The last Blockbuster video store in the US is just trying to keep it together. After a night trying to track down a lost VCR rental to collect the internet-famous late fee, Eva, Jerry, and their manager Randy, learn the machine might not be what it seems. It might have the strange power to change the ending of popular films.
It might, depending on the film, actually be changing the real world as well.
Of course, it could just be an elaborate but deadly prank. Soon the trio begin receiving videotapes and voicemail message about their impending deaths. As the evening begins to repeat itself (does it?), everything comes down to the wire when a Final Girl unravels a grand experiment masterminded at the highest levels of a doomed social media empire.
Why we’re excited about this book:
When not teaching composition and creative writing at Santa Clara University in California, David James Keaton write the weird mind bending fiction that he’s known for. The author of Pig Iron, The Last Projector, and She Was Found in a Guitar Case, Keaton’s short fiction is collected in FISH BITES COP! Stories to Bash Authorities, and Stealing Propellor Hats From the Dead. He is also the editor of Hard Sentences: Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz (with Joe Clifford) and Dirty Boulevard: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Lou Reed. With his latest, Keaton skewers the VHS generation with a diabolical blend of science-fiction and horror only he could write. Amber Sparks (And I Do Not Forgive You) calls Head Cleaner “A fun, fast, crazy sci-fi romp.”, and Nick Mamatas (I Am Providence, The Second Shooter) says: “This is the sci-fi crime novel for Generation X. A quirky, multigenre journey through the VHS era, but you can’t rewind and dare not skip ahead to the end.”
Releasing from Polis Books 10 January 2023, Head Cleaner by David James Keaton is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA