This Town Needs a Monster — Andersen Prunty

Bathos! Crippling ennui! Mind-numbing drudgery!

Brad Renfield is a white, middle-aged, lower middle class, Midwestern man stuck in Gethsemane, Ohio. Most of his friends have either died or moved away and his one remaining friend is so depressed he's on the brink of suicide. Brad hasn't really given much thought to the chasm of emptiness within him. He's mostly been a loner, content with his job and his tiny apartment. He's never thought much about being part of something. He's never really thought about the bigger picture. Until he meets a beautiful (and possibly psychotic) girl named Dawn. Dawn leads Brad into a vicious world as hedonistically carnal as it is brutal, forcing Brad to decide if he's going to dig deep within himself and continue to resist the community he's remained apart from his entire life or embrace it and accept his new reality.