The Whole (Simon & Schuster)
In the middle of America’s heartland, a young boy digs a small hole in the ground … which grows into a big hole in the ground … which then proceeds to drag the boy, his parents, his dog, and most of their house into a dark void. Then, as abruptly as it started, it stops.
So begins the first in a series of bizarre events that take the beautiful-if-not-brainy Thing on a quest to uncover the truth behind the mysterious hole. Inspired by visions, signs, and an unlimited supply of pink cocktails served by an ever-lurking, mysterious “Black Rabbit,” Thing and her dogged production crew travel around America—encountering Satanists, an Extraterrestrial/Christian support group, and a surprisingly helpful phone psychic—on a search for answers that could very well decide the fate of the world as they know it.
But the more Thing learns about the hole, her shocking connection to it, and the mind-boggling destiny that awaits her, the more she thinks that maybe human civilization isn’t all it’s cracked up to be—and that maybe it’s about time to start over…
Published by MTV Books
Satire at its most inventive and buoyant. … It would have made Boris Vian grin and Lewis Carroll blush. —Donald Breckenridge, Brooklyn Rail
John Reed has been writing hard-to-classify books for over a decade, to great acclaim and sometimes greater notoriety. —Gee Henry, Bomb Magazine
A wicked illusionist. —Graham Reed, Los Angeles Journal
John Reed is as fearless and honest as writers come. —Greg Dybec, Critical Mob
Reed skewers our early 21st century (edgy, tragic, absurd) with a marvelously precise wit. —Faren Miller, Locus Magazine
One of the keenest thinkers of our time. —Shathley Q, PopMatters
Philip K. Dick got nuthin on John Reed! —Laura Albert / J.T. Leroy
John Reed excels in the realm of the strange. —San Francisco Examiner
Philip K. Dick, Hunter S. Thompson, William S. Burroughs and T.S. Eliot come crashing together! —Jason Pettus, CCLaP
Well-done, MTV, for publishing this terrific skewering of … MTV. —William Georgiades, New York Post
A caustically brilliant satire … as brainy as it is base, destructive as it is innovative and sweeping as it is sophisticated. —Graham Reed, Los Angeles Journal
Charming but obnoxious. —Lisa Nuch Venbrux, Popmatters