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The Shape of Every Monster Yet to Come
He's the Lemonade Tycoon, and he'll make you say his name.
92 pages, Paperback
First published November 9, 2014
2 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Brian Allen Carr
13 books280 followersBrian Allen Carr is an Aspen Words Finalist and two time Wonderland Book Award winner.
His books include OPIOID, INDIANA, MOTHERFUCKING SHARKS and several others.
He is from Texas and lives in Indiana.
His books include OPIOID, INDIANA, MOTHERFUCKING SHARKS and several others.
He is from Texas and lives in Indiana.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 9, 2018
Brian Allen Carr's prose is spare and precise, his words cutting through extraneous matter right down to the marrow. The characters in these stories are as awkward as fish without water, yet the author graces them with humor and jaw-grinding tenacity. This collection has the sting of gravel and the warmth of a well-distilled spirit that must be downed in one shot.
July 20, 2017
This collection of beautifully constructed short fiction is the Southern Gothic ode to minimalism. The twenty page story left on the stove for 24 hours to simmer - the stuff left in the pan is what we get to taste. And it is delicious.
I am reminded by what Chuck Palahniuk said about Amy Hempel's writing:
Carr writes like this, and he forces the reader to slow it down. Here is the opening sentence of "Bullets": Three of my friends lost their virginity to Daniele, and I bought a gun from her. These are the kind of short stories I want to read - fiction in the key of Lish, of Hempel - I want to take the punch without being told it's coming, through abstracts and lack of overused adjectives. More Carr, please.
I am reminded by what Chuck Palahniuk said about Amy Hempel's writing:
Instead of telling us the boyfriend in "The Harvest" is an asshole, we see him holding a sweater soaked with his girlfriend's blood and telling her, "You'll be okay, but this sweater is ruined."
Carr writes like this, and he forces the reader to slow it down. Here is the opening sentence of "Bullets": Three of my friends lost their virginity to Daniele, and I bought a gun from her. These are the kind of short stories I want to read - fiction in the key of Lish, of Hempel - I want to take the punch without being told it's coming, through abstracts and lack of overused adjectives. More Carr, please.
March 23, 2018
Just read this lying on my back, icing my knee, drinking beer in my tiny bedroom, doing the kind of laughing that lifts you off the ground and puts all the blood in your head. This book is all kinds of tender and all kinds of yeesh and all kinds of good company.
F u c k y e a h d u d e
F u c k y e a h d u d e
May 26, 2017
Every time I crack open THE SHAPE OF EVERY MONSTER YET TO COME--and this would be the third, fourth time--there's a new story in it that sucker punches so hard its impact lingers for days, or longer. "Stamp 3," the introduction story, was the first to do it, and I still think about that mother grinning, cracking her knuckles when her kid brings her that flower. Then it was "Lemonade Tycoon," because a kid pissing in another kid's face is just such a striking image and could be a metaphor for almost any aspect of humanity. This time, though, "We All Become Something" resonated loudest. That guy who'd once upon a time done that awful thing, when he is years later pressing his face against a twentieth-floor window with his niece--I've felt like that guy, had lots of those window-gazing moments.
All of this rambling to say, I know MOTHERFUCKING SHARKS and THE LAST HORROR NOVEL IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD are Brian Allen Carr's most talked about, but THE SHAPE OF EVERY MONSTER is definitely not one that should be left in the dark. I highly recommend copping that ish if you haven't already.
All of this rambling to say, I know MOTHERFUCKING SHARKS and THE LAST HORROR NOVEL IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD are Brian Allen Carr's most talked about, but THE SHAPE OF EVERY MONSTER is definitely not one that should be left in the dark. I highly recommend copping that ish if you haven't already.
January 18, 2015
Brian Allen Carr came really strong on this one. First of all Carr has one of the most killer prose styles I have ever read. He writes in these short sentences but he manages to say soooo much with so little. It's fucking brilliant. I read his novella "The Last Horror Novel In The History Of The World" and it was one of my favorite reads last year. That book blew my mind because he called it a novel but it's only like 118 pages. The thing is when you read The Last Horror Novel it feels like you're reading a 300 page novel just because of the way Carr writes. So it only makes sense his writing would be great in short story form. It is.
The Lemonade Tycoon was the star of the show for me though. I liked every story in the book. The Lemonade Tycoon was a perfect amount of funny and devastation.
It looks like I started out strong this year by reading this book. I got some old Carr I need to catch up on and I look forward to read anything else he writes in the future. This was a great book and I'm a certified fan of Carr now.
The Lemonade Tycoon was the star of the show for me though. I liked every story in the book. The Lemonade Tycoon was a perfect amount of funny and devastation.
It looks like I started out strong this year by reading this book. I got some old Carr I need to catch up on and I look forward to read anything else he writes in the future. This was a great book and I'm a certified fan of Carr now.
January 24, 2016
Brian Allen Carr manages to show us the monsters that we are most afraid of… the monsters that we live with on a daily basis. The stories are haunting, and each piece could have been much longer. I wanted each story to be longer. When an author is able to give readers an opportunity to question how they perceive the world, then something special has been achieved; here, Carr delivers a contemporary examination of the “horrible” (in quotation marks for a reason) people who live among us, people who have become the villains and criminals whose lives make us feel uncomfortable about the conditions that govern our morality. Like the majority of Lazy Fascist books, this one is a page turner and I was able to read it in a matter of hours because I did not want to put it down. Carr is an author I will be reading again.
February 2, 2015
--It can't dance if there's no music. It's not going to smile just because it sees me.--
I don't know if Brian Allen Carr is the best young writer around, but he's probably my favorite, and people seriously need to start reading him.
His third book from Lazy Fascist--this one a collection of very short stories--and the first dealing with the world we live in without some sort of fantastic element. These are real stories about life and humans, and some of them are so beautiful it makes you want to cry. The quote above is from 'Sweet Dreams,' which is beautiful and perfect in so many ways.
A lot of the stories are pretty funny, in a sly sort of way, and I think the title refers to how the monsters of the world are all of us. Because his last three books deal with real tangible monsters and clear conflicts. These stories are a bit more still and quiet, and people do terrible or just plain stupid things in them. But they're all very human things.
But, yeah, a fantastic little collection. No one writes like Brian but more people should try.
They'll fail, but words will be better for the effort.
I don't know if Brian Allen Carr is the best young writer around, but he's probably my favorite, and people seriously need to start reading him.
His third book from Lazy Fascist--this one a collection of very short stories--and the first dealing with the world we live in without some sort of fantastic element. These are real stories about life and humans, and some of them are so beautiful it makes you want to cry. The quote above is from 'Sweet Dreams,' which is beautiful and perfect in so many ways.
A lot of the stories are pretty funny, in a sly sort of way, and I think the title refers to how the monsters of the world are all of us. Because his last three books deal with real tangible monsters and clear conflicts. These stories are a bit more still and quiet, and people do terrible or just plain stupid things in them. But they're all very human things.
But, yeah, a fantastic little collection. No one writes like Brian but more people should try.
They'll fail, but words will be better for the effort.
December 17, 2014
Back to the harsh southern realism of Vampire Conditions. I think I was more consistently surprised and impressed with the earlier book, but this has many gems. The first piece opens:
Once, my mother sent me into the backyard to fetch a stick she intended to swat me with.
"Don't get a weak one neither," she said, "you make sure it's stiff enough to draw blood."
It gets better.
Once, my mother sent me into the backyard to fetch a stick she intended to swat me with.
"Don't get a weak one neither," she said, "you make sure it's stiff enough to draw blood."
It gets better.
October 17, 2015
Amazing collection. Each story introduces true-to-life, unfeigned characters and poignant plots that always resonated with me. Brian Allen Carr has a special talent for evoking very powerful emotions, even memories, that result in empathy, apathy, but mostly pathos. These emotions brilliantly support the author's dominant theme: humans are the real monsters. "The Lemonade Tycoon" is, in my opinion, hands down the best story of the collection - a memorable, fucked up relationship between two men that make us all go: I know these people! "Take me with you", "The Dishwasher", "We all become something" and "Sweet Dreams" are poignant and terrifying: subtle and fascinating takes on the human condition.
I am anxious to sink my teeth into "The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World".
I am anxious to sink my teeth into "The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World".
February 16, 2016
Powerful little stories about assholes & the people who love them. And the people who don't. The writing style of BAC is unrelenting, admirable, and refreshingly unapologetic. There's a reality in this book that's visceral, almost as if you can feel the cool night air tinged with cigarette smoke on your face, or the taste of Lone Star mixing with blood in your in the back of your throat. Highly recommended, can't wait to read his other work.
January 4, 2015
Solid as ever. Love how Carr can switch between genre stuff (MF Sharks) and more serious stuff so effortlessly. My favorites were "Take Me With You" and "Lemonade Tycoon"—just so much rage and sadness boiling under the writing.
Read
June 30, 2021
Trigger & Content Warnings
Cannibalism
Cannibalism
November 27, 2020
CW:
cannibalism, violent antagonism
This is a short story collection about life's cruelties, about the depressing lilt of a world that doesn't care about you, about accidents and grief and regret, about the way things haunt and change you. Brian Allan Carr is a great writer, and a very atmospheric one, which I already knew from reading Sip, though here the atmosphere is the heavy oppression of life and the sad emptiness of the soul. As in most (if not all) short story collections, not everything's going to be good or equal to each other, and that remains true here. I wouldn't call this collection enjoyable because all the stories are fairly upsetting, but Carr is good at writing unlikable characters and situations in a way that just makes you want think about humanity.
This is a short story collection about life's cruelties, about the depressing lilt of a world that doesn't care about you, about accidents and grief and regret, about the way things haunt and change you. Brian Allan Carr is a great writer, and a very atmospheric one, which I already knew from reading Sip, though here the atmosphere is the heavy oppression of life and the sad emptiness of the soul. As in most (if not all) short story collections, not everything's going to be good or equal to each other, and that remains true here. I wouldn't call this collection enjoyable because all the stories are fairly upsetting, but Carr is good at writing unlikable characters and situations in a way that just makes you want think about humanity.
August 10, 2022
Immersive, true to life stories, written in clipped poetic sentences. These sentences hold all the information needed to provoke empathy, apathy, pathos and create more depth than you think possible. The stories are both foreign, yet reminiscent in a way. Some are devastating, and terrifying. Other stories portray the awkwardness of youth so well, that they could be bits of the authors past, dredged up and sprinkled in, as if done to achieve some form of catharsis. A truly talented author. I'm very much looking forward to reading more of his work.
August 1, 2021
12 very short stories, all of them featuring an everyday monster of some kind: abusive parents, violent exboyfriends, masochistic lemonade sellers, and so on. Allen's writing works to disgust, alarm, entertain, and ultimately endear us to his wayward protagoists.
December 12, 2014
A TOP SHELF review, originally published in the December 12, 2014 edition of The Monitor
The latest collection from South Texas professor and award-winning author Brian Allen Carr is The Shape of Every Monster Yet to Come. The book opens with a mother telling her son to go into the backyard and fetch her a stick with which to beat him. When he returns with a magnolia flower instead, she tells him, “I guess I’ll use my fists.”
This introductory vignette sets the tone for the following series of brutal tales. The reader stares on in horrified wonder as a parade of disaffected, broken, often sociopathic men flail and flounder in a bleak world, often unable to connect to each other or the women they objectify. Humiliation and conflict are carried well beyond the limits of sanity or the ability of the flesh to abide. The death of a violent loved one leaves a sibling in perpetual limbo, while in a pair of stories the passing of a young man brings guilt to the surviving friend who was encroaching on the departed’s romantic territory.
Though most of the pieces are unexpectedly short, they stay with you for a long time, like an unexpected punch that drops you in seconds to the concrete. A few glitter with the biblical ferocity that characterizes Carr’s public reading: “We All Become Something,” which I have heard him perform, remains one of the single most affecting portraits of a violent man I have ever read.
Amid the bleakness, there are hints of fleeting joy, of course: a husband and wife who playfully sword-fight in a curio shop in Nuevo Progreso, a man who wishes everyone “sweet dreams” regardless of time of day as if such a mantra could undo wrongs. Above all, however, the steady drawl of one of the most honest writers in Texas will be there as you peruse the darkness of existence with him, whispering “[Life] can’t dance if there’s no music. It’s not going to smile just because it sees me.”
A sobering lesson.
The latest collection from South Texas professor and award-winning author Brian Allen Carr is The Shape of Every Monster Yet to Come. The book opens with a mother telling her son to go into the backyard and fetch her a stick with which to beat him. When he returns with a magnolia flower instead, she tells him, “I guess I’ll use my fists.”
This introductory vignette sets the tone for the following series of brutal tales. The reader stares on in horrified wonder as a parade of disaffected, broken, often sociopathic men flail and flounder in a bleak world, often unable to connect to each other or the women they objectify. Humiliation and conflict are carried well beyond the limits of sanity or the ability of the flesh to abide. The death of a violent loved one leaves a sibling in perpetual limbo, while in a pair of stories the passing of a young man brings guilt to the surviving friend who was encroaching on the departed’s romantic territory.
Though most of the pieces are unexpectedly short, they stay with you for a long time, like an unexpected punch that drops you in seconds to the concrete. A few glitter with the biblical ferocity that characterizes Carr’s public reading: “We All Become Something,” which I have heard him perform, remains one of the single most affecting portraits of a violent man I have ever read.
Amid the bleakness, there are hints of fleeting joy, of course: a husband and wife who playfully sword-fight in a curio shop in Nuevo Progreso, a man who wishes everyone “sweet dreams” regardless of time of day as if such a mantra could undo wrongs. Above all, however, the steady drawl of one of the most honest writers in Texas will be there as you peruse the darkness of existence with him, whispering “[Life] can’t dance if there’s no music. It’s not going to smile just because it sees me.”
A sobering lesson.
January 8, 2015
Unlike Carr's previous book, The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World, which is about mythical monsters (La Llorona, the black, hairy hands, and the devil himself (among others), The Shape of Every Monster Yet to Come is about the mundane monsters, or, the monsters we live with everyday. In this book, readers will find themselves peeking into different people's lives who have become monsters or who are creating monster, and oftentimes, they do both simultaneously. This book will show you how fucked up we are. However, it will also make you feel good. Because somewhere in the midst of monstrosity, these characters are sill moving forward, just trying to live their lives the best they can. And despite the different shapes of monsters in this book, beneath their depravity lies a sacred kind of beauty that only Carr can create.
March 18, 2015
I bought this book tonight after reading an interview with the author. I finished it in less than two hours.
The book is a collection of short, dark, hard stories about men with edges and deeply flawed souls.
The book is a collection of short, dark, hard stories about men with edges and deeply flawed souls.
April 12, 2015
I read this a month ago. I don't remember a lot of details, like which story meant what, or if anything bleed into my consciousness. I remember feeling mortal as the last page was flipped over, like a good mortality, one only full of only half vengeances.
December 20, 2014
A little of everything
Carr has a real understanding of the craft. This is a fast read that puts you through the ringer, in a good way.
Carr has a real understanding of the craft. This is a fast read that puts you through the ringer, in a good way.
Read
May 15, 2017Hrmmmm....
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews