Look, most of us are here for the same reason—to share our writing and get others to read it. But as anyone knows, trying to sell books can be one of the most frustrating experiences for any writer. You have to convince people, often one person at a time, that your book is worth digging out their credit cards for. Not only that, but that they should take time out of their day to read your book rather than any of the other books that have ever been published in the history of the world! You are competing with all of them, really. Goethe, Dostoyevsky, Miller, Bukowski, Homer, the Bible. Why should someone pick up your book as opposed to one of theirs? In my own case, most of my book sales have resulted from one-on-one interactions either online or out in the world. But I did decide one thing, and that was to apply the golden rule, and treat other indie authors on here like I wanted to be treated.

So, I took a chance on some of their books! I bought them, read them, and then reviewed them either on amazon or substack notes. I don’t really consider myself a book reviewer so I didn’t write any big thousand or two-thousand word pieces on any, but I did blurb them in an effort to get the authors some attention.

I’ll tell you one thing that really surprised me about this project—the sheer amount of talent these writers possess was almost overwhelming. These are writers that are either self-published or published with tiny presses such as the one that published my book. And what a treat they were! So I wanted to take a moment to shout out the substack authors I have read thus far.

I do intend to read others, but all summer I have been neglecting every other book on my stack in order to focus independent substack writers. Now I plan to get back to my previously scheduled programming, at least for a bit.

But here are some of the incredible novels I have picked up by substack authors, in the order that I read them. For each book I have copy and pasted the synopsis from wherever I found the book and then added my brief review below.

Enjoy, and if they sound good to you, toss some money their way. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.

Children Chasing Tigers by Facundo Rompehuevos

“Meth, acid, vodka, psychosis, activism… Nicolas Cage… a tiger. Set in the 1990s and early 2000s, Children Chasing Tigers is a story about all that somehow. It’s about death, madness and survival. To open this book is to give consent. But after that, there’s no turning back. You are forced to join a group of young rocker foos from the slums of the San Fernando Valley as they struggle to escape violence, abuse and death, while they (and maybe you too) go insane along the way. So put on some 90s grindcore or crust, brace yourself and good luck.”

Reads like a shotgun blast to the face!

In the vein of Penelope Spheeris’ “The Decline of Western Civilization,” Donna Gaines’ “Teenage Wasteland” and Larry Clark’s “Wassup Rockers,” “Children Chasing Tigers" tells the story of a group of rocker kids living in the San Fernando Valley in the late 90s and early 2000s and the wild, larger-than-life, occasionally nihilistic constructs they built for themselves to live out their lives on their own terms. The author does a decent job of interjecting his own god's eye view of the events as they unfold, sometimes taking a few steps back to editorialize, providing the novel with the kind of narrative tone more common in non-fiction, which I'm sure much of this is based on real-life experience. One thing a little unique is that the story didn't really have a protagonist, per se, which is rare. Rather, the protagonist, if it can even be called that, was the subculture itself--subculture AS character, with all its conflicts and resolutions along the way. The bit on killing Nicolas Cage was a real treat. I think anyone who lived through the era depicted in this book will find a lot to reminisce about.

American Freaks by Michael Mohr

“In the vein of Denis Johnson, Raymond Carver, Jack Kerouac and Ottessa Moshfegh, Michael Mohr offers 21 gritty, raw, honest stories covering his drinking years (mostly) in the form of (mostly) autobiographical fiction which cover everything from hitchhiking across America to a clash with Hell’s Angels to being kidnapped during an alcoholic blackout in Mexico to shooting guns while high on LSD. Always searching for the deeper meaning in these sordid adventures, Mohr keeps you entertained, astonished and, often, shocked.”

Manufactured Nostalgia

It's often spoken how important it is for a writer to write their truth. But what if the writer does not like his own truth, and instead wishes to have been born with a different set of circumstances? That is the question that this book seems to be asking throughout, or at least it's the question I was left with. On a sentence level, Mohr is a very good writer and each story is hard to put down. Thematically, it is just as rich. Mohr makes no effort to hide the fact that he was born into privilege, and how uncomfortable this makes him. So much so that rather than wanting to forge forward in the life his mother and father have set him up for, he wants to instead blaze a different path. Here his self-awareness is crystal clear, and refreshing. Because in trying to blaze his own path he is actually following in the footsteps of his idols. He wears his influences on his sleeve--Kerouac, Denis Johnson, Hemingway--they are all reflected in these stories. Yet while his inspirations were trailblazers who seemed to be living authentically, or at least told themselves they were, and their mythology grew around that authenticity, Mohr's characters are not living authentically at all--they are instead trying to replicate the lives of their influences and idols. And this is what sets Mohr's book apart from other similar books--the fact that he is aware of this is very powerful.

The stories also pack a real emotional punch. There is something so bitter sweet about them, especially the more autobiographical ones where he is reflecting on his childhood and his mother and father. There seems to be something so sad about the passage of time itself--that things move on and change and that once they do you'll never get them back again.

An excellent collection -- raw and unfiltered.

Hell or Hangover by Alex Muka

“Lou Kennedy wants out. Though he doesn’t admit this to anyone, and barely admits it to himself, there has to be a reason to stop the debauchery of his current life, he just hasn’t found it yet. That is until a drunken night out in New York City leads him to Marissa, the girl who just might inspire him to clean up his act. She’s a Spanish spark unlike any woman he’s ever met. But there’s a problem. At some point late in the night Lou’s bad habits get the better of him. He blacks out and wakes up in his ex-girlfriend’s bed with no recollection of how he got there and no evidence Marissa ever existed. No phone number. No photos. After furious online searching he can’t even find an Instagram handle.

Desperate, irrational, and questioning if the Marissa he met is real, Lou seeks out his mother’s Babalawo who says he has five days to find Marissa or he will lose her forever. In a bibulous jaunt through the streets of Hoboken and Manhattan, where family, friends, addiction, old flames, the spiritual, and the superstitious all play a part in hunting down the beautiful apparition that just might change Lou’s life forever, he faces a choice — find Marissa or succumb to a life of depravity, enroute to the brink of insanity.”

A drunken, psychotic, half-remembered fever dream

With shades of Jay McInerney, Martin Amis, David Mitchell and Doug Limon (Swingers), HELL OR HANGOVER is a harrowing read. Sort of like psychedelics, it may be difficult to describe to someone who's never lived through the constant, seemingly never-ending cycle of drunkenness, hangover and despair that is at the core of of the protagonist's existence. It really does read like a fever dream--a hedonist's descent into utter madness and insanity, the surrealism of never quite grasping where one is, what one is doing, or supposed to be doing. It is the story of a singular journey with one goal in mind, and it's a simple goal--find the girl. Yet what starts as a drunken romp and random encounter slowly and assuredly blooms with a gracefully earned depth of character that, while occasionally maudlin and sentimental, is fully satisfactory. A really enjoyable read, and even more remarkable being aware of the winding journey it took towards publication. A journey not unlike that of, maybe, Lou Kennedy.

The Wayback Machine by Daniel Falatko

“Nathan thought he'd hit his lowest point when he landed in a federal penitentiary on drug trafficking charges. Back in NYC and living in his dead friend's apartment, he's at risk of descending even further. But as an aging former blogger and internet-famous music critic of the 2000s, Nathan has one thing going for him: a story to sell. And he's on the hunt for the highest bidder from a new media wasteland of podcasts and YouTube channels. It's a story that threatens to bring down his former employer, BAD HABITS Magazine, now risen from the ashes of pre-gentrified Brooklyn's hipster utopia to become a mainstream media titan.

What unfolds is a surreal cat-and-mouse game spiraling from the cold, dead heart of gentrified Williamsburg to the tent-colony-strewn streets of Westside LA. Zoomer podcast hosts, canceled media men, forgotten aughties indie artists, rockabilly Airbnb owners, and assassins in Jack White masks dot the landscape as Nathan races to promote his tale, while the media apparatus pulls out all the stops to kill the story-and perhaps Nathan himself.”

A sinuous journey through the slipstream…all aboard the wayback machine

What to say about a novel like this? Only rarely does one emerge so tuned into the cultural zeitgeist of its era that you almost feel as though the author is a little insane. For it really does come across as a novel of obsession, written by an obsessive. It is brilliant. Hard to put down. Utterly strange and fantastical. It reads almost like science fiction, despite taking place quite obviously in our world. That which is familiar is made to seem strange and unfamiliar. A real early 2000s time capsule that yet seems to exist on another timeline entirely. The story involves the massive conspiracy in the early-oughts, via the manipulations of entertainment industry wannabes, that would inevitably birth the awful world we live in today...a world of streaming services and social media and corporatized music and art. It's a strange mix of J.G. Ballard and Jerry Stahl (when he's writing fiction). A literal out of control conspiracy theory of a novel. That's really the only way to describe it.

Bowery by Matthew Vaughn

“Sandra fights for survival in a strange place where women are treated like cows, kept pregnant and relentlessly milked. Her only goal is to get her and her unborn child out alive, but that's not going to be so easy. Sandra's fight for survival goes from bad to worse. Can she actually survive the bowery, or is she destined to spend the rest of her life as a human cow for a sadistic group of farmers?”

Get yourself muddy

Certainly not a book for everyone, but if you're into so-called torture porn (as I am) and don't mind a whole lot of depravity with your horror, this one could be right down your alley. Certainly on par with de Sade & Samuel R. Delaney's Hogg, it's full of all the degradation and wickedness that civilized people avoid. But if you're an uncivilized ruffian like me, you won't mind the large helping of psychosis that this book generously provides. I really don't know how else to describe it except to say it is really unlike anything. Read it and get yourself muddy.

American Pleasure by Judson Vereen

“Judson, a writer and high school dropout, is resigned to inner city bohemia and gives account of his various bouts with addiction, financial insecurity, and sexual impulse. His struggles are exacerbated when he becomes romantically entangled with the magnetic Lindsay Larson, a local budding adult film star. The author falls in love with Lindsay, just as she gains notoriety in the world of hardcore pornography, throwing him into a whirlwind of turmoil and obsession. The themes of the book range from urban vice, modern sexuality, and recovery.”

I am shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you, that this is a self-published novel. Judson Vereen is an almost supernaturally gifted writer. Not only that, but just it’s sheer amount of polish. It is so well edited that the reading experience itself is utterly seamless. Overflowing with tactile sensation, it reads like a dream, the kind of novel you really want to take your time with and live inside, floating above the city like an establishing shot then swooping down to explore the bustling streets and buildings…The dialogue…some of the best dialogue I have encountered in a long time. At first there seemed to be an abundant lack of conflict as the story follows Judson and his musings throughout San Francisco, and yet he is such an interesting character you never want to look away for even a moment for fear you might miss something vital. Then when it settles into itself and we begin to explore his relationship with a young sex worker, the conflict is almost entirely internal, within his own consciousness. For a while it’s unclear if the girl even recognizes there is a conflict, and yet, again, there is a tension in the way Judson describes his world that one is totally engrossed by it. I gotta say I am envious of his nearly flawless use of descriptive language to tell the story—his vocabulary is impressive, to put it mildly. If you want a book to really get lost in, this is it, right here.

Exciting news! I know there are some people who have qualms about ordering books from amazon, so I have added a bookstore tab to my substack where you can purchase my book directly from me! Granted, it is a tad more expensive because I have to cover my own shipping costs and I’m a one man operation. But this is an excellent way to support my work.

For now I can only ship within the continental US.

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Thanks for reading. My debut novel HELP ME I AM IN HELL is out now.