Thoughts on Bad Brains by Kathe Koja

by M Cody McPhail

Austen Bandy manages a t-shirt printing shop. His true passion is painting mythological creatures in creative and dark ways. He hasn't been inspired in a while to work on anything new.

A freak accident happens. Austen trips and falls in a convenience store parking lot, smashing the front of his head, causing massive damage. He then begins to suffer temporal lobe seizures. This causes him to see things. He sees one thing in particular. The silver thing. At first he's terrified. Slowly he starts to realize that this could be his new muse. This could help him to create his finest work yet or it could destroy his life.

Austen sees the silver substance covering objects. It borders his vision. It hides in corners. It drips from bodily orifices. It forms into objects. He sees the silver thing when he's seizing. He doesn't realize that at first. Austen is out of control in the real world. He becomes a person possessed, having ecstatic experiences. The world has become a more magical and strange place to him. To everyone else, Austen becomes a demon.

Artists look for inspiration. They look far and wide to find catalysts to help them create something new and celebrated. Types of inspiration come in many different flavors. They could be of a darker nature. Inspiration can come from anywhere at any time.

This is written in third person omniscient with stream of consciousness-style prose. You feel like you are there hovering over Austen Bandy's shoulder experiencing everything he goes through. Feeling everything he feels.

The writing is fluid. It is the liquid silver that Austen sees. The plot is perfectly paced and ramps up to a point at which I was concerned for my mental health. It is overwhelming. The end is that state in which every horror writer wants the reader to be in. Absolute frantic terrifying chaos with a logical foundation. It makes you squirm with fear and leaves you bewildered.

This is the ultimate depiction of an artist's unstoppable fervor to create brilliant, timeless, paradigm shifting art. This book is a psychotic state, perfectly realized. This book is the incessant need to create art.