Ten stories.  Three cycles.  Fists and possums and gunfighters and penises and hookers and short buses and dead babies and fireworks. The stories in this collection  originally appeared in:  HOBART, FICTION INTERNATIONAL, KITTY SNACKS, TEXAS OBSERVER, NEW BORDER and THE PURITAN.

Vampire Conditions (Holler Presents Collection)

Literature & Fiction

Carr, Brian Allen

Literary

Holler Presents

Fiction. After murdering his elder brother, Marlet must flee the broken town of Victory. With his sword, our low-hung handed hero maneuvers his way through a decrepit southern desert murdering blank-skinned men, being pursued by his illegitimate son, and deceiving those he encounters. All the while, Marlet holds on to his precious memories of Edie, the widowed wife of his brother. This is EDIE & THE LOW-HUNG HANDS.

Edie & the Low-Hung Hands

Small Doggies Press

A lyrical, apocalyptic debut novel about addiction, friendship, and the struggle for survival at the height of an epidemic. The sickness started with a single child and quickly spread: you could get high by drinking your own shadow. Artificial lights were destroyed so addicts could sip shadow at night in the pure moonlight. Gangs of shadow addicts chased down children on playgrounds, rounded up old ladies from retirement homes. Cities were destroyed and governments fell. And if your shadow was sipped entirely, you became one of them, had to drink the shadows of others or go mad. One hundred and fifty years later, what’s left of the world is divided between the highly regimented life of those inside dome cities who are protected from natural light (and natural shadows), and those forced to the dangerous, hardscrabble life in the wilds outside. In rural Texas, Mira, her shadow-addicted-friend Murk, and an ex-domer named Bale search for a possible mythological cure to the shadow sickness—but they must find it, it is said, before the return of Halley’s Comet, which is only days away.

United States

Soho Press

"One of the greatest things I have put in my brain." - BOOK RIOT "Motherfucking Sharks reads like it was carved into the floor of a sun-baked desert by an old testament prophet with a thirsty knife." - BEN LOORY, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day Where I come from, the children sing a song: Oh the motherfucking sharks Oh they're gonna come to town Oh they're gonna kill the babies Oh they're gonna make you drowned in your blood Oh the motherfucking sharks Oh they're gonna mince the flesh They're gonna swim up and surround you Don't you know you'll never pass the test it's over Oh the motherfucking sharks Oh they don't care about the gods And they don't care about the families And they don't care about the cries or tears they're killers. Motherfucking sharks Motherfucking sharks Motherfucking sharks Motherfucking sharks

Motherfucking Sharks

Lazy Fascist Press

The black magic of bad living only looks hideous to honest eyes. Welcome to Scrape, Texas, a nowhere town near the Mexican border. Few people ever visit Scrape, and the unlucky ones who live there never seem to escape. They fill their days with fish fries, cheap beer, tobacco, firearms, and sex. But Scrape is about to be invaded by a plague of monsters unlike anything ever seen in the history of the world. First there's La Llorona -- the screaming woman in white -- and her horde of ghost children. Then come the black, hairy hands. Thousands, millions, scurrying on fingers like spiders or crabs. But the hands are nothing to El Abuelo, a wicked creature with a magical bullwhip, and even El Abuelo don't mean shit when the devil comes to town.

The Last Horror Novel in the History of the World

Genre Fiction

In the heart of Texas, an animal screams.

The Shape of Every Monster Yet to Come

"Full of gorgeous language and wild insights."—Nick Flynn Set in the beleaguered heart of Indiana’s opioid crisis, Brian Allen Carr’s timely and tender novel about a teen struggling to find his place in the world—and come up with $800 rent—is at once a moving rumination on the hopeful power of story and a harrowing insight into modern America. It is a book you won’t soon forget. Seventeen-year-old Riggle is living in rural Indiana with his uncle and uncle’s girlfriend after the death of his parents. Now his uncle is missing, probably on a drug binge. It’s Monday, and $800 in rent is due Friday. Riggle, who’s been suspended from school, has to either find his uncle or get the money together himself. His mission exposes him to a motley group of Opioid locals—encounters by turns perplexing, harrowing, and heartening. With empathy and insight, Carr explores what it’s like to be a high school kid in the age of Trump—a time of economic inequality, addiction, Confederate flags, and mass shootings. Through the voice of its unforgettable protagonist—charismatic, confused, searching, by turns cynical and naïve, wise and impulsive—Opioid, Indiana pierces to the heart of our moment.

Opioid, Indiana

It started with a single child, and quickly spread: you could get high by drinking your own shadow. At night, lights were destroyed so that addicts could sip shadow in the pure light of the moon. Gangs of shadow addicts chased down children on playgrounds, rounded up old ladies from retirement homes. Cities were destroyed and governments fell. And if your shadow was sipped entirely, you became one of them, had to find more shadow, at any cost, or go mad. One hundred fifty years later, what's left of the world is divided between the highly regimented life of those inside dome-cities that are protected from natural light (and natural shadows), and those forced to the dangerous, hardscrabble life in the wilds outside. In rural Texas, Mira, her shadow-addicted friend Murk, and an ex-Domer named Bale, search for a possible mythological cure to the shadow sickness-but they must do so, it is said, before the return of Halley's Comet, which is only days away.

HighBridge Audio

Short Bus is the debut collection by Brian Allen Carr. 

Short Bus

Texas Review Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Carr, Brian Allen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Carr, Brian Allen