Separating You: A Self-Help Book for the Lost, Lonely, and Psychotically Obsessed

This deeply twisted but oddly charming horror novel from John Shupeck Jr. (Us), writing as serial killer psychologist Carson, satirizes self-help books as it invites readers to follow in the narrator’s dark path toward sociopathy. Berating the reader all the while, Carson rambles his way through his personal history—or, as he sees it, his path from being a “victim” to becoming a “hero”—while offering up macabre, gruesome instructions for becoming a better killer. Carson asks the reader to engage in a series of thought experiments: imagining themselves bound, figuring out how best to break into a house, and choosing between death and dismemberment, to name a few. He also offers “practical” advice, encouraging readers to keep rotten eggs in their homes to gain better control over their gag reflexes. The blunt, candid tone tempers the over-the-top gore and adds much needed humor to this horrific manifesto that would otherwise ring a bit too true to some of the tirades found on more disturbing areas of the internet. Though not for the faint of heart, this psychological portrait is as entertaining as it is disturbing. (Apr.)