to SGJ to make readers chuckle while reading suicide notes. I don’t even know what to say about that, truly!
Truthfully, some plot points in here touched me in personal ways I’m not really willing to detail in a book review, but I think it’s a stirring read for anyone who’s ever felt guilty or had to grieve a loved one. It’s a messy, complicated, non-traditional relationship between Nolan and his father, but honestly who even has simple, straightforward family ties?
If you like your literary reads heartfelt and vulnerable with a sprinkle of “wtf” and some science fiction, this short read is absolutely for you.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
June 4, 2025
Wow. This book messed me up bad. 🥺 This short tale of video games and a seriously complicated and messed up relationship between a suicidal father and his son goes from quirky and comical to absolutely rip your heart out by the end. Great stuff as always from Mr. Jones.
August 22, 2020
Wow. What a journey. A long yet surprisingly short one. I felt truly in the mind in someone spiraling down the drain of death. Over and over and sometimes I was lost but always found my footing again. Great read!
November 2, 2024
didn’t expect this to be as touching as it was. i got lost a few times but it all came together or rather fell apart beautifully in the end.
December 1, 2024
Wow…I am not a fan of previous S.G.J books but saw how short this was and thought, what the hell? My god was this little thing a heart breaker.
June 6, 2025
O-oh. Oh wow. WOW.
November 20, 2024
SGJ, my therapy bill is coming your way. “The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti,” which, following the grand work of Open Road Media, is now readily available for self-flagellating readers everywhere, is frankly devastating. This novella is a lot of things. It’s meta, it’s epistolary, but above all it’s sad. Take the most heart-breaking thing you can think of… lonely pensioners, huge thanksgiving dinners that nobody bothers to turn up to, quadriplegic puppies in cones of shame, whatever… TLToND, is a concentrated tangle of utter devastation that captures the essence of all of the above. It has the nuanced mental health commentary of something like Sofia Ajram’s “Coup de Grace,” and a disorienting, somewhat meta plot, a little like a slightly more comprehensible “Universal Harvester,” (John Darnielle). Most importantly, this painful exploration of humanity, relationships and mental illness, is certainly, undeniably written by the one and only, his holiness, the right honorable Stephen Graham Jones. It’s the kind of book that you want to never touch again, but also have to flick back through once you’ve reached the end. I’m already repeating myself, but devastating is the word… although you’ll soon be going back for more.
We follow Nolan Dugatti, who mans the customer service line for a game that nobody plays. As you’d imagine, he doesn’t really get many calls, he has a lot of thinking time. It’s thanks to the lack of foresight of one of the graphic designers, who promised a 10 year warranty, that he even has a job… until midnight, when those 10 years finally draw to a close. Of course, it’s tonight of all nights that the phone rings. Haunted by the suicide notes his father addressed to him throughout the course of his childhood, each corresponding with a feeble attempt, as well as the levels of “Camopede,” which he knows like the back of his hand, the last thing our protagonist needs is a homicide detective on the line.
I’m tagging this as horror, because I’m a creature of habit and today, SGJ is known for his horror, but primarily because “The Long Trial…” (it’s a lengthy title, forgive me) is not quite anything else either. It has sci-fi elements, there were moments where I could have been reading Philip K. Dick and been none the wiser. There were comedic parts, I mean… death by shrimp… lol. However, it certainly evoked a visceral dread within me, and it's uncomfortable and existential effect that would seem to suggest it’s at least part horror, depending on how you define it. What I’m trying to say is that this novella doesn’t blend genres so much as it defies, nay, transcends them completely. It’s a complicated book, with two complicated and unreliable narrators, and their complicated mental well being, or lack of. It’s complicated, because it reflects the complexity of its own content, because a book that meditates on mental health in the way that “The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti,” does, has to be, to do it any justice. This isn’t a book that you categorise, it’s a book that you experience. Pretty viscerally actually.
I could write essays about this book… sloppy ones with coffee stains and long rambling footnotes and about 12 different explanations of what actually happens, but essays nonetheless. That would be no good. Written in… 3 days, “The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti,” is urgent, it’s relentless, and it’s a novella that should only come with a warning, not a dissertation. This book will leave you staring at the wall. You might cry, you might just feel empty, you might not get it at all, which is fine too. “The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti,” is a novella that will make a shitty day worse, a certified “feel-bad,” read, a literary splash of lemon juice on a paperback, and an all-around miserable time. I approve.
We follow Nolan Dugatti, who mans the customer service line for a game that nobody plays. As you’d imagine, he doesn’t really get many calls, he has a lot of thinking time. It’s thanks to the lack of foresight of one of the graphic designers, who promised a 10 year warranty, that he even has a job… until midnight, when those 10 years finally draw to a close. Of course, it’s tonight of all nights that the phone rings. Haunted by the suicide notes his father addressed to him throughout the course of his childhood, each corresponding with a feeble attempt, as well as the levels of “Camopede,” which he knows like the back of his hand, the last thing our protagonist needs is a homicide detective on the line.
I’m tagging this as horror, because I’m a creature of habit and today, SGJ is known for his horror, but primarily because “The Long Trial…” (it’s a lengthy title, forgive me) is not quite anything else either. It has sci-fi elements, there were moments where I could have been reading Philip K. Dick and been none the wiser. There were comedic parts, I mean… death by shrimp… lol. However, it certainly evoked a visceral dread within me, and it's uncomfortable and existential effect that would seem to suggest it’s at least part horror, depending on how you define it. What I’m trying to say is that this novella doesn’t blend genres so much as it defies, nay, transcends them completely. It’s a complicated book, with two complicated and unreliable narrators, and their complicated mental well being, or lack of. It’s complicated, because it reflects the complexity of its own content, because a book that meditates on mental health in the way that “The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti,” does, has to be, to do it any justice. This isn’t a book that you categorise, it’s a book that you experience. Pretty viscerally actually.
I could write essays about this book… sloppy ones with coffee stains and long rambling footnotes and about 12 different explanations of what actually happens, but essays nonetheless. That would be no good. Written in… 3 days, “The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti,” is urgent, it’s relentless, and it’s a novella that should only come with a warning, not a dissertation. This book will leave you staring at the wall. You might cry, you might just feel empty, you might not get it at all, which is fine too. “The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti,” is a novella that will make a shitty day worse, a certified “feel-bad,” read, a literary splash of lemon juice on a paperback, and an all-around miserable time. I approve.
November 29, 2024
Nolan Dugatti is working his last shift at a job he has hated for four years that he only kept to spite his father, who tried killing himself often throughout Nolan's life all while leaving Nolan suicide notes directed at him. Now, Nolan is getting a call from a homicide detective inquiring about his dad.
This novella is held back a little, in my opinion, by how complicated it can get around fairly unimportant aspects of the story. If it was a little punchier, this would be a knock out for me
The main plotline is interrupted with the various suicide notes from his dad in which we get to learn more about their dynamic and their lives, while the main plot is a little l over the place. However, upon having finished it I think re-reading it would make everything make a lot more sense.
But despite, my issues with some of the prose and the story decisions, I found this to be a very touching story about a father and a son who have experienced many disappointments of themselves and of each other.
As someone who has a somewhat complicated relationship with his father, the last 15 pages of this novella made me cry, which would make this the third Stephen Graham Jones book I've cried to this year which is honestly very rude of him.
This novella is held back a little, in my opinion, by how complicated it can get around fairly unimportant aspects of the story. If it was a little punchier, this would be a knock out for me
The main plotline is interrupted with the various suicide notes from his dad in which we get to learn more about their dynamic and their lives, while the main plot is a little l over the place. However, upon having finished it I think re-reading it would make everything make a lot more sense.
But despite, my issues with some of the prose and the story decisions, I found this to be a very touching story about a father and a son who have experienced many disappointments of themselves and of each other.
As someone who has a somewhat complicated relationship with his father, the last 15 pages of this novella made me cry, which would make this the third Stephen Graham Jones book I've cried to this year which is honestly very rude of him.
March 13, 2025
What I remember best about my dad are the suicide notes. This is what I tell the homicide detective in my head.
I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, because most of my reaction to it is extremely emotional. The way Stephen Graham Jones allows this story to unfold is beautifully abstract and bizarrely sentimental. And the realization in the final act is overwhelming in its entirely obvious yet utterly shocking execution. It was very reminiscent of that one perfect, heartbreaking episode of Scrubs—y'know, that brilliant, devastating Brendan Fraser one?
Anyway, yeah, this very much relies heavily on that late in the game moment. But, thankfully, everything leading into it is an expertly navigated maze of psychology and language—an enigmatic exploration of guilt and grief—that builds to that moment in such a naturally weird way.
Remember that: the world doesn't have to conform to your understanding of it. Or your misunderstanding.
8.5/10
I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, because most of my reaction to it is extremely emotional. The way Stephen Graham Jones allows this story to unfold is beautifully abstract and bizarrely sentimental. And the realization in the final act is overwhelming in its entirely obvious yet utterly shocking execution. It was very reminiscent of that one perfect, heartbreaking episode of Scrubs—y'know, that brilliant, devastating Brendan Fraser one?
Anyway, yeah, this very much relies heavily on that late in the game moment. But, thankfully, everything leading into it is an expertly navigated maze of psychology and language—an enigmatic exploration of guilt and grief—that builds to that moment in such a naturally weird way.
Remember that: the world doesn't have to conform to your understanding of it. Or your misunderstanding.
8.5/10
October 28, 2021
There are people in the comments raving about this book and giving it 5 stars. Feeling like I didn't get it.
This author usually writes horror, but it's not really a horror story, although there is a "dark" theme about suicide.
Unreliable Narrator was a gaming-obsessed nerd as a child and now works for a computer game company where he provides support for a game called Camopede. Or is all of this happening inside the game? His father committed suicide after many failed attempts. Or did the narrator kill him? He's talking to a homicide detective. He had a girlfriend who dumped him. He had friends and co-workers. Is any of this real?
I thought of Philip K. Dick a few times. There's all these clues, but no resolution that I could understand. Thought-provoking at times, but I found it unsatisfying.
This author usually writes horror, but it's not really a horror story, although there is a "dark" theme about suicide.
Unreliable Narrator was a gaming-obsessed nerd as a child and now works for a computer game company where he provides support for a game called Camopede. Or is all of this happening inside the game? His father committed suicide after many failed attempts. Or did the narrator kill him? He's talking to a homicide detective. He had a girlfriend who dumped him. He had friends and co-workers. Is any of this real?
I thought of Philip K. Dick a few times. There's all these clues, but no resolution that I could understand. Thought-provoking at times, but I found it unsatisfying.
November 26, 2024
What can I say about this book without giving too much away? Which in itself might be giving away something about this book, but I don’t think so because no matter what you might think, the story of Nolan does not go the way you expect.
Structurally, there’s a brillance in how SGJ plays with the reader’s emotions in such a short period. The notes from Nolan’s father go from funny, to sad, back to funny, and then sad again.
It’s funny that a video game is a major part of the plot because this story gives off such a vibe for the kind of “walking simulator” games like Gone Home or What Remains of Edith Finch that would come out long after this was originally published. If you like those kinds of games, this book is for you. And if you liked this book, check those games out.
Structurally, there’s a brillance in how SGJ plays with the reader’s emotions in such a short period. The notes from Nolan’s father go from funny, to sad, back to funny, and then sad again.
It’s funny that a video game is a major part of the plot because this story gives off such a vibe for the kind of “walking simulator” games like Gone Home or What Remains of Edith Finch that would come out long after this was originally published. If you like those kinds of games, this book is for you. And if you liked this book, check those games out.
July 26, 2025
'What I remember best about my father are the suicide notes. This is what I tell the homicide detective who calls me at three in the morning.'
Nolan Dugatti is having one hell of a last night on the job. The story alternates between Nolan's increasingly disturbing phone call with a homicide detective and the (dark but often wry) suicide notes from his father. The writing is dense and ranbling, but when what's going on finally clicks into place, it's kind of mind-blowing. It's a heavy story for such a short book, and it packs an emotional punch.
'“Like he wants to kill me.” This is what I tell the homicide detective in answer to his question What does the intruder in the hall look like?'
Nolan Dugatti is having one hell of a last night on the job. The story alternates between Nolan's increasingly disturbing phone call with a homicide detective and the (dark but often wry) suicide notes from his father. The writing is dense and ranbling, but when what's going on finally clicks into place, it's kind of mind-blowing. It's a heavy story for such a short book, and it packs an emotional punch.
'“Like he wants to kill me.” This is what I tell the homicide detective in answer to his question What does the intruder in the hall look like?'
November 6, 2024
Everything that I've so far read by SGJ punches my father issues right in the face, and this one was no different and yet... VERY different. My interpretation may vary from others, but 97 pages of a young man having a psychotic break while trying to cope with the so-long-expected-that-he-stopped-believing-it-would-happen death of his dad. I'm pretty sure Nolan Dugatti follows his father out at the end. I don't know. This novella felt like a fever dream and I need to sit with it for a bit.
Heavily recommend reading this, as somebody who also lost his father, but good god this one hurt.
Heavily recommend reading this, as somebody who also lost his father, but good god this one hurt.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 30, 2025
i have beef w the unreliable narrator motif but that’s a personal thing so ig its irrelevant…….i think the real prob i had with this is that we get a bunch of detail for aspects of the story that don’t ever become important and its like….in the moment u can really feel that what hes telling you isn’t going to come back around. would’ve loved for the ending to have this big shocker of understanding to make the pedantic vibe make more sense?? idk….but stephen graham jones rlly has a knack for making things unsettling
November 30, 2024
Well, this was absolutely brutal for no reason. It's literary horror at its finest. SGJ packs a lot into a tiny story as far as emotion and depth are concerned. I very much enjoyed the format of a letter from Nolan's dad following every chapter. I got chills reading the last ten pages of this story when the entire thing clicks and you realize what is going on the entire time. Bravo. He's done it again.
January 3, 2025
This is evidently an early SGJ, not at the current skill level (to kinda-sorta borrow a theme from "The Long Trial"), but still a very moving bit of prose. The father's dispatches from the pit of depression are like body blows, the son with all of two friends and a set of life experiences sufficient to break three people, the dead end of a dead-end job... The conceit doesn't quite work out, but the power is here, yes indeed.
January 2, 2025
Despite my intense love for SGJ's horror works, this dramedy did not work for me on almost any level. While parts of it (particularly the letters) were somewhat funny, I was very bored by the plot and confused often throughout. This was a swing and a miss for me. 2 stars out of 5.
March 13, 2025
i always feel a little stupid when i read stephen graham jones, but it's always an Experience regardless. i didn't like this as much as the indian lake trilogy or night of the mannequins, but it's very well-written. the plot just wasn't for me
March 25, 2025
What at first feels nonsensical is actually a profound and moving portrait of grief. SGJ understands humanity in ways most people will never put their finger on. Told in his signature way, this novella was short & powerful.
April 12, 2025
yeah i've GOT to reread this when i don't have flu-brain making it hard to focus, because it has the beautiful, gnarly, heartbreaking, hilarious writing of SGJ that shines through but i wasn't able to follow parts because my brain is all mucked up ugh
April 30, 2025
Stephen Graham Jones is the Mark Twain of the horror genre! Read this book and just try telling me I’m wrong. This book was dark and disturbing, but absolutely hilarious at the same time. Incredible to think that SGJ wrote this entire book in a mere 72 hours.
June 29, 2025
I feel like, at this point in his career, Stephan Graham Jones deserves enough respect that any new edition of his work shouldn't be this riddled with misspellings and missing words. They come flying at you on almost every other page. Do the man a solid and don't let the intern do the proofreading.
May 19, 2023
As beautiful as it is bizarre, this story is a banger. Made me laugh until it made me sad, then it repeated. Neat use of form, too.
January 19, 2024
Beautiful and peculiar and a fitting bf book by Graham jones. Would rec
October 4, 2024
This book 😭
October 27, 2024
Brilliant and soul shattering.
October 31, 2024
This one had a more melancholy tone to it, but it absolutely works. It’s one of those books I just want to scream, “Get therapy and TALK to each other” at.The ending was a poignant kick in the feels.
December 13, 2024
Just okay
March 1, 2025
Not a very long trial (or book) but very good. A fascinating examination of grief and oblivion.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews