Chad Stroup

In his exhilarating, consciousness-mutating debut novel Secrets of the Weird, Chad Stroup fuses a kaleidoscopic embrace of the surreal and fantastical with a punk hardcore velocity and sensibility — think Twin Peaks meets Damaged or David Cronenberg adapting I Against I. Which is why it is not all that surprising when a Minor Threat-esque band dubbed Civilized Cannibals materializes amongst the tome’s motley crew of willful outcasts, reluctant protagonists, and apocalyptic cultists.