Abortion Arcade is a collection of three novellas by one of the shining young stars of bizarro fiction. Cameron Pierce's work is an intoxicating blend of body horror and midnight movie madness, reminiscent of early David Lynch and the splatterpunks at their most sublime. His fiction will punch you in the brain and leave you gasping for more.
Featuring:
NO CHILDREN The apocalypse is over. Now zombies farm humans for their brains. As the imprisoned human cattle drift further from their humanity, the zombies flourish in a primitive renaissance, flying around in helicopters and living in smart houses made of human brains.
THE ROADKILL QUARTERBACK OF HEAVY METAL HIGH After Heavy Metal High's star quarterback dies in a car accident, Danny the Dio-worshipping werewolf must transform from loser to gridiron star in this surreal pulp tragedy about teenage anxiety, high school violence, and heavy fucking metal.
THE DESTROYED ROOM In a near-future city where automobiles have been outlawed and exotic animals roam the streets, a man wakes up one morning to discover that everyone in the world is a marionette. Now his wife is dead and he must find the answer, or else lose everything to the Great Shark Head in the Sky.
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"Before he goes gently into that weird night by spontaneously combusting, Pierce seems hellbent on writing his fill of Bizarro lit. His tales include many standard tropes, like pickles and pancakes falling in love, or ass-shaped goblins who abduct children for slave labor and eating, or flying Biblical sharks. It's a scene." - CRACKED.COM
"Uninitiated readers who have yet to experience this author's distinctive verbal prose should get ready for the mind fuck of their life, and even die-hard fans of Cameron Pierce's weird tales will be blown away by these latest writings." - 10K BULLETS
"Pierce gives us three very different novellas about a world where zombies have taken over, a werewolf strives to become a football star, and one where a man awakens to find that everything and everyone has become marionettes. All the stories are well-written with quick paces, fantastic characters, head-scratching plots, and all have deeper meanings underneath the bizarre surface." - ANYTHING HORROR
"Dr. Seuss meets David Cronenberg." - CARLTON MELLICK III, author of Apeshit and Satan Burger
"A really good blend of funny, sad, and weird." - SAM PINK, author of Person
"Abortion Arcade is a book of three stories united by a focus on the importance of love in an uncaring world. It is also the most literally nightmarish book I have ever read." - PONCHO PELIGROSO, author of The Romantic
"The Destroyed Room is a dreamlike masterpiece akin to Lynch's Eraserhead and just as full of terror, wonder and suffering. It might be the best thing Pierce has written." - GARRETT COOK, author of Jimmy Plush, Teddy Bear Detective
Cameron Pierce is the Wonderland Book Award-winning author of Die You Doughnut Bastards, Lost in Cat Brain Land, Ass Goblins of Auschwitz, The Pickled Apocalypse of Pancake Island, and other books. He writes surreal nightmares that are funny, sad, sincere, and violent. His books have been praised by New York Times bestselling authors Piers Anthony and Thomas F. Monteleone, legendary cult filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman, The Guardian, Cracked.com, and New Times.
He is the editor of Amazing Stories of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction #5. He also runs Lazy Fascist Press, publishing books by indie cult sensation Sam Pink, World Fantasy Award-winner Alan M. Clark, and books like Broken Piano for President by Patrick Wensink, which became an international bestseller.
His fiction and poetry has appeared in The Barcelona Review, The Bizarro Starter Kit (Purple), The Nervous Breakdown, The Pedestal Magazine, Word Riot, Verbicide, Avant-Garde for the New Millennium, Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens, The Dream People, Christmas on Crack, Nemonymous 10, Warmed and Bound, Nouns of Assemblage, Kill Author, Thieves Jargon, Bare Bone, The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, The Horror Library Vol. II, Sein und Werden, and many other publications.
Cameron lives in a tiny cottage in Portland, Oregon with his wife, author Kirsten Alene.
The defining mark of Bizarro is its level of weird. Some stories have an element of whimsy and fun, others more thought-provoking, and still others emotionally gripping. Cameron Pierce seamlessly brings together all of these elements in his collection "Abortion Arcade".
Composed of three novellas, "Abortion Arcade" showcases Pierce's talent through different lenses. With "No Children" we see a bit of social criticism in the form of a unique zombie story. "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High" is just plain weird and fun. Lastly "The Destroyed Room" is a heart-rending tale of love lost and the confusion that follows.
All three tales are well written examples of the best that Bizarro can offer. The above statements are just the main impressions. Each shares thematic elements with the others, just in different amounts. Think of "Abortion Arcade" as the literary equivalent of Iron Chef. There is a core ingredient, used in different ways to create a surprisingly pleasant three-course meal.
In the final analysis, you can't go wrong with this collection. It is reminiscent of the early Bizarros, while proudly showing a strong individual voice of its own. Cameron Pierce does not disappoint.
Abortion Arcade is probably Cameron Pierce's best work to date. The three novellas in this collection are all great reads in their own way, yet all hold the common theme of relationships (actually, this is a common theme throughout most of Pierce's work).
No Children, the first novella, is the most thickly textured. There are many elements to this story, big and small, that allow it to flow like a surreal movie in your head. Large towers jutting from a muddy human farm, human breast suction cups, brains used for building human-shaped home. Oh, and there are zombies that fly helicopters. How sick is that?
Moving on to The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High. This was the weakest in the collection, but it was still a fun read with quite a few comical moments. Teen angst stories aren't usually very enjoyable, but teen angst with a werewolf and a talking chainsaw? Original. Add in a bunch of classic heavy metal? Original and smart.
Finally, the shining jewel of the collection. The Destroyed Room is not only the strongest story in this book, but my favorite Pierce story yet. This one tugs at the heart strings, with a man suffering from the simultaneous death of his love and the discovery of his lack of free will. Only, in Pierce fashion, with a rotting shark head in the sky.
I realize I didn't reveal much that wasn't in the product description, but I want to convey how this book drips with emotion and seriously needs to be read to get the grand effect. For fans of Pierce's other work, Carlton Mellick's The Haunted Vagina or bizarre romance stories.
All right first off this book has three novella's in it and each of them is a self-contained story and each of them are truly amazing representatives of Cameron Pierce and his shockingly vivid voice. I loved this book.
The first story is called "No Children" and we find ourselves following the life of a young man stuck in a camp of humans who have all been forced into cannibalism by their zombie overlords. Yeah overlords. This story hit me completely out of left field and have honestly read hundred of zombie books and stories at this point but this one truly found an angle that no one I have ever read has found before. "The old, you have to eat the remains of the living once the zombies have eaten their brains angle." That's it that's the ticket. This poor guy is chosen to sleep with his own mother by the zombies who don't care how sick that is. There is a tower where the new couple has to conjugate the verb, if you know what I mean, and the zombies lock them in there the man I am led to understand is typically killed and his brains are eaten after this fun event and the woman is hopefully knocked up and pregnant with a new generation of children for the zombies to feed on.
Honestly, I have to applaud this entire story, this is brilliant. I love it in each and every detail, right down to the escape plan and the unforgettable suction-cups.
The second story is called "The Roadkill Quarterback of Heavy Metal High" and it is about a backup quarterback, werewolf, virgin who is down in the dumps because other than Ronnie James Dio, life is pretty much crapping on him all day long. I truly cannot give away anymore than that but trust me this is a hilarious twist on the typical teen angst plot that could have went one way but instantly slants down Bizarro - lane and never makes it back to where you think it is going to go and instead launches you into the stratosphere of weird.
I loved it.
Also the announcer of the football game is my fricking hero, I love him.
The third and final story is called "The Destroyed Room"
The Destroyed Room, starts off with a woman drunk and out for a ride on her bike with her husband. A sloth falls from a tree and she wrecks into it. After that... Things get really weird.
This is another story where you start off thinking oh, I think I see where this is going. You could not be more wrong.
You have no clue where it is going and you honestly may as well not even try to guess. This story blew my mind.
I loved it but I am afraid to say anything more about because I truly don't want to give it away.
Okay.
All in all You really need to read this book.
It is fantastic.
and...
You will love it.
Thank you so much Cameron Pierce, I love this book so very much and I truly will heave it at the head of the next droning moron who tells me there is nothing original left to be done with zombies.
Thanks.
T. Patrick Rooney
(Author of Bakemono, in the upcoming Bizarro-Horrorr book "Technicolor Tentacles")
