The Blackhole Kids
By (Author) j.l. oneill
Guernica Editions,Canada
Guernica Editions,Canada
9th February 2026
Canada
General
Fiction
Narrative theme: death, grief, loss
Paperback
250
Width 127mm, Height 203mm
After the death of his best friend, Benji, Bastion must cope with surviving within a radical punk counterculture while navigating addiction, loss, mental illness, and self-acceptance. The Blackhole Kids follows Bastion as he struggles with his grief and attempts to find solace through musical therapy via clubs, basements parties, train stations, and sidewalk surfing. When Bastion is approached by Alex, the frontman of Benji's old band Sick Sad World, Bastion's chaotic life becomes entangled in the lives of the other blackhole kids populating a crowded dilapidated squat. As the stale beer and harsh chemical highs lose their thrill, Bastion fights for sobriety. He helplessly loses friends and lovers to the underlying, and often psychological, rot consuming their subculture.
First generation Irish-Canadian, j.l. oneill, dropped out of high school with a grade 10 education. It wasn't until graduating college that a high school diploma was considered worth the bother. Daylighting as a Red Seal Certified Electrician and moonlighting as a writer, the horribly illusive author resides in a busted bungalow in Brantford, Ontario.The Blackhole Kidsis j.l. oneill's first novel.