Secrets of the Weird

by Chad Stroup

"Trixie loathed her penis." That shocking revelation begins the emotional and personally horrifying quest for self-realization in a truly messed up world.

Secrets of the Weird has been likened to the David Lynch's groundbreaking series Twin Peaks, but only if horror master Clive Barker and dark fantasist Neil Gaiman had teamed up to create that iconic 90s cultural masterpiece.

It's here, within the dark tapestry of Sweetville, where a new designer drug offers the enticing yet dangerous promise of salvation through physical transformation as it makes the rounds of the community of club kids, neo-Nazis, drag queens, prostitutes and punks who populate the city's sin-drenched streets. Its chewable hearts and candied lips threaten to change the lives of those in the city's underground in terrible ways. And on her seemingly herculean struggle to once and for all become the woman she was born to be, Trixie is the ideal candidate to accept its treacherous bargain.

With Sweet Candy poised to ignite the tenuous powder keg that is life, love and lust in Sweetville, could the arrival of the mysterious back-alley surgeon Julius Kast and his cult of peculiar specters be the final spark that lights the fuse?

Take an unforgettable journey with Trixie and a cast of outsiders in Secrets of the Weird, a novel that's equal parts irreverent social commentary, dark fantasy and horrifying reality for a counterculture society where frequently dangerous, often deviant and always dark secrets will be revealed.

Proudly presented by Grey Matter Press, the multiple Bram Stoker Award-nominated independent publisher.

Grey Matter Press: Where Dark Thoughts Thrive

Genres: Horror

308 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 11, 2017

Reviews

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I was pretty sure for many years I thought it was safe to assume I was the only Vegan Straight Edge kid turned horror author, I mean in the whole planet. Well a few years back I learned that I was not the special snowflake I thought I was. Not only does the world have another horror author who grew up on punk rock, draws X's on his hands and eats way to much vegan treats but there is another vegan straight horror author right here in freaking San Diego. Chad and I are very different writers, with very different training. We have similar influences and think alike often but what is cool is that we have both released books this year and they are very, very different.

Very very different is a good place to start in this review. Secrets of the Weird is not really like any other novel I can think of, while Stroup clears hints at influences it is not exactly in vein of anything else. Set in slightly surreal fictional town of Sweetville we get no sense of outside geography, or that any kind of world exists beyond the Sweetville city limits. Characters reference lyrics by real world bands, but not by name so in that sense we still do not have conformation that this world exists in our reality.

Our hero is a character named Trixie, she was born male but never identified with that gender. She is transitioning while I have had a few friends go through this process it is not one I have experienced. So it hard for me to say if this novel gets it correct. This was a bold choice for Stroup, one wrought with many pitfalls. It is a subject filled with landmines for author that clear in his dedication that he sides with those this society deems the weirdos and freaks. It is clear that Stroup had good and respectful intentions. I found Trixie to be a wonderful character and she is the main reason why I hope the book does well and we get another book with her at the center.

Trixie is has left home in the suburbs and is trying to make a life for herself on the street. After some time turning tricks and a period living with sibling sugar daddies she has settled into life. Sweetville is home to intense street drug. Sweet Candy is powerful designer drug, one she is trying to stay off of. Her life is turning around when a back alley drug addicted surgeon Julis Kast offers a radical underground surgery to become the woman she always wanted to be. At the same time she meets the boy of her dreams punk rock singer named Kristopher who she hides her big secret from.

At times this novel has a middle era Clive Barker feel of dark fantasy without the elaborate over writing that books like Imajica or Everville fell into. Certainly the world of this novel has it's share of erotic fantasy and that is why you'll hear Barker comparisons. But Sweetville was a setting written by a hardcore kid, and not a theater nerd so secrets of the weird is filled with Neo-nazis, punks, metal dudes, non binary prostitutes and more. These characters are not marginalized like extras on the punk episode of Quincy or freak show on stage at 90's Jerry Springer taping. They are all written with depth even the characters who only briefly appear in the pages. Even the villains of the piece are given depth.

I imagine a novel like this written by a straight male might be scary for readers of this community. Certainly Stroup handles the gender issues better than Brian Keene did in the Complex. Not that Keene was disrespectful he wasn't, but Stroup worked very hard to make this as natural a part of the world as he could. This is not over preachy or as direct as some of the fiction marketed "alternative sexuality." He didn't try so hard to be progressive that the book goes over board. Trixie is a complex character.

The prose is tight, well written and the narrative is straight forward. For as strange as the settings the actually writing is thankfully grounded. I read it quickly. Is is perfect? Look Chad is friend but I can't review books if not afraid to give my opinion. Personally I would not have used the dairy entries as a device. They were fine, didn't ruin my experience but took me out of the novel a bit. The book was a quick read because he didn't waste a bunch of word count on world building but I could have used a bit more of the fucked up world in Sweetville. Show us more of the gutter in book two Stroup. Oh yeah the ending was excellent but it leaves us hanging so you folks better get out there and read the book. I mean I turned the last page assuming there was at least a few more. Shit I wanted to yell at Chad for ending when he did.

Secrets of the Weird is a fantastic read. This novel paints an erotic and dangerous picture of a city that you would only want to visit in the safety of a novel. I hope you'll take the trip and check it out.

[Autumn Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

**SPOILER ALERT***

I picked this book up at Chad Stroup's reading in celebration of its release, and have finally gotten around to reading it. I actually wasn't planning on buying it until his Q&A in which he talked about researching trans women. I had immediate respect for someone who decided to write a book from a different POV, so I bought it.

Trixie is a great character, and definitely has a woman's voice. The other characters - Christopher, The angelghoul, and Cypress are interesting enough to keep me engaged. The only issue is the plotting. Even if this was the beginning of a series, there is no resolution to any of the threads that were created. It felt like Chad Stroup had set up a world, but was unsure of where to go with it, or was aiming for a kind of magical realism vibe ala China Mievelle or Charles deLint, and fell a bit short of that goal. I kept waiting for the connection between Dr. Kast, The Withering Wyldes, The Angelghoul, and the sweet candy to be made clear, and it never happened.

That being said - If someone can carry me to the end of a book with compelling voices, I consider that a win. I'll be reading more of Chad Stroup when he releases something else.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweetville sounds like a place I'd want to visit but wouldn't want to live there. At least that is true for the part of Sweetville that Chad Stroup explores in Secrets of the Weird. At first it doesn't seem all that different than the shady parts of any city that include the downtrodden, hopeless and outcasted. It has its share of people who choose a marginal and conventionally frowned upon lifestyle. We got neo-nazis, drug addicts, prostitutes...you name it. They make what is the skids of Sweetville. But then we get to find out about those residents who don't necessarily fit our own world. We have an odd cult called The Withering Wyldes whose emaciated bodies seem anything but natural. A transforming Angelghoul who sells a drug called Sweet Candy and feeds upon human flesh. A dwarf plastic surgeon who seems to love his job too much. If the city of Oz was created by Williams S. Burroughs it might be something like this. The author's depiction of this normal yet not normal city is a strong aspect of the book. It seems like an environment meant to be visited again. I thinks we are only getting the tip of the iceberg and what a tip it is.

Then something happens. With the interesting city building taking place, Stroup throws us a curb ball . Amidst the insanity a personal story develops. Trixie is a boy who is really a girl. The first sentence of the book set her dilemma up. "Trixie loathed her penis". Trixie is quite a character. She struggles through some of the roughest of situations slowly making her life tolerable yet knowing she won't be really accepted in society as she is. Kast, the plastic surgeon who is allied with The Withering Wyldes, has offered her a dubious solution and she is reluctant to go the full mile. Then a boy shows up, Christopher who is a member of a punk band called The Civilized Cannibals. He is one of the good guys and it would be nice to say he accepts her how she is but then we wouldn't have a story.

Now we come to the intriguing issue of the novel. There really isn't too much of a plot here. The real story is Sweetville and the interaction of its denizens. Yet Trixie plays a key role and brings us the real human condition of the story. Stroup does a very good job creating a character who may elude some readers unless they actually are personally intimate in the trials and emotions of being transsexual. The author makes this all work. Though the heart of the narration is third person and seen though the perceptions of several characters, there is plenty of back story received through the pages of Trixie's diary. Stroup also adds interludes through magazine ads and articles that give us a stronger glimpse of the topsy turvy consumerism in Sweetville. They tend to be more amusing than revealing. I wish I could say both city building and personal story comes together but I'm not sure they do. They seem disjointed when brought together but they are both very strong and I kept reading for both.

Secrets of the Weird is often more like a painting than a novel. It is a both landscape and portrait. One cannot help becoming immersed in this urban world with its body horror and psychedelic terrors but you also feel for the character of Trixie. If there isn't a slam bang thank you ending, you still are dumbfounded by the time you get there. I previously described Sweetville as the city of Oz as seen by Burroughs but perhaps it's more like Cannery Row as written by Phillip K. Dick. I think Stroup's influences for this novel are a bit of all four but for a debut work it has a lot of individual brilliance. While I had minor issues with the book, in the last analysis I cannot give such a strong first novel anything but 5 stars. Perhaps the true secret of the weird is that it is nothing without a strong dose of humanity.

[Abigail Grimm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chad Stroup’s novel, Secrets of the Weird is a piece of bizarro fiction that leaves me with more questions than answers. That’s not to say the book is bad by any means; I just feel that it does not live up to its full potential. Sweetville is a decidedly dark setting, with its own underground that we as readers get a brief glimpse of and nothing more. It’s as if Stroup teases us.

What I loved: the dynamic cast of characters Stroup creates. His ability to write lifelike and engaging characters is astounding. The main character, Trixie, is so real in her struggles that I imagine she’s quite relatable for several people. Her trek to being a woman is filled with bump after bump, and yet she still finds a reason to carry on, to seek her own happiness. In fact, much of this book focuses on her journey to self-acceptance, culminating in a beautiful metamorphosis. Other characters are equally fleshed out, but in ways that make my stomach turn. For instance, Cypress and the Angelghoul are despicable. Were either character to perish, I’d be fine. But its these anti-heroes that open up a lot of unanswered questions – if they can be called that.

First, there’s the Withering Wyldes. A creature whose purpose is to convert others into joining their cult like organization. Their history is explained, and they consistently show up throughout the book, but after a few chapters in which a linguist tries to understand their method of communication, they become background noise. The Angelghoul’s quest for enlightenment goes uncompleted. Trixie’s boyfriend fades away into nothing. And finally, Cypress’s threats seem to… well, not come to fruition.

The book is most definitely a fun read, but with those plot issues it falls short of a five skull rating for me. I’ll have to give it three.

[Kristopher Triana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chad Stroup’s debut novel Secrets of the Weird is a bizzaro tale filled with punk rock cannibals, ethereal beings, skinhead sexpots and dwarf surgeons. It takes place in the psychedelic town of Sweetville—a wonderland hooked on a new drug called Sweet Candy. In this dark place we meet several outsiders and underdogs, including our protagonist Trixie, a young transgender woman who wants nothing more than to finalize her transformation. She’s pretty and has undergone hormone therapy, and she now has the body of a girl, all except for the male parts she tucks between her legs, parts she desperately wants to be rid of.

Trixie’s teenage years is documented in her journal, which highlights the many ups and downs (mostly downs) of her upbringing, and gets us up to speed on the main story, which involves her falling in love with a straight edge aspiring rock star named Christopher. The two tumble helplessly into a romance which could be perfect, if only Christopher knew about her dirty secret—the genitalia she hasn’t had removed yet. This leaves us feeling sorry for both of them, and wishing that Trixie would be honest with Christopher before things get out of hand.

Hoping to save her doomed relationship, she is tempted by Kast, an underground surgeon who is accompanied by blue-hued beings known as the Withering Wyldes. All the while Christopher’s racist ex-lover tries to sabotage their relationship, and Trixie fears that it’s only a matter for time before her sordid past is revealed.

Stroup has a writing style that makes the book feel very personal as it puts us into the shoes of someone struggling with their identity. It is to his credit that he casts a transgender woman as his lead character while treating her with respect and honesty instead of relying on tired stereotypes. Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider will identify with Trixie, and will root for a resolution to her dilemma. The others characters are well fleshed out and the book moves at a steady pace, intercut with hilarious “words from our sponsors.” It’s also ripe with vivid imagery and a clear love of indie music.

As Stroup writes in the opening of the book, this one is “to all the freaks, queers and misfits of the world.” It’s also unlike anything you’ve ever read before—a wildly inventive novel that is as sensitive as it is otherworldly. I highly recommend it for fans of Poppy Z. Brite, William S. Burroughs, David Cronenberg, Clive Barker and Cocteau Twins. If this is Stroup’s debut novel, then I’m sure we’ve got a lot to look forward to from this author. Highly recommended.

[Adam House · Rating 5 out of 5]

Secrets of the Weird is a story about Trixie, whose story began when she was a little boy, and the lengths she goes to in order to live the life she was born to live. It takes place in an odd town called Sweetville, which has the latest drugs, a lively neo-Nazi population, rock bands, and a group of creatures trying their hardest to convert the locals into following their religious beliefs. Trixie finds herself in dangerous situations (usually to make money), has romance troubles—past and present, family issues, and a whole plethora of other things going on that lead to one very original story, and one impressive debut novel from author, Chad Stroup.

Excellent dialogue throughout, and some masterful use of metaphor, but the thing that stood out to me the most was Secrets of the Weird’s Characters. They are not your usual stereotypes, and any who may appear so on the surface are quickly thrown into situations their usual counterparts have more than likely never had to deal with, ultimately bringing new life to them. The supporting characters were all well fleshed out and wholly unique, but Trixie, especially, is the standout. Stroup has done an amazing job of not only allowing, but also forcing the reader inside her head; feeling every emotion she feels, questioning everything she does, and wanting everything she desires. It was refreshing to get that inside of a character completely different than yourself and really experience someone else’s point of view, the kind of POV you’d otherwise never know anything of, unless you lived it. After all, isn’t that why we read fiction in the first place? It’s so easy to forget that not everyone experiences things the same as we do. With his debut novel, Stroup set the bar high in this regard. It’s been a very long time since I’ve enjoyed a character this much, and the rest of the characters weren’t far behind her.

Sweetville really was a weird place. I’m so glad the author discovered it and shared it with us. Highly recommended!

[Mommacat · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you don't love SECRETS OF THE WEIRD by the time you finish the first two sentences, we have nothing in common. That's all it took to make to make me fall in love with this book about freaks, outcasts weirdos and other so-called rejects from society.

Enter the heads of cannibals, the LGBTQ and for the briefest of moments set your preconceptions aside. Chad Stroup's beautifully written novel was a joy for this reader. He created characters that that leapt off the page and made me want shout (especially at Trixie) to tell him The Truth!

One of the most memorable books I expect to read this year, I hope that you'll read it as soon as possible.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was somewhat apprehensive as I dipped into this novel with an opening line that certainly sets the tone for a surprising reading experience.

That opening line?

TRIXIE LOATHED HER PENIS.

Welcome to Sweetville and Secrets Of The Weird

Secrets Of The Weird is set in the early 90's, references to presidents (Clinton) and musicians (The Cure, The Smiths) ground this novel in reality but it's key setting, Sweetville, is a fictional City populated by a wild assortment of characters. From the relatively normal residents going about their day-to-day lives, to the neo-Nazis club scene to drag queens, prostitution and even cannibalism. Sweetville is also under the cloud of a powerful new designer drug, Sweet Candy. It's streets are full of the lost and the lonely with an unusual cult, that speaks in a tongue that only the broken minded can understand, the Withering Wyldes are only too happy to prey on the weak.

Secrets Of The Weird is relatively light of plot, but that really didn't matter. The central story is about Trixie, a strong young woman born male, trying to earn enough money to complete her transition. It's a powerful story but not preachy in the slightest. Stroup uses Trixie's diary entries to let us know about her past  and her hopes and fears for the future. A clever mechanic that added a grounded reality to some of the madness going on in the present. Trixie is a fantastic protagonist that I'd love to read more about. More that I'd like to read about are the plethora of Sweetville residents that we briefly meet in pushing Trixies's story along. There are so many interesting characters populating this City that it'll be a crime if Stroup doesn't bring us back.

Prose is tight and very well written, Stroud has created a believable world that's filled with  the unbelievable. I must warn you that there are scenes that do not make for a particularly easy read, but Stroud is skillful in being explicit without going into details (The Zane brothers first encounter with Trixie springs to mind).  As well as the gritty side of the story there are many good-humoured moments, with a Crying Game reference making me laugh.

Secrets Of The Weird is not a book I would have ordinarily picked up. I don't believe I have read much in the way of 'weird' fiction and after Secrets I feel I may be missing out on something. In Sweetville, Stroup has created a City full of adventure, danger and eroticism populated with a range of characters that simply jumped off the page and with his lead Trixie, he has created a strong female character that I absolutely want to read more about.

...and now a word from our sponsor

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secrets of the Weird isn't so much a novel as it is an experience. This is the kind of book people form cults around. Sweetville is a town throbbing with punk rock passion. Its street leap off the page, grab you by the throat, and drag you down into the Morlock mini-mall for a reasonably-priced round of body modification. The characters are incredibly well-defined, and even the cannibals and neo-Nazis come complete with sympathetic qualities. Everybody in Sweetville is an actual human being, even though the more post-human residents might stretch that definition.

This book begs to be read in hard copy. There's some rad bonus material/interludes, including a pitch-perfect parody of a Chick tract and a 90s zine interview with a band that kind of exists maybe?, that I don't think would have the same impact on an e-reader. Grey Matter Press has really outdone themselves with the way this volume is put together.

So what are the secrets of the weird? For this reader, the real secret is that the weirdness is a garnish on a totally sweet and heartfelt love story. Trixie and Christopher are a couple of lovably dopey but intensely likable people, and as readers we're still rooting for them until the very end.

My only criticism of the book is that there are a couple plot threads that didn't get as much follow-up as I would have liked, but that's okay. Chad Stroup's cracked open the door to Sweetville and given us a peek, here's hoping he'll hook us up with a return trip in the future.

[Morgan Tanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Trixie loathed her penis.”

What a great opening line, and with those four words, I was hooked! And that was after I’d seen the cover – a Medusa-woman-goat-butterfly-type thing with bloody hands!

Trixie, a resident of the strange and, well, weird town of Sweetville has never been comfortable with being male. If only she could go the whole hog and get the last piece of her masculinity removed.

Enter the dwarf Doctor(?) Kast who offers his services for this very procedure.

On the surface this is a story of a transgender girl trying to fit in with the world while she longs to be ‘complete’. But there is so much more going on.

The dirty streets of Sweetville are awash with a new designer drug, Sweet Candy. The whores and the rockers and the bums are hooked. The Angelghoul, a man who hopes to enter his own form of transformation, is keeping the addicts satisfied and hungry for more. Although his exploits for his very own change, using his Taste Subjects, are rather more malevolent.

Then there’s Christopher, bass player in punk band, Civilised Cannibals, who just happens to fall for Trixie, not knowing her history or penis-situation. She’s just a hot chick to him, and quite possibly the love of his life. What will he do when he finds out The Truth?

And who can forget the Zane twins, a pair of rich, sexually deviant, high-flying ego-maniacs who know Trixie from her past, dark days when she used to work the streets, and them.

This novel, although short, manages to throw you into the world with ease. You’d be forgiven for thinking this was a giant tome of a book, but no, with only a few lines here and there, the magnitude of the setting is fleshed out perfectly. But another book set within this world have me licking my lips like the aforementioned Angelghoul.

Another way of looking at it could be that a number of ideas were not explored as completely as they could have been. I wanted to know more about Sweet Candy, about the strange Withering Wyldes, more of the infamous and late Dr Wylde who left behind this freaky cult, and about The Angelghoul, his Taste Subjects and the bizarre growths on his shoulders.

Aside from the narrative are excerpts from Trixie’s diary where we get more on her backstory, thus fleshing out her character’s hopes and dreams. Throw in the hilarious ‘word from our sponsors’ adverts, and even an interview from an old underground music mag with Civilised Cannibals, and you’ve got a really fun read in your hands. I suppose with the subject matter, you need a few giggles here and there!

So is the scene set for a sequel? Hopefully. There’s a vast chasm of opportunities for new characters to be introduced in the world of Sweetville, to satisfy my need for answers that weren’t fully addressed here, so I’m keeping things crossed for that.

Perhaps I was expecting more ‘weird’ in here, but maybe it’s because I’ve become accustomed to reading some fucked-up shit. But top marks for this one, a big recommendation for lovers of the strange.

[Hope Fletcher-Sibbald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to give this novel a 3.5, but Goodreads won't let me do that, so I'll round up. Stroup creates a world that is familiar and gritty, but Trixie's story line (while incredibly exciting to read since it's not everyday I get to read a story about a transwoman) felt a little contrived and forced. I enjoyed her a lot, but there were moments when I wasn't quite sure where Stroup was coming from. I didn't find this particularly horrific, but maybe gruesome at moments with the Wyldes. Overall, I don't regret reading this, in fact I'd recommend someone read this, I just don't know if I'll read it again.

[Krystal Galvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens in Sweetville doesn’t stay in Sweetville. It comes home with you.

Loved this novel. It was different - weird but good weird.

[Hal Bodner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chad Stroup’s SECRETS OF THE WEIRD is aptly named. It is by far one of the weirdest novels I have read in a long time. For those readers like me who shy away from reading “bizarro” and “speculative” fiction, SECRETS is mercifully linear, with a fairly traditional plot structure and accessible characters. The novel’s uniqueness rests primarily in Stroup’s world-building and in the bizarre nature of the mores he’s created.

Fundamentally, the story concerns itself with the protagonist’s gender transition from male to female. But any reader who picks up this novel hoping for a coming out book, or a story about transsexualism will be sadly disappointed. Nor is this a “gay” or “alternative sexuality” book by any means. Trixie’s plight does, indeed, provide momentum for the plot, but Stroup merely presents her desires as naturally as if she were a Chekov tragic heroine who wants to go to Moscow. The issues of transexualism are handled naturally, without any preciousness and, above all, with a refreshing lack of preaching.

If the plot is a simple one, the world with which Stroup has surrounded poor Trixie is intensely and insanely complicated. Sweetville, the mythical city in which the story takes place, is a bizarre, topsy-turvy, semi-nihilistic place, which Stroup has placed firmly in a hole he has carved from the real-world United States. It is a city in which a mysterious new drug called Sweet Candy is pervasive, where cults of cannibals flourish, and where once-human creatures called Withering Wyldes pass out religious tracts in a language that only the insane can read or understand. The very similarities to our real world, including the references to legitimate songs, books, movies, celebrities and the like, when juxtaposed against Stroup’s surreal characters and environments, are precisely what lend this book a pervasive creepiness. While reading SECRETS, we get the sense that the universe has shifted slightly out of joint and yet, disturbingly, we cannot recall how it got that way! That Stroup has been able to carry off such a massive fictional invention of warped reality is a testament to his marvelously fertile imagination.

SECRETS is not, in many ways, an “easy read.” By the same token, neither is it overly self-aware or obscure. But it does take some effort to willingly suspend disbelief in order to become immersed in Stroup’s extraordinarily strange alternate reality, much the same way as one must take a deep breath before diving into a William Burroughs manuscript. Fortunately, Stroup’s writing is emphatically not pretentious, nor is it designed (as is the case in so many “innovative” novels these days) to self-consciously showcase the author’s erudition. For the most part, the prose is crisp, clean and accessible, and the story engages the reader and moves forward with a lovely momentum.

If Stroup fails at all to live up to the potential of the world he’s created and the tasks he’s undertaken as an author (and whether that is the case or not is certainly debatable), it is with his tendency to present too many facets of this novel as literary faits accomplis. For the most part, his characterizations are sharp and believable, even regarding the most outre members of the cast. Yet Stroup often teases us by providing truly interesting minor characters, many of which seem substantial enough to support novels of their own, and then withholds the very backgrounds about which he has piqued our interest. Fortunately, Stroup has opted for no such technique where Trixie is concerned. Her plight, and her voice by means of diary entries, are both powerful and pervasive enough to mollify the reader and make us overlook our mild frustration at not being privy to more detail regarding some of the other characters.

My only criticism of this book, in fact, is a conceit which, one supposes was meant to be clever but which, instead, I found a bit juvenile. Periodically throughout the book there are a scant number of pages devoted to reproducing fictional advertisements, religious tracts, comic strips and the like. While it seems that they were included to provide a certain kind of ambiance, to my mind they added very little. Instead, they provided a jarring interruption to the narrative -- a dangerous risk (and one that did not entirely pay off) given that this is a novel which requires a higher-than-average investment in the fictional world on the reader's part. However, this is a minor quibble and easily overlooked.

All in all, I found SECRETS OF THE WEIRD to be an engaging and fascinating read. It is a highly unusual, admirably creative foray into a deeply, deeply disturbing world of fiction which nonetheless resonates with modern reality.

[Ucho · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a trans girl coming into her own, interspersed with digressions into the lives of the colourful cast of the side characters. Not much happens in terms of the story, we’re here for Trixie’s journey and the freakish sights.

Also included: popcultural and literary references (beauty-obsessed Dorian Wylde, super rich businessmen/citizens Orin and Greyson Zane), playful formatting (leaflets, advertisements, interviews), cannibals (the actual and the singing), omnipresent dissatisfaction with and the desire to change one’s body

Very queer, very endearing. Very dark, too — heed the warnings.

[Peter Tanski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe that I must preface this review by first stating that my recent (and forthcoming) interview with the author on my podcast (The Book of Very Very Bad Things) has, in no way, informed my opinion of this work. Nor has my prior knowledge of the author’s previous musical output (San Diego Hardcore legends Stickfigurecarousel) engendered any bias.
Secrets of the Weird is an exercise in world building the likes of which I’ve rarely seen in such a slender volume. I’m sure that we are all familiar with the pageantry and Grand Guignol of Barker’s Books of the Art and Imajica, which accomplish total immersion over the course of hundreds of pages. This pocket tome opens the floor beneath you and drops you directly into the fray.
A powerhouse first novel.