Description
Book SynopsisA Creature Wanting Form is a bleakly funny work of fiction from a journalist widely celebrated for his wry, mordant take on life.
Filtered through the lens of a writer and characters who are horrified by the earth’s looming mortality, and their own, but still compelled to carry on, O’Neil interweaves science fiction, allegory, fables, poetry, and reflections on the deeply grounded indignities of modern life. In these pages, climate catastrophe lurks on the horizon; animals voraciously devour each other; your parents only call to tell you who from home has just died; and you want to go for a swim, but there’s a shark in the pool.
In short, A Creature Wanting Form is a book for anyone trying to survive with a shred of humanity in the bleak alienation of America, 2023.
Trade Review"In these stories, Luke O'Neil tears the heart out of the dying world and makes us give a fuck that it's still beating. ”
—Rax King, author of Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer
"Gorgeous, unsettling, infuriating.”
—Kim Kelly, author of Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor
"Rendered with a lyricism that seems to be in awe of the world even as they describe its greatest pains and profound injustices."
—Megan Nolan, author of Acts of Desperation
"A beautiful disaster.”
—Dave Wedge, New York Times bestselling author and journalist
"One of the few writers who I'll read for the prose alone. "
—Ryan Cooper, editor at The American Prospect and author of How Are You Going to Pay for That?
"I always wanted to know what goes on inside Luke's brain. Then I read this…, and, well, be careful what you wish for.”
—Dan Ozzi, author of Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore
"Luke O’Neil is like no other journalist working today, fusing original reporting with memoir and frequently-profane observational humor to create what feels like a new type of truth-telling: precise, fucked-up, infuriating, and, somehow, beautiful. ...This is what it looks like when a gifted writer finds his voice.”
—Hamish McKenzie, co-founder of Substack
PRAISE FOR LUKE O'NEIL'S WELCOME TO HELL WORLD
"A vital and despairing collection of essays on modern American life.”
—Longreads
"Reading ...Hell World is a lot like staring deep into O'Neil's soul, and it's often a pretty dark place."
—Boston Magazine
"Stream-of-consciousness reports that detail the many reasons reasonable people have to be angry right now.”
—New York Magazine
"A fever dream ... It's a lot to handle, but it's great."
—InsideHook
"Tells it like it is. ... It's that honesty, along with pure writing ability, creativity, and a heavy helping of empathy, that makes Luke's writing so special.”
—The Alternative
"At once scathingly ironic and disarmingly sincere...”
—Full Stop Magazine
"Writings on contemporary matters, from politics to music ... should be beautiful but hideous at the same time-and O'Neil scratches that itch for a remarkable 538 pages.”
—Dig Boston
