They Had Goat Heads by D. Harlan Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book Info: Genre: Bizarro/Short-story anthology
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of bizarro fiction, surreality
My Thoughts: I can't remember exactly how this book came to my notice, but once I saw it, I knew I had to have it. I was very happy to find it on a free promotion on Amazon and put it into my review queue so I could read it sooner. It has still taken me well over a year to read it.
It's very difficult to review short-story anthologies, because there is no plot or character development arc to discuss. Often I'll make a listing of the stories and provide a snippet, but not this time. There is just no way to explain any of these stories other than with a single word: surreal.
There may have been deep meanings to some of these stories if examined with an eye to symbolism, but to me they were mostly weird and surreal. This is not a bad thing. In fact, this is exactly the sort of stuff I used to write during writing sprints and as random idea generation. Some of these seem like maybe they are just dreams the author wrote down. I don't know. But I enjoyed the heck out of reading this book. If you like bizarro fiction and surrealism, definitely check out this book of short stories.
Disclosure: I picked this book up during a free promotion on Amazon. I have never, to my knowledge, had any interaction with this author. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: D. Harlan Wilson returns with another ferociously mindbending collection of short fiction. Masked in absurdity, these stories reveal the horrifying and hilarious faces of everyday life. Wilson tells of egg raids, hog rippers, monk spitters, fathers who take their children to pet stores to buy them whales, sociopaths who threaten to clothesline eternity, and the simple act of the story itself becoming a means of repetitive, endless torture. Put on your goat head, hop in your hovercraft, and take a ride with a juggernaut of modern imaginative fiction.
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