Mellick III, Carlton. Apeshit. Avant Punk, 2008. 192 pp. $10.95 pb. ISBN 9781933929767.

A recent release from Eraserhead Press and Bizarro genre author Carlton Mellick III, Apeshit proves to be one of his most twisted tales to date. Working within a genre of the surreal, this work surprisingly contains some of the most compelling and shockingly realistic portrayals of human life and experience: the callous and the cruel.

CM3 creates a wonderful parody of the B-movie slasher genre by dissolving the boundaries between fact and fiction, good and evil. He resurrects a rather familiar plot, taking the reader on a trip up to a remote cottage in the middle of nowhere and revealing the exploitations of teen angst and lust.

Unlike the two-dimensional meat puppets served up in every slasher movie, Mellick breathes life into his characters, giving the reader a glimpse into the horror of human existence. Lacking any information, we must assume that every teenager is average and normal, but CM3 administers a dose of reality. The shock and horror comes with learning that life is sublimely abnormal. Each character possesses a shady background, a troublesome past, which exposes the dark underbelly of human evolution. Nightmares are real, and we all live them. We fear the ridiculous, ignore the rational.

CM3 shows us true evil in its purest form. There are no boogeymen, hiding under our beds, in our closets, watching, waiting to kill us. Humans possess true sadistic pleasure inflicting pain and dealing death. This evil manifests itself within the human condition, nurtured under the savage sickness we call a conscience.

While reading this dramatic display of human debasement and decadence, I contrasted CM3’s development of realism with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, which depicts the corruption of children who, while separated from civilization, relinquish their fear of law and punishment. Golding’s savage brood reveals the inherent evil and archaic nature of humankind, whereas Mellick’s tragic teenagers experience childhood in a ruthless modern world that infects the soul. Though we believe in civilized life to raise and nurture; it can easily be distorted, thus perverting the innocent. However, Golding leads us to believe that man is evil in spite of his surroundings: “Maybe there is a beast ... maybe it’s only us” (Golding).

An electrifying read, Apeshit successfully combines an exciting, blood-splattering slasher story with unexpected social commentary.

—Richard Nicol