The Shallow End of the Pool

"Reminiscent of Fredric Brown's "Arena" taken to the nth degree fused with a kind of hyper-Fight Club for a new millennium, Adam-Troy Castro's The Shallow End of the Pool is a blistering, bizarre, fury-packed bit of familial ultra-violence. Sure to twist your head to the snapping point!" - Tom Piccirilli, author of The Midnight Road and The Fever Kill

Resolution. Reason. Respect.

Among U.S. couples marrying today, roughly 40% will divorce. About half of those will have children at the time of the split. Ensuing ugliness will engulf the lives of both divorcees and offspring. They can in most cases expect years of legal battles, deceit, rage, depression, baiting, vitriol, manipulation, and hurt.

Perhaps there is another way, a better way. A way that allows for resolution, reason, and respect. An agreement, of sorts, but one that confronts rather than masks the myriad troubles at hand. Lays them all out on the table. Settles the issues once and for all in an honorable arena. Something direct. Fair. Final.

Adam-Troy Castro, Hugo/Nebula/Stoker-nominated author of the upcoming SF novel Emissaries from the Dead, brings you a brutally horiffic tale of the ultimate settlement in the battle of broken-hearted wills in a new novella from Creeping Hemlock Press. Petty power-plays have been cast aside. The façade of decency is shelved. For one blistering week in an abandoned desert motel, there will be no excuses, pleading, or games. Only resolution, reason, respect.

And blood.

"A brutal parable of the damage warring parents inflict on their children, Adam-Troy Castro's The Shallow End of the Pool combines the savage stylistic virtuosity of Lucius Shepard with a touch of Kafka." - Andrew Fox, author of Fat White Vampire Blues

"This beautifully written, brilliantly conceived, and bare-balls-original novella isn't just a roller-coaster ride, it's the Blue Angels at Mach 10 as seen from the cockpits of all four jets at the same fucking time." - T. M. Wright, author of A Spider on My Tongue and They Eyes of the Carp