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Dive: Weird Tales of Misfits & Monsters
Not yet published
Expected 17 Nov 26DRINK UP WITH THE DREAMERS, THE DESPERATE, AND THE DAMNED
Welcome to The Liz: a legendary Oakland punk bar with a fiercely loyal clientele of skull-cracked musicians, aspiring comedians, fans, hangers-on, and vampires.
Learn its sordid history; set some banks on fire; skirt a little too close to radical new film technology; volunteer for experiments that make you physically crave art—and the people who make it; and hear the joke that kills every cop who hears it (don't worry, you'll be fine, we think).
Author & comedian Allison Mick guides you through interconnected horror stories alternately gross, funny, and heartbreaking, and shows you why every story in The Liz makes a killing.
Welcome to The Liz: a legendary Oakland punk bar with a fiercely loyal clientele of skull-cracked musicians, aspiring comedians, fans, hangers-on, and vampires.
Learn its sordid history; set some banks on fire; skirt a little too close to radical new film technology; volunteer for experiments that make you physically crave art—and the people who make it; and hear the joke that kills every cop who hears it (don't worry, you'll be fine, we think).
Author & comedian Allison Mick guides you through interconnected horror stories alternately gross, funny, and heartbreaking, and shows you why every story in The Liz makes a killing.
212 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication November 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Reading for review in the October 2026 issue of Library Journal
Three Words That Describe This Book: transgressive, connected stories, squirm inducing
This is a collection of transgressive, dark, immersive stories with characters who are all in one way or another connected to The Liz-- a famous punk bar in Oakland that has changed names but people just call it The New Liz. It is almost like an oral history of the bar and the people who are connected to it.
Readers are introduced to the world by a patron of the bar who is talking to someone new about the history of the bar. Sharing the solid details of how it started and where it is now-- owned by Johnny the legendary lead singer of the punk band The E.T.'s. And then it turns out that person (whose name and gender we find out later in another story) is a vampire.
This is a great entry to the entire book and the world.
Characters including the vampire (who we find out does what happens in the first story all the time) and basically everyone mentioned anywhere, come back around. If their story isn't completed (Scottie and the hair during is a great example) it will be later. Also people we don't know yet are mentioned-- but we will know them soon.
Great frame connecting the stories beyond just the bar-- Busy Bunny (a task rabbit stand in), a doctor is calling in the people who do gig work for them as test subjects. It increases the dread and adds to the weird behavior. It is very creepy and predatory as well. But said doctor is not a character, which I liked.
The maroon door also returns frequently-- don't open it.
Great world building-- the end has the "discography" and history of the E.T.'s the (fake) punk band and their members who frame the entire story. Mick doubled down on the world building here and it was worth it. Not just the bar but the story around the bar, its owner (Johnny from the band) and all for the interconnected relationships and people who are in this web.
These stories and the world
It is also a very realistic representation of the punk and outsider art scene-- especially as those in this scene age and question if it is all worth it. Honest and thoughtful. I appreciated that.
There is also a small easter egg to Mick's novel Humboldt Cut, which I loved. Very Josh Malerman and connecting the dark and horror filled towns here. I liked it.
Truly a must read by an author on the rise (I read their first book and it was also very good). And put out by an award winning small press. Keep and eye out for more from Mick. I have been and will continue to.
For fans of transgressive horror as written by Kathe Koja, specifically The Cipher and intense collections of connected stories with increased violence like Revenge by Yoko Ogawa. Josh Maleram has weird and dark collections of interconnected stories (mentioned above), but this is way more transgressive than even Malerman's darkest and weirdest stuff. I mean I like both, but as a listed comp in LJ where I have limited words, probably not.
For fans of Eric LaRocca for sure.
Three Words That Describe This Book: transgressive, connected stories, squirm inducing
This is a collection of transgressive, dark, immersive stories with characters who are all in one way or another connected to The Liz-- a famous punk bar in Oakland that has changed names but people just call it The New Liz. It is almost like an oral history of the bar and the people who are connected to it.
Readers are introduced to the world by a patron of the bar who is talking to someone new about the history of the bar. Sharing the solid details of how it started and where it is now-- owned by Johnny the legendary lead singer of the punk band The E.T.'s. And then it turns out that person (whose name and gender we find out later in another story) is a vampire.
This is a great entry to the entire book and the world.
Characters including the vampire (who we find out does what happens in the first story all the time) and basically everyone mentioned anywhere, come back around. If their story isn't completed (Scottie and the hair during is a great example) it will be later. Also people we don't know yet are mentioned-- but we will know them soon.
Great frame connecting the stories beyond just the bar-- Busy Bunny (a task rabbit stand in), a doctor is calling in the people who do gig work for them as test subjects. It increases the dread and adds to the weird behavior. It is very creepy and predatory as well. But said doctor is not a character, which I liked.
The maroon door also returns frequently-- don't open it.
Great world building-- the end has the "discography" and history of the E.T.'s the (fake) punk band and their members who frame the entire story. Mick doubled down on the world building here and it was worth it. Not just the bar but the story around the bar, its owner (Johnny from the band) and all for the interconnected relationships and people who are in this web.
These stories and the world
It is also a very realistic representation of the punk and outsider art scene-- especially as those in this scene age and question if it is all worth it. Honest and thoughtful. I appreciated that.
There is also a small easter egg to Mick's novel Humboldt Cut, which I loved. Very Josh Malerman and connecting the dark and horror filled towns here. I liked it.
Truly a must read by an author on the rise (I read their first book and it was also very good). And put out by an award winning small press. Keep and eye out for more from Mick. I have been and will continue to.
For fans of transgressive horror as written by Kathe Koja, specifically The Cipher and intense collections of connected stories with increased violence like Revenge by Yoko Ogawa. Josh Maleram has weird and dark collections of interconnected stories (mentioned above), but this is way more transgressive than even Malerman's darkest and weirdest stuff. I mean I like both, but as a listed comp in LJ where I have limited words, probably not.
For fans of Eric LaRocca for sure.
Displaying 1 of 1 review