Weirder than weird

This Town Needs a Monster

Andersen Prunty

Grindhouse Press

May 16, 2017

4 out of 5 stars

When super weird author Lance Carbuncle says a writer are weirder than he is. You gotta pay attention!

In Andersen Prunty"s very weird and borderline pornographic / erotic horror work, we find unambitious in-a-rut 40ish Brad Renfield (interesting last name reference by the way) talking to his often suicidal and only friend Travis, both residents of Gethsemane, Ohio. Remind me never to go there. In a early flashback, they are discussing a rash of suicides that happened in Gethsemane decades ago. It woke the town up but afterwards the residents went back to their dull sometime hateful routine to which Travis responds, "This town needs a monster".

In This Town Needs a Monster, Brad finds one is a beautiful young sociopathic girl named Dawn. Brad is quickly trapped in a world of violence and sexual deviancy that is above anything he ever imagine. He even tries to leave but Dawn's hold goes beyond blackmail. There is a dark hold she has on him and that is what ignites the story.

I'm not sure how to put this. The novel has levels of extreme violence and sex that even shocks me and that is saying a lot. It is also quite strange since Prunty's last novel, Squirm With Me was a more subtle work that was surprising in its quiet mundane style. This new novel is a step back into Andersen's more horrific works. But a regular theme youfind in many of his books is the older person who is snatched out of his aimless life into something that is both horrifying and exhilarating. It leads one to wonder if the real monster is the horror of the unfathomable or the aimless meaningless regular life.

In some ways, the violence and brutal sex is too much. I think he did it better in Sociopaths in Love and I sort of miss the quiet mundane horror of Squirm with Me which brought it closer to what we see as reality. But there is no one who writes like Andersen Prunty and it is impossible to maintain a neutral stance when bombarded by this new novel. I wouldn't necessarily make this my first Prunty read but those who know what to expect from him should definitely dive into the muck.