Peel Slowly and Bleed

Tales from the great suburban nightmare.

Inside are Participation Trophy, selections from Pacifier and Goddamn Failure, and “To Cover Up the Smell” collected here for the first time. This is the author’s preferred text, with nothing padded and nothing softened.

These stories deal with the quiet failures most books look past. Dead-end lives. Bad decisions. Everyday abuses. Featured in blunt, unsentimental prose. Think Stephen King filtered through Kurt Vonnegut with the clipped edge of early Chuck Palahniuk. Horror and dark humor bleed together, often without warning.

If you want Ira’s early work in its clearest form, this is the edition to own.