I know every time I post one of these, I say “I read some great books this _____” but this spring takes the prize. It had some of the best bizarre books I’ve read this year. Normally, I rank them from 1 to 5. But these first three books tied for first, all spectacular. I definitely recommend checking every one of them out.
Note: These are books I read in Spring 2019, not necessarily books that came out then.
GIRL LIKE A BOMB by Autumn Christian
Written by the queen of the unexpected metaphor and self-described “philosopher thot,” it is the story of a woman who can change lives through the act of intercourse. Even prudish old me thoroughly enjoyed this tale—not only for Christian’s amazing writing, but also for an incredible story that takes turns impossible to guess.
FUCK HAPPINESS by Kirk Jones
I love stories where reality is bent to a ridiculous degree. Jones’s novella delivers on this and then some. It might be the most cerebral book on this list and had me transfixed to the end. It is truly literary bizarro. For more, visit my review.
BEDFELLOW by Jeremy C. Shipp
I’ve tepidly enjoyed Shipp’s work in the past, but this novel is a masterpiece of horror and the bizarre. “Fun” is the keyword here. You’ll laugh and smile your way through it, while at the same time being sucked in by the terrifying gymnastics your mind must perform to realize the haunting truth.
THE MORTUARY MONSTER by Andrew J. Stone
Stone gives us a disturbing and darkly comic tale of Gonzalo who has spent his entire life in a cemetery with his tyrannical family and the sentient corpses that inhabit it. But deeper in, we find a profound story on parenthood, a parable on how the sins of the father fall on the son. It made me appreciate Andrew Stone even more.
DIE YOU DOUGHNUT BASTARDS by Cameron Pierce
I found this collection by perennial bizarro author Cameron Pierce to be hit and miss. But when it hits, it hits hard. While the titular story had me unimpressed (despite its title), there are some spectacular stories, which easily earned it its place on the list. Be prepared to laugh, retch, and be totally freaked out.
Tchau,
Zé
Zé Burns | Blog 
Hey Zé,
If you haven’t already, you might try contacting the publishers of your favorite bizarro fiction and see if they’d send you what are called advance reader copies (ARCs) of new books in the genre. ARCs, which are books in the final stage of editing, are designed to give reviewers a look at a book before its publication. I see that one of these five is self-published (through Createspace, which is Amazon) and others appear to be from very small (possibly one-person) presses, but well-established houses such as Tor are also represented. Send them links to posts such as this, and your author interviews, and maybe they’ll see that you’re doing a quality blog and put you on their ARC mailing list. You acknowledge that these are not necessarily new books. It might be fun if you could review new books — the week BEFORE they hit Amazon.
Brian
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That’s a great idea. Thanks!
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