Dead Boys

(Paperback)

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Description

A decade dead, Jacob Campbell is a preservationist, providing a kind of taxidermy to keep his clients looking lifelike for as long as the forces of entropy will allow. But in the Land of the Dead, where the currency is time itself and there is little for corpses to do but drink, thieve, and gamble eternity away, Jacob abandons his home and his fortune for an opportunity to meet the man who cheated the rules of life and death entirely.
According to legend, the Living Man is the only adventurer to ever cross into the underworld without dying first. It's rumored he met his end somewhere in the labyrinth of pubs beneath Dead City's streets, disappearing without a trace. Now Jacob's vow to find the Living Man and follow him back to the land of the living sends him on a perilous journey through an underworld where the only certainty is decay.
Accompanying him are the boy Remington, an innocent with mysterious powers over the bones of the dead, and the hanged man Leopold l'Eclair, a flamboyant rogue whose criminal ambitions spark the undesired attention of the shadowy ruler known as the Magnate.
An ambitious debut that mingles the fantastic with the philosophical,Dead Boystwists the well-worn epic quest into a compelling, one-of-a-kind work of weird fiction that transcends genre, recalling the novels of China Miville and Neil Gaiman.

Reviews

If China Miville, Neil Gaiman and Hunter S. Thompson had a mnage trois, Dead Boys would be the lovechild. A cracking book.
Jay Kristoff, author of Stormdancer

Squailias characterizations are refreshing . . . A novel that pleads to be made into a macabre stop-motion animation..The Guardian, Top 10 Books About the Afterlife

A macabre, madcap picaresque full of fast-talking corpses and philosophical skeletons. Squailia's super-charged prose swings from bone-crunching action to meditations on the meaning of life and the mysteries of death. It's an exuberant mashup.
Brendan Mathews, author of The World of Tomorrow

Exquisite worldbuilding alongside a mix of humor and philosophy This underworld is a fascinating city.
Publishers Weekly

If Neil Gaiman wrote an episode of Deadwood without the swearing and all the characters were already dead, it might read a little like this. I was utterly charmed.
Robin Riopelle, author of Deadroads

A cheeky read and full of the quirky characters that keep my heart beating, Dead Boys gave me the fantastical journey Ive been dying (har) to read.
Women Write About Comics
If China Miville, Neil Gaiman and Hunter S. Thompson had a mnage trois, Dead Boys would be the lovechild. A cracking book.
Jay Kristoff, author of Stormdancer

Squailias characterizations are refreshing . . . A novel that pleads to be made into a macabre stop-motion animation..The Guardian, Top 10 Books About the Afterlife

A macabre, madcap picaresque full of fast-talking corpses and philosophical skeletons. Squailia's super-charged prose swings from bone-crunching action to meditations on the meaning of life and the mysteries of death. It's an exuberant mashup.
Brendan Mathews, author of The World of Tomorrow

Exquisite worldbuilding alongside a mix of humor and philosophy This underworld is a fascinating city.
Publishers Weekly

If Neil Gaiman wrote an episode of Deadwood without the swearing and all the characters were already dead, it might read a little like this. I was utterly charmed.
Robin Riopelle, author of Deadroads

A cheeky read and full of the quirky characters that keep my heart beating, Dead Boys gave me the fantastical journey Ive been dying (har) to read.
Women Write About Comics

Author Bio

Gabby Squailia, writing as Gabriel Squailia,is an author and professional DJ from Rochester, New York. An alum of the Friends World Program, she studied storytelling and literature in India, Europe, and the Middle East before settling in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts with her partner and daughter. Squailia's first novel,Dead Boys, was published by Talos Press in 2015;Viscerafollowed in 2016.