Tacky Goblin

Steele’s deliciously bizarre debut is a dream, a nightmare, and a carnival ride— a wacky, heartfelt trip through a young man’s struggle to digest early adulthood. The unnamed 23-year-old narrator experiences psychosomatic anxiety from his impending move from Chicago to L.A. with his sister, Kim, and often drifts into a creepy, surreal world where ceiling mold can speak, time is flexible, and an infant and a puppy can share a conflated identity. Whether taken as flights of fancy, metaphors for the strangeness of life, or literal occurrences, these imaginative turns create an irresistible world for the reader to explore. One may wonder whether a hole in the narrator’s belly is literal or symbolic, but either way, this forces the reader to ask what causes feelings of emptiness. Between a relationship with his drug-addicted neighbor, Laurie, and a haunted apartment, the narrator faces typical 20-something problems with a unique sense of humor and a perpetual feeling of unrest. These sensations work together to make something new, a display of worry and angst as pleasant to read as they would be unpleasant to experience. This novel seamlessly blends the real with the fantastic to portray a young mind in turmoil. (July)