Josh Bell

Gods in Small Doses

The magical and mundane twist together in this collection of surreal stories In this collection of stories set in an uncanny American suburbia and haunted by a lurking unease, the peculiar feeling of ephemeral youth finds its voice. The stories in The Gods in Small Doses depict childhood through a funhouse mirror, as a time of myth and damage, of tenderness and terror. Anything—except what should happen—can happen next. A retired witch traps a goat-killing feral child, a girl becomes obsessed with the regenerative properties of her younger brother’s body, Armageddon is fought between the forces of good (those who like to go to bed early) and evil (those who prefer to stay up late), a supernatural orphan insinuates his way into an all-American family, the god Poseidon wrecks a high-school house party, and the women of a fabulated island city all mysteriously disappear overnight. In these fast, comic, and troubling tales, sweetness and violence vie to become synonymous. This is a universe of both realism and surrealism, of magic and the mundane, where strong but deeply flawed characters fight to exert control over things—time, death, themselves—that can’t be controlled. Dreamlike moments of body horror, catastrophe, and absurdity challenge the reader to embrace the taboo and to expect—always—the unexpected. Bell’s stories offer a twisted, unique, and utterly fascinating take on what it means to “grow up,” and all of the questions that the notion inspires.