The Bad Box

For almost 20 years, Carlton Mellick III has been writing some of the strangest and most compelling novels the bizarro fiction genre has to offer. Described as one of the top 40 science-fiction writers under the age of 40 by The Guardian and "one of the most original novelists working today" by extreme horror legend Edward Lee, Mellick returns with a short novella about the horrors of childhood.Little Benny isn't very good at taking tests. It's not that he's a stupid kid or doesn't pay attention in class. It's just that he's absolutely terrified of failure. It doesn't matter how hard he studies. He gets so nervous that he freezes up and his mind goes blank, rarely even answering a single question before the time is up. This is especially difficult now that he's in Mrs. Gustafson's fifth grade class, where the punishment for failure is to draw a curse from the bad box--a magical device that permanently mutates children into horrific monsters.The Bad Box is an absurd horror story for fans of Mellick's creepy cute novellas such as Mouse Trap and Every Time We Meet at the Dairy Queen Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Carlton Mellick III"Easily the craziest, weirdest, strangest, funniest, most obscene writer in America." -- GOTHIC MAGAZINE"Carlton is an acquired taste, but he hooks you like a drug." --HUNTER SHEA, author of Forest of Shadows"The most original novelist working today? The most outrageous? The mostunpredictable? These aren't easy superlatives to make;however, CarltonMellick may well be all of those things, behind a canon of books thatall irreverently depart from the form and concepts of traditionalnovels, and adventure the reader into a howling,dark fantasy land of the most bizarre, over-the-top, and mind-warping inventiveness." --EDWARD LEE, author of Header "Carlton Mellick III is a genius with an insanely beautiful imagination." --JOE AUGUSTYN, writer of Night of the Demons"Carlton Mellick III has the craziest book titles... and the kinkiest fans!" --CHRISTOPHER MOORE, author of The Stupidest Angel"If you haven't read Mellick you're not nearly perverse enough for the twenty first century." --JACK KETCHUM, author of The Woman and The Girl Next Door"Carlton Mellick III is one of bizarro fiction's most talented practitioners, avirtuoso of the surreal, science fictional tale." --CORY DOCTOROW, author of Little Brother"I don't know what kind of deranged mind thinks up these stories, but frankly, I'm pretty jealous." --ROMAN DIRGE, author of Lenore, the Cutest Little Dead Girl"Mellick's career is impressive because, despite the fact that he puts out a fewbooks a year, he has managed to bring something new to the table everytime... Every Mellick novel is packed with more wildly original concepts than you could find in the current top ten New York Times bestsellers put together." --VERBICIDE "Mellick's guerrilla incursions combine total geek boy fandom and love withgenuine, unbridled outsider madness. As such, it borders on genius, inthe way only true outsider art can." --FANGORIA"Bizarre, twisted, and emotionally raw--Carlton Mellick's fiction is the literary equivalent of putting your brain in a blender." --BRIAN KEENE, author of The Rising and Dead Sea"I'm a huuuuge Bizarro fan. This new strain of cheerfully transgressiveweird fiction is to me the most vibrant, exciting, genre-mangling scenein all of strange literature today. And no one holds dominion over thisblossoming underground phenomenon like the godfather of Bizarro, Carlton Mellick III. With the most impressive sideburns in imaginative litsince Isaac Asimov, and a brain that squirts out more shamelesslyplayful originality in any given chapter than most artists willaccomplish in their entire lives, he's the poster boy. The Elvis. Aswell he should be." --JOHN SKIPP, co-author of The Bridge"It's not unusual to blow through a Mellick book in one sitting. They'refast-paced with an endless number of surprises, making it tough not tokeep turning pages. When the end comes, I'm left with that done-too-soon feeling that I always love experiencing." --RAZORCAKE "A wormhole of disturbing surrealism and absurd satire." --VICE MAGAZINE "Carlton Mellick III exemplifies the intelligence and wit that lurks between its lurid covers. In a genre where crude titles are an art in themselves,Mellick is a true artist." --THE GUARDIAN"Hisfiction blends bizarre scenarios mixed with horror, action,and even more bizarre actions to create fiction that toes the line between the absurd and the dark places of the mind... Shocking yet entertaining"--THE EXAMINER"I imagine Mellick as a Willy Wonka-type character, someone with personalaccess to another world, a world of his own creation, but due to itsmind-bending energy, he's lost control of it, and it continues to thrive even without him there to pull the strings. And I like the idea ofthat." --BOOKIE MONSTER"The imp of the perverse." --3AM MAGAZINE "Just as Pop had Andy Warhol and Dada Tristan Tzara, the Bizarro movement has its very own P. T. Barnum-type practitioner. He's the mutton-choppedauthor of such books as Electric Jesus Corpse and The Menstruating Mall, the illustrator, editor, and instructor of all things Bizarro, and his name is Carlton Mellick III." --DETAILS MAGAZINE"Discussing Bizarro literature without mentioning Mellick is like discussingweird-ass mutton chopped authors without mentioning Mellick."--CRACKED.COM

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