I lived in Grand Rapids for several years. In fact, I found out that if I had stayed there, my children would have attended the same high school as D. Harlan Wilson. Does this scare me? No, I’m pretty sure the schools in that particular area of Grand Rapids are not responsible for turning your average kid into a writer of disturbing and bizarre fiction. D. Harlan Wilson must have been a special kind of special. BLANKETY BLANK: A NOVEL OF VULGARIA is my current favorite book. I’d read THEY ALL HAD GOAT HEADS, so I thought I kind of knew what to expect from Wilson’s novel, but, no, this was way better. The story centers around a suburban family man by the name of Rutger Van Trout (playing on Michigan’s Dutch heritage), who lives in a McMansion in Grand Rapids, surrounded by other McMansions. Well, he has an incredible urge to differentiate himself from the herd. Craziness involving skeletons, lycanthropia, and sausages ensues. The really disturbing part, though, involves the strangest serial killer I’ve ever read about.
And I look for him standing in my front yard at night and watch over my shoulder when I go out running!
Watch out for BLANKETY BLANK!
Want to read it? Yeah, you know you do. You can get it from Raw Dog Screaming Press. All the cool kids are reading it.
Thank you, D. Harlan Wilson, for a hilariously disturbing read!
