Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

by Brandon Getz

A man's midlife crisis unfolding in a taxidermy factory. A widower and his baby daughter visited by demons. A homunculus climbing out of the skull of a woman's sick father. These stories exist in the borderlands between literary and genre, injecting strange and speculative elements into the mundane. Creatures, spirits, ghosts, robots, superheroes, and the Devil himself populate the pages, as elements of satire, horror, and science fiction enter the everyday tragedies of love, death, and loss. With odes to jazz and cyberpunk, spanning Pittsburgh to Argentina, Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before is twelve tales of the weird, including a previously unpublished story and novelette.

246 pages, Paperback

Published January 7, 2022

About the author

Brandon Getz earned an MFA in fiction writing from Eastern Washington University. His work has appeared in F(r)iction, Versal, Flapperhouse, and elsewhere. Lars Breaxface: Werewolf in Space is his first novel. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

Reviews

[Chris Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Getz would be a master of any genre he writes in, his use and subversion of science fiction is a sight to behold. The stories in this volume may begin like standard sci-fi stories, but they quickly become more, taking on weight hardly seen in the genre.

But these stories aren’t just limited to one type. They run the gamut from funny to frightening to heartbreaking. There are moments that will shock you, and then you’ll be laughing two pages later. I wholeheartedly recommend picking this up.

[Laura Ender · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange and energetic collection of stories, unafraid of its own perspective and living in its own world. The stories range from flippant to heartfelt, and it ends on a really good foot with its final story, "Ghosts of Buenos Aires."

[Rick Claypool · Rating 5 out of 5]

This magical, visceral short story collection is a damn good time. Hilarious and heartbreaking, these tales take everyday struggles and infuse them with slipstream strangeness that sticks. Getz's knack for mashing up pulp and literary sensibilities is on full display, and his careful craftsmanship keeps the surprises coming. Also the instructions for evicting the pain-in-the-ass domovoi haunting your shitty apartment are straightforward and effective. A pleasure to read -- and useful to boot!