Over the past few years, I've come to learn that Brian Bowyer is a master of telling relentless transgressive horror stories about mostly deranged people doing brutal and messed up things. For me, what elevates his works above typical slasher or extreme horror efforts are the little extras he sprinkles into each tale, the asides when the mayhem stops for a page or two and the characters have legitimate, apparently-sincere discussions about a variety of topics such as science or philosophy before diving back into another round of chaos and debauchery. It's a very specific and unique niche he operates in that I suspect wouldn't work for every reader but that I've always found fun, entertaining, and thought-provoking in a diabolical sort of way.

"Beneath the Smog" is perhaps the best point of entry I've encountered yet for Bowyer's work as an author, combining the frenetic pace and brevity of the shorter tales contained in collections like "Sinister Mix" with the ramming-cross-country-freight-trains-together at a switching yard vibe of his longer novels like "Metro Kinetic."

This book is so wild, dark, and all over the place to the point of being almost completely unhinged that I honestly wouldn't feel comfortable generally recommending it to everyone but if you're interested in exploring extreme horror, transgressive fiction, or Bowyer's one-of-a-kind style of storytelling, I think "Beneath the Smog" would be an excellent place to start.