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Hack House
Ever since they’ve been working on the Losada family’s historic Victorian house, the six members of the Lotus Painting crew have discovered something worse than manual labor. Brooding over minor annoyances, increasingly prone to fits of rage, their days and nights are troubled by strange visions and new appetites. Dieter turns to self-harm, Curtis starts stalking the Losada’s teenage son, Pete becomes obsessed with researching the house’s venomous past, and Mikey—kicked out of his mom’s place— shacks up in the attic of the Hack House.
If they knew about the painters that preceded them on the job, the crew that only lasted a single day—the fire, the self-inflicted burn—then maybe they’d look for work elsewhere. As the crew’s contagion spreads to the four members of the Losada family, they find themselves besieged from within and without, home improvement devolving into home invasion over the course of one blistering Michigan summer.
If they knew about the painters that preceded them on the job, the crew that only lasted a single day—the fire, the self-inflicted burn—then maybe they’d look for work elsewhere. As the crew’s contagion spreads to the four members of the Losada family, they find themselves besieged from within and without, home improvement devolving into home invasion over the course of one blistering Michigan summer.
350 pages, Paperback
Published February 14, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 4, 2025
Reading Hack House was like watching your favorite professor moonlight as a mad scientist- brilliant, unhinged, and completely unforgettable. Joe Sacksteder delivers a novel that's as unsettling as it is artful, bending genre and voice with the ease of someone who knows exactly what he's doing (which is both awe- inspiring and mildly terrifying, if you happen to take his classes).
This book is razor-sharp, hilariously self-aware, and deeply weird in the best way. It's a fever dream of academia, violence, ambition, and artistic identity- all orbiting a mystery that's impossible to pin down. This prose is sharp and quick on its feet, and there's this mischievous energy on every page that makes it clear Sacksteder is having a lot of fun, even if he leads the reader down some very dark corridors.
I loved it. I really did. But also? I'm not sure I can ever look him in the eye again. There's just something about knowing what kind of twisted genius is behind those office hours that makes me want to turn in my next essay anonymously.
Highly recommend- just maybe don't read it right before his class.
This book is razor-sharp, hilariously self-aware, and deeply weird in the best way. It's a fever dream of academia, violence, ambition, and artistic identity- all orbiting a mystery that's impossible to pin down. This prose is sharp and quick on its feet, and there's this mischievous energy on every page that makes it clear Sacksteder is having a lot of fun, even if he leads the reader down some very dark corridors.
I loved it. I really did. But also? I'm not sure I can ever look him in the eye again. There's just something about knowing what kind of twisted genius is behind those office hours that makes me want to turn in my next essay anonymously.
Highly recommend- just maybe don't read it right before his class.
Displaying 1 of 1 review