"The simple, vivid poetry of place and speech and emotion that imbues Brian Ellis's stories about scruffy young people in a listless small town finds its way straight into your heart. You can taste and smell the world of these lost souls, but mostly you can feel it." -- Shawn Levy, best-selling author of The Castle on Sunset and A Year in the Life of Death "Peopled with boys and men trying to prove that nothing hurts, these stories are about how everything hurts. The cast of unforgettable characters are belly-punching and jumping from cars, they're drinking, and drugging, ever philosophizing and preparing for attacks, mostly to their identity. They're not fucking blood-sucking tourists, but they're always being pushed to the edge anyway. Brian S. Ellis is a genius of intimacy and humor and crying-down tearful grief. He's a phrase-turning page turner and a hardcore poet, too." -- Jenny Forrester, author of Soft Hearted Seeking Saviors, Cowboy Stylists,and Other Fallacies of Authoritarianism