The Suburban Swindle

Hipster Book Club on Nick Antosca’s Midnight Picnic:

“This might be the scariest thing about the book, the essential thing that all scary books need: the conviction that, for as long as you are reading the story, the world is inescapably dark, and all one’s experiences that would say otherwise are simply tricks or misunderstandings. The feeling of relief on putting the book down after its satisfying ending—of seeing that it’s light out and your loved ones are alive—is followed by a nagging feeling that one has missed something. There might be dead people right in front of the reader’s face, in a space stained by trauma.”

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P.H. Madore reviews The Suburban Swindle:

“These are stories which even Bruce Springsteen wouldn’t want to tell. Mostly gritty and realist: the kind of stories I love. Corley flexes some real descriptive power… Yes, The Suburban Swindle is full of the stories of street punks and noir beauties–probably the stuff of real New Jersey, not the New Jersey I’ve seen on television. I don’t know. I just know that I liked the way she painted her youthful characters and did this without apology.”

One of the first times P.H. Madore emailed me was to say that some of Word Riot’s design was lame and that I should take down the animated GIF ads I had up. That got my attention. I don’t get insulting emails very often or if I do they’re just lame and emotional and don’t have a point. I thought P.H. had balls to say that, and he was right. I took down the crappy ads.

I was nervous when I saw on Goodreads that Madore was reading The Suburban Swindle. I knew if he thought it sucked he wouldn’t have qualms about saying so. I’m glad he liked the collection.