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Midway
224 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 8, 2025
Second edition - my review from the first edition:
It was perhaps a little foolish to accept this novel based on what, 30 pages? Foolish to write the author and say hey, let's do it, hoping the little eager homunculus running (away with) things didn't mess up, didn't just get lazy and say shit, why read it when you can gamble? Deal with disaster later? And then there's even a contract and oh ho, this better be good - but you know what? I could tell. Not my first rodeo, carnival, circus show. And those early lines, that opening paragraph - the atmosphere, the layers, and then I found myself reading it (to edit!) and finding the sinister and the magical mixed with the painfully quotidian - a life lived, yes, yes, you could tell. This was going to be good, deep, layered, surprising.
It reads like a dream in places - a nightmare at times - like a memory that haunts the author. (Author rolls his eyes.) It's the story of Wyatt, of Good vs Evil in the Milk Can Game, the magical appearance of Miss Stampede, the lizard boy, and layers and layers underneath. It's like Dante's Hell (the title, huh?), but with prizes.
An extraordinary novel; not a whole lot happens, but it's all you can handle.
Quotable: A smart, funny, strange, and deeply literary near-memoir (with hallucination) that does a masterful job of portraying the (de)evolving group dynamics amongst deeply flawed characters, all too smart for their own good, and one sacrificial lamb. All bow down to the Clown.
It was perhaps a little foolish to accept this novel based on what, 30 pages? Foolish to write the author and say hey, let's do it, hoping the little eager homunculus running (away with) things didn't mess up, didn't just get lazy and say shit, why read it when you can gamble? Deal with disaster later? And then there's even a contract and oh ho, this better be good - but you know what? I could tell. Not my first rodeo, carnival, circus show. And those early lines, that opening paragraph - the atmosphere, the layers, and then I found myself reading it (to edit!) and finding the sinister and the magical mixed with the painfully quotidian - a life lived, yes, yes, you could tell. This was going to be good, deep, layered, surprising.
It reads like a dream in places - a nightmare at times - like a memory that haunts the author. (Author rolls his eyes.) It's the story of Wyatt, of Good vs Evil in the Milk Can Game, the magical appearance of Miss Stampede, the lizard boy, and layers and layers underneath. It's like Dante's Hell (the title, huh?), but with prizes.
An extraordinary novel; not a whole lot happens, but it's all you can handle.
Quotable: A smart, funny, strange, and deeply literary near-memoir (with hallucination) that does a masterful job of portraying the (de)evolving group dynamics amongst deeply flawed characters, all too smart for their own good, and one sacrificial lamb. All bow down to the Clown.
Displaying 1 of 1 review