Angel Dust Apocalypse

by Jeremy Robert Johnson

Meth-heads, man-made monsters, and murderous Neo-Nazis. Blissed out club kids dying at the speed of sound. The un-dead and the very soon-to-be-dead. They're all here, trying to claw their way free. From the radioactive streets of a war-scarred future, where the nuclear bombs have become self-aware, to the fallow fields of Nebraska where the kids are mainlining lightning bugs, this is a world both alien and intensely human. This is a place where self-discovery involves scalpels and horse tranquilizers; where the doctors are more doped-up than the patients; where obsessive-compulsive acid-freaks have unlocked the gateway to God and can't close the door. This is not a safe place. You can turn back now, or you can head straight into the heart of. the Angel Dust Apocalypse

Genres: Horror, Bizarro Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction, Collections, Fantasy

184 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2005

Reviews

[Garrett Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know if post Gen X/Gen Y middleschoolers still have to go through the DARE program and hear the local constabulary fum faw through how marijuana makes you forget things and crack and heroin mean certain death. At my DARE graduation, I got to hear one member of the Kingston Trio perform. He didn't even play Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley. Several kids in the same DARE class as me laughed through it, did drugs and went about their lives as if it didn't happen. This wasn't an honest portrayal of drugs and their impact on our minds, our souls and our lives. Now Angeldust Apocalypse? That book is. This brutal collection of stories shows the impact of all our addictions, body modification, war, perversion, media saturation...as Burroughs said "The face of evil is the face of total need". Scary, weird, sick, sick, sick...hardcore. This is pain. This is the price of addiction. Even the whole Kingston Trio couldn't do what Jeremy Johnson does about addiction with these stories.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! How can I not be a huge fan of short stories and still give this one 5 stars? Easy. From the first short forward, these tales were crazy good! The stories are very well written with tight prose and some genuinely creepy mother f@cking sh*t going down. Deranged medical experiments, infantilism, body mods, crank heads and a Wolf. What's not to like.

Highly Recommended! 5 Stars! I am looking forward to more from JRJ!

[Matty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great set of short stories focused on addictions of various kinds. Very imaginative and scary worlds created within each one. Highly recommend.

[Steve Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Polished, well-told, unique, simply outstanding short stories. To pigeon-hole JRJ as simply a Bizarro author would be wrong. Much like Cameron Pierce and Andersen Prunty, this boy is a writer first, who simply knows how to tell a story well. Much less whacked-out Bizarro and much more cerebral, rock-solid fiction here than I went in expecting.

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is my review of ADA from Verbicide #14 (summer 2005):

Regardless of whether short story collections are as popular or as lucrative as novels, they are my favorite literary medium. Fellow Verbicide writer Kris Sevillena recently informed me that Edgar Allen Poe — in addition to writing fiction and poetry — was also a literary critic who expressly read and wrote about short stories, as he strongly disliked the lost momentum when he wasn’t able to finish a novel in a single sitting.

I’ll agree with Poe. I do enjoy novels, but I get the most enjoyment when I can engross myself in an entire story from start to finish in one sitting, and yet still be able to return to the author’s world at a later time.

With that in mind, it says a lot about the addictive quality of Johnson’s writing when I found myself taking in all 18 stories in Angel Dust Apocalypse in only two sittings—granted, I read about 12 of them while on a two-hour train ride to New York one evening, but hey, usually I just sleep.

The unifying factors of the stories in ADA are the surreality of the world in which the characters live and the relentlessness with which Johnson explores the individual psyches of his subjects. Though the majority of the circumstances and settings in these shorts are purely fictitious — even other-worldly — the qualities exposed are pure and concentrated doses of the darkest aspects of humanity that we ourselves are rarely brave enough to face up to. Johnson revels in turning inside-out our innate desire to mask our carnality and brutality.

The best example of Johnson’s sinister mutilation of morality is in the eleventh piece, entitled “Saturn’s Game.” The story starts like this: “You could bite Todd’s nose off. That’s the thought at the back of my head. That’s the thought I ignore. I squelch the sinister sentiment and refocus on my friend.”

The first time I read that opener I knew I was in for trouble. In the ADA author’s notes, Johnson explains himself by stating, “C’mon, you know you’ve had thoughts like this guy. Someone once told me that there’s no such thing as morality, and that it was just a social construct to eliminate a person’s willingness to do hideous things. Or maybe I just made that up.” Even in his damn author’s notes, Johnson makes the reader laugh, cringe...and self-consciously examine himself. So, in regards to myself, have I had thoughts like this? ...No comment. (Well played, Mr. Johnson. Checkmate.)

In its most twisted moments, Johnson’s writing (like fellow Portland, Oregon resident Chuck Palahniuk) is too gleeful to pigeon-hole as strictly “horror,” and when he steps outside the gross-out game, he transcends most other straight literary writers.

For instance, “Swimming in the House of the Sea” is one of the longest and most poignant stories of ADA. It centers around a 21-year-old, Wolf, and his mentally handicapped brother (who has an even stranger name, “Dude”). Wolf is an obvious loser who lives lazily on his mother’s coin in exchange for shuttling Dude back and forth along the California coast between his flaky divorced hippie parents. On one such trip, Wolf’s car breaks down in Bakersfield, and the brothers must spend the night in a hotel where Wolf’s attempt to relax in the swimming pool is constantly interrupted by antagonists. After a tense confrontation with a hotel guest that brings to mind Holden Caulfield’s run-in with the pimp in Catcher In The Rye, the reversal of roles between brothers causes Wolf to reconsider his cynical view of Dude. It is among the most touching stories I’ve read by any author, amazing for a piece of work that begins with the sentence, “The retard is finally asleep, which is great because now I can head down to the hotel swimming pool and relax.”

For all the horror, gore, disembowelments, touching stories of sibling love, and science fiction oddities that are crammed into the pages of Angel Dust Apocalypse, there is one super-short story that stuck with me more than any other: “Branded,” a one-and-a-half-page story that relates the thoughts of a male narrator as he reluctantly performs oral sex on his new girlfriend, “to initiate a sort of deepening of our relationship.” The reluctance is caused by his discovery of a horrible, “raised, ropy-white and red-rimmed” scar on the inside of her thigh that is in “the exact shape of the McDonald’s logo.” So what thoughts invade the imagination of the narrator as he performs cunnilingus? The taste of “fancy ketchup,” “Grimace and the Hamburgler,” “the killing floor for McDonald’s Inc.” Disgusting, even ridiculously juvenile, you might think as you read this story. Then Johnson ends it abruptly with a stab to the heart that defines the callous and shallow nature of so many people, and so many relationships: “She was a wonderful human being, with a laugh that you’d want to hear at the gates of heaven. And I am weak for leaving her.”

Amidst all the material in ADA are two classic short stories that originally saw print in Verbicide, the tale of “body modification royalty” entitled “The League of Zeroes” (from Verbicide issue 11), and the simple, Bradbury-esque tale of the apocalypse as seen through the eyes of a deaf young boy, “Snowfall” (from Verbicide issue 13).

Angel Dust Apocalypse is a nice length; at 180 pages it’s what you could consider a “companion book,” to be brought along in your rucksack on a road trip alongside your Henry Millers and your Hunter S. Thompsons — the perfect amount of short stories to keep the reader engaged through an initial reading, yet eager to pick it off the shelf again in the future. ADA is every bit as smart as it is gut-churning, and every bit as moving and introspective as it is horrifying and humorous. Is Jeremy Robert Johnson the next big thing? I can only hope that people will catch on. If he can keep it up, Johnson will surely earn a place as a classic voice of the contemporary counter-culture.

[Christy Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an EST.

It is one of the smartest, funniest, saddest, bestest books I have ever read.

[Ben Loory · Rating 4 out of 5]

johnson thanks selby, burroughs, vonnegut, barker, king, and ellroy (among others) in the dedication of this book, and i see all of them in his writing, but the guy he most reminds me of is william gibson. he has the same kind of unlimited imagination, same unrelentingly furious forward movement, same dark interest in altered states of consciousness, and, most importantly, the same kind of complete and seemingly unshakable belief in the scientific reality of the world (most obvious in those stories that seem to push hardest against it). for this reason, though i love his more outlandish stories (esp "the sharp dressed man at the end of the line" and "sparklers burning"), it's the simplest and least "weird" of the stories that i actually like best-- "saturn's game" and, most of all, "swimming in the house of the sea" (which really could be a raymond carver story), because they seem to be the ones where he most honestly deals with what seems to be the world he really believes in. not sure if that makes sense, but that's how it seemed to me. in any case, the guy's a genius and i will definitely be reading more.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I thought the writing was exceptional, the stories had depth and even the shortest story drew you in with it's character development. Labelling this read as just bizarro would be wrong as it offered far more than just bizarro stories.

These are some of my favourites:

Amniotic shock in the last sacred place - Horrifying experimentation.

Precedents - A murder told from the end to the beginning, very clever.

Working at home - Nasty little story with creepy crawlies.

Sparklers burning - loved this. Cleaning tips for a serial killer, I laughed at the mention of glitter on the 'shrine'.

Last thoughts drifting down - I liked how this tied in with a few other stories. Very clever perspective on the nuclear holocaust.

Swimming in the house of the sea - Poignant story about the awful things people do just for the fun of it.

This is a beautifully written short story collection, I would highly recommend picking this up.

[Ms. Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I slept on it and decided Queen Critical would bestow her ever-elusive 5 Stars upon this notable read. There was a such depth to this read that I couldn't help but connect with the characters/writer on a fundamental level.
The stories were thought-provoking, entertaining, and cleverly written.
I highly recommend this piece, not as weird, bizarre, or horror, but just as fiction written to make you feel, think, ponder.

5 Stars- The League of Zeroes - Body Modification. Will it be all you hope for?

5 Stars- Dissociative Skills- Tripping on K. This could be you on drugs.

4 Star- Amniotic Shock in the Last Sacred Place - James wants to be a baby again. He'll do anything to be fed and feel a
mother's love.

4 Stars- Working at Home - Frank brings a parasite home with him.

5 Stars- Luminary - A brother's light burned bright. A touching story of sacrifice.

These are just a few of the shorts.

I will definitely be reading more of Jeremy's work.

[Bill Ahern · Rating 1 out of 5]

the book is a compilation of short stories pertaining to bizarre or supernatural fiction. The bland writing contrasted with the failed attempts at shock value, which is unfortunate because aside form that, some of the stories introduced some cool concepts that simply faltered.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fiction is great fiction regardless of the genre associated with it. Angel Dust is a collection of dark, weird stories with an undercurrent of horror mixed in just to keep it interesting. Written when Bizarro was carving out its niche as the current underground phenomenon and it still stands up well. When you want to find out why Bizarro was so good, why did so many people latch onto it? This is a good representation of why.

It’s a great collection that not everyone will appreciate, or even understand it, but that’s okay because there’s an audience that does and they ended up fans of this type of fiction because underneath the layers of weird there’s a great writer creating stories that crawl under your skin and even sink into your brain for a while. Rediscovering key moments of this genre years later reminds me of how great books like these are. They create their own rules and urge readers to step outside of their comfort zone. Sometimes great fiction does that. They exist because they need to.

[Marzi Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as one of Stephen King's best short story collections encourages the reader to work the "Night Shift," this riveting anthology from Jeremy Robert Johnson encourages the reader to enter the "Angel Dust Apocalypse." Reading this book does indeed have the feel of entering a newfound, blissful end of the world (or, more accurately, of the world as we know it). Johnson's writing clearly pulls influence from not only great horror authors such as King but also great satire authors such as Vonnegut, literary authors such as Wallace, and even occasionally, experimental authors such as Pynchon. With these influences in mind, however, Johnson also manages to clearly present a unique style of his own. Each of these 20 or so short stories, be it classified as bizarro in the context of a man's determination to shock the most residents of an already shocking world, or as tragedy in the context of an irrational phobia gradually consuming a life, or as slice-of-life in the context of a burdening brotherhood driven by spite and circumstance rather than love, is narrated with a conversational yet captivating voice that perfectly accompanies the hilarious, heartbreaking, or horrific plot.

The only short story collection I've read that seemed absolutely flawless to me has been James Joyce's "Dubliners," and literary fanatics ought to know the obvious reasons. "Angel Dust Apocalypse" comes very close though, for these stories range from surreal to unreal to ugly to beautiful, and everywhere in between, and regardless they are always gripping and powerful. They serve as proof that Jeremy Robert Johnson possesses an unparalleled talent for storytelling and deserves to have a great writing career ahead of him.

[Eric Hendrixson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is now five years old, and it shows its age. The style and spirit of this book is maybe 15 to 20 years out of fashion. Really, the sensibility of this book is firmly tied into the Cyberpunk and Mirrorshades style that flourished in 80s scifi writing and reemerged in movies of the late 90s and early 00s. This doesn't bother me in the least. I love that stuff.

Johnson does not love his characters. That is interesting to me because so many of them go to extremes (extreme body modification, self-dissection, etc.) to be appreciated, admired, loved, or just noticed, and Johnson, instead of treating the characters' acting out sympathetically, treats them like the pathetic attempts they are. Of course, in the Cyberpunk genre, this is how things go. Your protagonists won't necessarily be admirable, good, or even likable people. They are desperate people and Johnson is a pitiless author, but he's honest. When I read this kind of book, that's what I'm looking for.

This book will never be the feel-good hit of the summer, but no one can say it's not intense.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Angel Dust Apocalypse" is an fantastic, dark, and smart collection of short stories and flash fiction. Most of the pieces explore the human quest for acceptance, affirmation, self worth, and love. A man undergoes an insane body modification. A woman grows to rely on her abductor for companionship. A boy performs surgery on himself and wonders at the immediate effect that his actions have on his family. Each story is unique in its voice, but they all come together to create a unified book. I can't praise this collection enough. It also contains the story that is the precursor to Johnson's novella "Extinction Journals."

[Edward Stafford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember when you had to seek out subculture? Back in the pre-internet dark ages, finding your fellow freaks flying their flags was a lot more difficult and, I would argue, a lot more rewarding. Picking up Angel Dust Apocalypse and diving into the first story, "The League of Zeroes," was like being whisked back to the early 90s when reading Neuromancer and those RE/Search books like Modern Primitives and The Industrial Culture Handbook felt subversive. Having read a lot of horror, sci fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction, it's a feeling I didn't realize I missed and have probably been chasing for a long time.

With this collection of short stories, Jeremy Robert Johnson stabs the needle into your arm and mashes the plunger down hard and fast, overloading the senses with deliciously filthy 90s underground black tar nostalgia. For me, the hit was just right and I reveled in the shitty, sweaty, cheap-ass thrills of this parking lot carnival ride.

This collection would not have worked for me at all if the writing weren't so damn good. Forced to make a ham-fisted comparison, I'd say imagine the hallucinogenic visual conjuring of Burroughs coupled with the visceral sucker punches of Bukowski and you're getting close. Johnson's style is in nightmarish and narcotically spartan, like a run-down one-room apartment with a single bulb hanging from the ceiling: You probably don't want to stay there long, but man, it's seen some shit and serves it up straight. One of the stories, "Wall of Sound: A Movement in Three Parts," is, as the title suggests, a triptych. In the first part, the reader follows one person's bad trip at a club. It's wonderful and awful and so hard to read and so compelling all at the same time. I think that's probably the best way to sum up his style. It's something a lot of writers strive for and very few actually succeed at.

But giving this book raves over the squicky, subversive bits would be unfair. There are two stories here that were were so lovely that I was moved to tears. All I know is I'll definitely be picking up more by Johnson, hoping he can deliver a high as good as this one.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the 80's, Stephen King proclaimed, "I have seen the future of horror... and his name is Clive Barker." Well, there was some good stuff there (Books of Blood, The Inhuman Condition) but I lost interest after The Damnation Game, not that it wasn't a good book. I didn't have any money for any books other than textbooks back then. My friend Paul called him a "weenie" after he blew off a speaking engagement back in college without notice. But I digress....

I think that King was a bit premature in naming his successor. Now that 20 years have passed, he might reconsider that pronouncement and check out Jeremy Robert Johnson. Maybe he can refer to JRJ as the "next generation" of horror so that Clive can keep his title.

I found out about Angel Dust Apocalypse from Girl on Demands' blog POD-dy Mouth. She nominated it for a 2005 "Needle Award", her best-of-the-POD's award (POD stands for Print On Demand, a popular means of self-publishing for individuals and small presses). After reading her review, I checked out what others said about it on Amazon. All good. I was convinced that it was worth checking out and I was not disappointed.

ADA, published by Eraserhead Press, is an excellent collection of short stories. JRJ has an uncanny way of getting inside the heads of his characters to reveal just how screwed up they are. I'm reminded of Lovecraft, not in an imitative way like Derleth, but more evocative in that his essence seeps into the way JRJ narrates from the main character's POV. Whereas Lovecraft dealt in cyclopean horrors and things-that-should-not-be, JRJ shows us the horrors of pharmacopeia, biotech, and neurological damage. He brings us inside the minds of these damaged (well, most of them were) individuals and show us, quite rationally, the method to their madness.

The opening story, "The League of Zeroes", extrapolates a future where body piercing and cosmetic surgery come together to make your daughter's eyebrow piercing seem quaint.

"Dissociative Skills" redefines "self-discovery" with the help of Special K and a scalpel.

"Working At Home" makes you wonder what's really going on in those biotech companies. Squeamish readers will wish JRJ hadn't thought about it. It reminded me of a certain King short stor about worms from space, though JRJ's are genetically engineered.

Nuclear holocaust is visited in the hauntingly beautiful "Snowfall", the darkly humorous "The Sharp Dressed Man at the End of the Line," and the literary "Last Thoughts Drifting Down."

The book ends with "Wall of Sound", a trio of ill-fated drug tales where the main characters push the limits of drug exposure. JRJ doesn't glorify their experiences. He straps us in to their minds as we ride rollercoasters of synaptic overload. He may not be preaching "Just Say No, Kiddies", but anyone reading these tales of rave drug use gone bad will reconsider popping that pill or placing that tab on their tongue.

I'm purposely leaving out many other good stories (like "Luminary") so that I don't spoil it any further for you. He's good! If you like horror, or even bizarre fiction, you should check him out.

[Hakim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really am stoked. I am stoked because I have been reading quite a few horror books lately and none of those books really caught my fancy, be they novels, novellas or short story collections.
Jeremy Robert Johnson's Angel Dust Apocalypse is truly stunning, dark, weird, grotesque and very funny. I am stoked because he's only getting started.
This is a book that made me feel like savouring it by the words it discloses. Which I did.


The League Of Zeroes - ***** - A great gross-out opener for the collection. Could be visionary. Wait and see.

Dissociative Skills - ***** - Loved it. Intense and freaky.

Amniotic Shock In The Last Sacred Place - *** - I for one think this story really belongs in the bizarro genre as opposed to some others. There is an interesting avant-garde vibe to it.

Precedents - ** - Not a big fan of the Memento/Irreversible style setup. I thought the outcome was expectable and the story overall uninteresting.

Stanley's Lips - ***** - Totally relatable thus genuinely scary.

Snowfall - ***** - Hands down my favorite. I particularly found the descriptions stellar, beautiful in a very dark way. Very clever writing that was reminiscent of Stephen King, Night Shift era.

Ex-Hale - ***** - Funniest piece of the collection.

Working At Home - ***** - It really made me cringe. I love that.

Priapism - ***** - Great (and very sick) twist. Love that as well.

Luminary - ***** - This is the kind of story that I love the most. Heartbreaking, bizarre and beautiful piece about brotherly love.

Saturn's Game - ***** - "C'mon, you know you've had bad thoughts like this guy". Most definitely Mr. Johnson. Call me psycho but I definitely have.

Branded ***** - Branded made me feel very uncomfortable. What an awkward (and short) read!

The Sharp Dressed Man At The End Of The Line - ***** - Can't wait to read Extinction journals.

Two Cages, One Moon - **** - Stuff like that happens everywhere. Shivers down my spine.

Sparklers Burning - ***** - Weirded me out hardcore. I loved the 'Videodrome' reference.

Last Thoughts Drifting Down - ***** - The first adjective that comes to mind is : Fascinating. I am fascinated by the imaginative skills of Jeremy Robert Johnson.

Swimming In The House Of The Sea - ***** - A real tear-jerker.

Wall Of Sound: A Movement In Three Parts - **** - Who doesn't like good ill-fated drug tales? The trio is a good closer too. When it comes to drug use; two key words; moderate and calibrate.

I am happy to have come across such a talented and exciting writer. Next on the list : We Live Inside You and Extinction Journals!!

[Brett Starr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Electricity sparkled across the surface of his blackened flesh like so much glitter....

"Angel Dust Apocalypse" is quite possibly one of the best unusual/weird/creepy/hypnotic books of short stories out there!

At the beginning of the book, JRJ says a nice thank you to several authors including, Chuck Palahniuk, Stephen King, Clive Barker and Irvine Welsh for being his inspiration! His short stories show that he is a fan of all those outstanding writers!

There is even a blurb on the back of the book, with Chuck Palahniuk calling "Angel Dust Apocalypse", seriously amazing short stories!

"Angel Dust Apocalypse" is eighteen short stories in all! Out of the eighteen stories, there were maybe four that I didn't rave about to my friends the next day! The stories aren't just catchy and unique, the stories are written incredibly well!

The stories topics range from drug use, body modifications, hallucinations, horror, super powers, the end of the world to everyday life!

My personal favorites were:

Dissociative Skills
Saturn's Game
Snowfall
Working at Home
Luminary
Last Thoughts Drifting Down

The stories Luminary & Working at Home were so good, if they were in a Stephen King book of short stories, you would never know the difference!

I think Jeremy Robert Johnson is just getting started, do yourself a favor and read this book soon, someday this guy is going to be hugely famous! People always say in their reviews that they liked the book so much, they are going to give a copy to a friend, well for once, I might just do that!

Highly, highly recommended!

[Tabitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where do I even begin? By talking at length about other books of course...
Okay, so in the last year or so I had an attack of "I need to read some grown up, modern books so they don't revoke my intelligent-adult membership card." So I picked up a few books that had been highly recommended, but still seemed like something I'd actually want to read. Fast forward to me reading the Tenth of December. It was good, right? Like it was supposed to be (tons of famous people speaking in cover blurbs can't be wrong, right?), some clever story telling tactics and some pretty interesting and unapologetic abuse of the characters involved, and all very human and believable. But I felt like I'd failed. I didn't enjoy it as much as I was supposed to, I struggled to finish it, and I was not very much effected by the stories outside of the time I spent actually reading them.
Now with that said, this... THIS! Holy shit. Reading the stories in ADA gave me that 'wow I'm reading something amazing and fresh and smart and its going to stay with me' feeling I'd missed in some of these other books. Fantastic story telling, vicious plots and it was all so original and unique I was completely entranced. A couple stories I immediately re-read because I had to make sure I had really read what I thought I had. So maybe I still sort of failed at the mainstream grown up book club, but hot damn, I'll take that 'I just read something and it burrowed in my brain and built a nest' feeling where ever I find it.
It makes me want to read everything Jeremy Robert Johnson has to offer.

[Jamie Whitman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this as a gift for a friend and had the opportunity to read it myself before handing it over. I figured he might like some bizarro horror. But I can't tell if this book is a little too weird for his tastes, or a little too normal. The problem is the stories vary so much. It's hard to do a review on the entire book.

If all the stories had continued in the same vein as the first one I think I would have REALLY liked this book. The League of Zeroes sets the tone for some kind of cyberpunk future where everybody competes to have the most innovative body modifications. A few of the other stories touch upon the same topic, but not in the same way. League of Zeroes is still probably my favorite.

I also enjoyed Luminary, Snowfall, and The Sharp Dressed Man At the End of the Line. Swimming in the House of the Sea was the only one that seemed out of place. But the author's notes do a good job of explaining why each story was included. (If you can remember to flip to the back and read them all.)

There were only a few moments that were a little too much for me to handle, but that's only because
1) I really really really do not like parasites,
and 2) injury to hands kind of freaks me out about the safety of my own hands until I can force my brain to think about something else. There are at least 3 instances of bleeding hands that I can remember.
But that's honestly pretty tame compared to the some of the freakier body-horrors in this book. Anyway, I hope my friend likes it.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars.

Dissociative Skills, Precedents, Luminary, Saturn's Game, and Swimming in the House of the Sea were all worth the short time it took to read. I would happily recommend these stories to anyone slightly interested in this book. Amniotic Shock in the Last Sacred Place, Stanley's Lips, Ex-Hale, Priapism, Branded, Sparklers Burning, Last Thoughts Drifting Down, and Wall of Sound: A Movement in Three Parts I disliked, completely, for a variety of reasons, the main one being the amateurish writing. The rest of the book I now feel indifferent towards. Do not expect a solid collection. If you enjoy stories with high gross out factor and zero point then you will probably enjoy this much more than I did.

P.S., I must mention that the ideas in this book were incredibly promising and creative.

[scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story collection opens with a pair of tales ("The League of Zeroes" and "Dissociative Skills") which made me uncomfortable much like Chucky P's "Guts" chapter in Haunted did (especially the latter). That immediately earned my respect, as I'm far from squeamish. From there, JRJ conducts us through stories of medical experiments, nuclear winters, murderers, misfits, and drug (ab)use, all written compellingly, expertly, with dark humor rippling throughout.

The biggest compliment I can give this book is it's inspired me to write a few things. The pen and I are working together again.

My personal favorites were "Luminary", "Saturn's Game", and book-closer "Wall of Sound: A Movement in Three Parts".

Now I need the rest of his books...

[Braden A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book, the terrible reader that I am.

Normally I am adamently against not finishing a book, especially something like this which is really not very long.

But man oh man, the writing is terrible, the ideas are adolescent, and it's just not good.

"Snowfall" is the book's one saving grace, a short story with some good imagery and a sombre twist of an ending, but even here the writing is very amateurish.

I need to find a book I can actually finish!

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bet he likes Cronenberg movies.

[Macabre Goblin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The synopsis of this book promised me everything I've been wanting to read lately...but the stories didn't deliver. Some of the stories satisfied me, whether because of their jarring imagery or the way the author imagines the culmination of present societal pressures and problems. Mostly, however, these short stories failed to pay off. I like what the author is doing and will definitely be trying his new book, but this one will be divested in my next unhaul.

[X-ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neo-realist dribble with a slap-dash Punk rock paint coat. These stories aim to shock-- that isn't novel with me anymore. Whats left is a group of hit and miss stories. There are some good ones, shades of Cronenberg's films, or neat premises. But just as many fail as succeed.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging and a lot of fun, plenty brutal and a touch gory. A fascinating collection that well defines anti-apocalyptic downfall of civilization, only to come roaring into post-apoc with a story about a cockroach suit and falling bombs.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Great collection of short stories. Love the title & front cover art work.

I really hope a lil kid does not get a hold of this book, i feel bad for teachers & parents when he starts bitting peoples noses off & asking for MDMA in his juice boxes.

READ THIS!!

[Jade Lopert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author. I love this book. It's a collection of short stories that have an overwhelming theme of *yeah you guessed it* the apocalypse. Absolutely haunting and disturbing and beautiful.

[Kurt Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Psychedelic, surreal, inventively insane!