Latex, Texas

by Shane Jesse Christmass

“Latex, Texas is a gripping, gorgeous portrait of purgatory. It fucked me up: I swore the words on the page were getting bigger and bigger, like the font had become infected, like the cut-up sentences had gotten sick and swollen. What a ride.”
—Derek McCormack (author, Castle Faggot)
I see Houston
on the TV
It is not
New York
It is not
Chicago
It is not
Washington
with its high population
its surplus child sacrifice
further foolish activities
the great city stands

Paperback

Published January 1, 2025

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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get in touch

Reviews

[Books For Decaying Millennials · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased my copy of this book, from the publisher. Filthy Loot, you should too. All views and opinions are my own.
-

Because of the standard size of most books out there in shops and libraries, the chapbook format is almost subconsciously assumed to be… perhaps the best term is “harmless”. That strange bit of ingrained bias in modern society, is one of the reasons I love the chapbook format, and how it’s utilized by Filthy Loot. Books that need to be read, don’t come at you in twelve different bespoke color variants, with special editions only found in [insert big corp book outlet].
LATEX, TEXAS, in it’s chapbook format, is a slim volume, easily slid in a a pocket, or hidden away among other print media. The literary equivalent of a morsel of paper, set to dissolve under the tongue. Covert, unassuming. That’s its draw.
Sudden exposure to the poetic prose of Shane Jesse Christmass, is not something that your senses can be prepared for. It’s like you're dosed from the get-go,you are locked in, unable to do anything but ride it out. Holding on, while the dial is spun across the spectrum of reality, perception and recognition of the individual self.
There are stretches where it all seems like lurid phantasmagoria. A rough ride, a bad trip that has you white knuckled. Almost as a gasp of survival, you begin to seek out the recurring phrases, the rhythms and movement of it all. Christmass’s words become a painful, chipped nail, grasping for companionship. A hungry scramble, for that messy, painful love, we all seek. Even when we know in our core, that it will only bring sorrow and the emptiness, found only in ones hollowed core...before turning back to attempts at self reflection, while gazing through a shattered mirror. LATEX, TEXAS is a multi-layered experience and one hell of a ride. It’s a full choir in song, made up of echoed voices, that are only at times, in harmony.

[Codycvlp · Rating 4 out of 5]

non stop scenes that bleed into each other intersecting reality and dreams, or at least that’s what i get.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

has more of a toxic miasma than a plot. such a gross, scuzzy, and horrifying book. I felt awful reading it but that’s what made it so good.

[Kaylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

a nice and nasty little piece of writing