Skullcrack City

I am not a fan of the term 'bizarro fiction'. Perhaps authors like it. Maybe there are people out there who gravitate towards that because they dye their hair purple and live on the edge. To me, it seems somewhat insulting. As if there is an expected level of imagination in any work of fiction, and if you go beyond that mysterious set limit, then look out! You're entering bizarro country! Things are going to be whacky!

Somedays, I just fucking despair.

Skullcrack City has been labelled bizarro. If there is an imagination governor out there, then this book exceeds it. But I would simply call it a horror novel, and leave it there.

The novel tells the story of a drug addicted bank worker S.P. Doyle, who finds himself discovering a conspiracy that he feels compelled to bring down. Forever masturbating and worrying about his turtle, he takes very drastic, career altering,  actions towards this end. As things become even more strange and more horrifying, Doyle finds out that there are far more evil things lurking in the world than simple conspiracy.

Johnson creates a world that seems just a bit removed from our own. This is a world where people are fascinated with reality shows about horrific body modifications, and where government surveillance is just a bit more crushing than in our own. There are also giant gorilla like creatures that like to eat people's brains after cracking open their skulls. So, you know, a bit different, but not by much.

I found the first bit of the novel to be a little too pedal to the medal crazy. It makes sense since the protagonist is blasted to the gills on Hex, the evil drug at the centre of this story, and we're seeing things from his perspective, but I was beginning to wonder if this meant the author could just go off the rails without somehow tying things together at some point.

Fortunately, Johnson does, and the story settles down into a far less frantic--but no less horrifying--story about secret organizations and unbelievable evil. I don't want to sketch out everything that happens, but the second half of the novel puts the first into far more a far more comprehensible light.

I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but it at least makes about as much sense as the rest of the novel. Which isn't a criticism--Johnson takes great pains to explain how things work in this world, and the ending is just as well planned. I'm just not sure it's the ending that I wanted to see.

Skullcrack City is the work of a mind that isn't afraid to take an imaginative leap off any preconceived tower. It's also a work that isn't being weird just to be weird: there is a story here, and there are characters to care about, including the aforementioned turtle. Who, I will say, is my favourite character so far in 2019, bizarro or not.