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Head Cleaner
HEAD CLEANER is a hugely original blend of thriller, science fiction, and horror that takes our love of nostalgia to task for its morbid obsessions with dead media and dead-end jobs: Clerks meets Black Mirror (with a little Groundhog Day and Russian Doll thrown in for good measure):
The last Blockbuster video store in the United States is hanging on by a thread. And after a crazy night attempting to track down a lost VCR rental to collect the record-setting and internet-famous late fee, three employees, idealistic Eva, cinephile Jerry, and their tyrannical manager Randy, discover that this machine may actually have the power to change the endings of popular films, which, depending on the historical basis of the film, might also be changing the real world around them.
Or could this just be an elaborate, increasingly deadly prank?
When they begin receiving videotapes and voicemails seemingly depicting their deaths, Eva, Jerry, and Randy scramble to keep the VCR from falling into the wrong hands. And as one action-packed evening begins to seemingly repeat itself (or does it?), scores are settled and unwanted confessions begin to fly, until a Final Girl finally unravels a grand psychological experiment orchestrated at the highest levels of a crumbling social media empire. Sort of.
The last Blockbuster video store in the United States is hanging on by a thread. And after a crazy night attempting to track down a lost VCR rental to collect the record-setting and internet-famous late fee, three employees, idealistic Eva, cinephile Jerry, and their tyrannical manager Randy, discover that this machine may actually have the power to change the endings of popular films, which, depending on the historical basis of the film, might also be changing the real world around them.
Or could this just be an elaborate, increasingly deadly prank?
When they begin receiving videotapes and voicemails seemingly depicting their deaths, Eva, Jerry, and Randy scramble to keep the VCR from falling into the wrong hands. And as one action-packed evening begins to seemingly repeat itself (or does it?), scores are settled and unwanted confessions begin to fly, until a Final Girl finally unravels a grand psychological experiment orchestrated at the highest levels of a crumbling social media empire. Sort of.
353 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 10, 2023
18 people are currently reading
508 people want to read
About the author
David James Keaton
54 books185 followersDavid James Keaton received his MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and was the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Flywheel Magazine. His first collection of fiction, FISH BITES COP! Stories To Bash Authorities, was named the 2014 Short Story Collection of the Year by This Is Horror. Kirkus spotlighted his debut novel, THE LAST PROJECTOR, calling it "rapidly paced and loaded with humor... a loopy, appealing mix of popular culture and thoroughly crazy people." His second collection of fiction, STEALING PROPELLER HATS FROM THE DEAD, received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly, who said, "The author's joy in his subject matter is obvious, often expressed with a sly wink and a wicked smile. Decay, both existential and physical, has never looked so good.” His most recent novel, HEAD CLEANER, was recommended by Booklist and Library Journal, who called it "light and breezy with dark undercurrents that keep the reader off-kilter" as well as "great fun." He also teaches composition and creative writing at Santa Clara University in California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
February 9, 2024
3.5 Stars
This was an entertaining horror-ish novel that plays around with the tropes surrounding old technology. I loved the premise because I enjoy horror that utilizes outdated technology. I liked the idea of a VHS player that can rewrite movies, but I quickly remembered that I'm not a movie buff. I have seen very few of the iconic movies discussed in this novel and would then primarily recommend this one to readers who are more well reversed in films. Yet even without understanding all the references, I generally enjoyed this one. I'd recommend it to movie buffs who are looking for a fun nostalgic fix.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
This was an entertaining horror-ish novel that plays around with the tropes surrounding old technology. I loved the premise because I enjoy horror that utilizes outdated technology. I liked the idea of a VHS player that can rewrite movies, but I quickly remembered that I'm not a movie buff. I have seen very few of the iconic movies discussed in this novel and would then primarily recommend this one to readers who are more well reversed in films. Yet even without understanding all the references, I generally enjoyed this one. I'd recommend it to movie buffs who are looking for a fun nostalgic fix.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
December 27, 2022
This time I'm going to let the work speak for itself and not give five stars to my own book because who even does that. Desperate people, that's who.
March 6, 2023
A hilarious, reference-packed, retro sci-fi mindmelter. I had more fun reading this book than I have in a long time. Hell yeah!
February 28, 2023
Podcast interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Video via Youtube...
One of the things about getting older for me was explaining to young movie nerds how the video store worked. The conversation veered towards how we graded movies on a curve and would finish them because we took them home and had to live with our pick. Roger Avery and Quintin Tarantino are educating young film nerds about the VHS era because despite everything else available they still love those tapes. Head Cleaner is at times a loving tribute and novel inspired by the era. That is not to say it doesn’t play with the less awesome parts. It does.
David James Keaton's writing has appeared in over 75 publications, online and in print. He received his MFA from my father’s beloved University of Pittsburgh. I know him as the author of the Last Projector From Broken River Books and social media film commentator. As in I pay attention to his opinions even when I don’t always agree. Two short story collections and four novels I am sorry that I am pointing to movie posts- but I enjoy them.
Head Cleaner was a novel I went into on the strength of the writer and cold. Meaning I didn’t read plot descriptions or blurbs. I enjoyed reading the book this way and gave it five stars so this is your chance to pull the rip-cord and go buy/read it without me going deeper.
This novel takes place at The Last Blockbuster video store. Now in real life, that store was in Bend Oregon, but one of the things I like about this novel is there is no attempt to ground it in reality. I don’t believe the name of the town is ever given. If you want a Bend Oregon horror novel you’ll have to read The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson.
Head Cleaner kicks off with a wild night at the Blockbuster, the crew working at the store includes Eva, Jerry a movie nerd, and the manager of the store Randy. They decide to track a VCR they rented out and has racked up an internet-famous amount. Once our heroes track it down they find a nasty reason there was no return. The renter has shot herself and set it up to film them discovering the scene. Once they investigate to see if they are on tape, they find events changed.
Over a series of events that unfolded with perfect narrative flow Eva and the crew discover that the VCR itself can change the past, including the movies on their shelves. It is funny because I have read SF where history changes but something about the idea of the movies changing too creeped me out.
As a work of art Head Cleaner uses the VCR and videotape culture to weaponize nostalgia against the reader as the driving force of weird and horrific parts of the story. I am sure how this book would work for younger folks or readers without VCR experience as I don’t understand that existence.
“Everybody goes back in time to kill Hitler, but I’d totally buy a shit ton of Netflix stock.
But it was their whole “No due dates” thing that he couldn’t wrap his head around. To Randy, this new paradigm was worse than the decimation of brick-and-mortar video stores. These kids didn’t know how easy they had it these days! Randy remembered when you actually had to call a video store to hold a movie for the weekend.
And you were thankful.”
Reading that passage you may think this is an author writing about the good old days when we walked uphill both ways. Those moments are there but that doesn’t overtake the narrative, I think people who didn’t live in an era writing about it (Looking at you Stranger Things!) can get lost in the details. Head Cleaner never forgets to drive the narrative forward. One of the best scenes is when Randy gets an audio tape in the mail from himself.
“Yes, it was definitely his voice, but decades younger. He was reciting the names of everyone he hated in high school.
Be sure to erase this,” his voice added at the end of the list, and Randy pushed stop again.”
A weird SF horror hybrid about a multiverse editing VCR is built on creepy moments like the suicide and the tape in the mail. Throughout Head Cleaner tiny moments perfectly build on each other to give that Black Mirror vibe of technological investigation. It is balanced with a Clerks or Fletch-like playfulness in the dialogue. That makes the as fun as it is weird.
The biggest LOL of the book for me: “This is your yearly reminder that ‘Panera Bread’ translates as Bread Bread.”
“Nice this is your yearly reminder that Pantera Bread translates as motherfuckin’ Panther bread!” Randy said, then he stuck a fist in his mouth and growled his best Phil Anselmo microphone-enveloping roar. “And I know it’s blasphemy but that punch on the cover of Vulgar Display of Power is wack. Looks like he is playing Got Yer Nose.”
Head Cleaner is full of prose that made me grin.
“Exploring further, he found his neck under his head after all, right where he left it, and he rubbed the base of his skull to get the blood chuffing along.”
Keaton has a knack for building humor out of little moments of weirdness, as a (PKD) Dickhead, I enjoyed this, he loved to explore slightly different universes, there is a point near the end when Randy talks about little changes in movies change all of it. Using the example of Fistful of dollars having a scene that Back to The Future III riffs on.
Head Cleaner is a book of tiny details and large themes. Interesting characters and even more interesting concepts. An exploration of nostalgic themes threaded through the VCR of your mind like a movie about to overheat your machine. Jam-packed with ideas and entertainment book readers looking for SF horror hybrids won’t regret it.
NOTE: During my interview with the author I described this book as feeling like one of those nerdy film debates at the video store opened a wormhole and sucked the characters into a vortex inspired by weird-o 60s New Wave SF.
Video via Youtube...
One of the things about getting older for me was explaining to young movie nerds how the video store worked. The conversation veered towards how we graded movies on a curve and would finish them because we took them home and had to live with our pick. Roger Avery and Quintin Tarantino are educating young film nerds about the VHS era because despite everything else available they still love those tapes. Head Cleaner is at times a loving tribute and novel inspired by the era. That is not to say it doesn’t play with the less awesome parts. It does.
David James Keaton's writing has appeared in over 75 publications, online and in print. He received his MFA from my father’s beloved University of Pittsburgh. I know him as the author of the Last Projector From Broken River Books and social media film commentator. As in I pay attention to his opinions even when I don’t always agree. Two short story collections and four novels I am sorry that I am pointing to movie posts- but I enjoy them.
Head Cleaner was a novel I went into on the strength of the writer and cold. Meaning I didn’t read plot descriptions or blurbs. I enjoyed reading the book this way and gave it five stars so this is your chance to pull the rip-cord and go buy/read it without me going deeper.
This novel takes place at The Last Blockbuster video store. Now in real life, that store was in Bend Oregon, but one of the things I like about this novel is there is no attempt to ground it in reality. I don’t believe the name of the town is ever given. If you want a Bend Oregon horror novel you’ll have to read The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson.
Head Cleaner kicks off with a wild night at the Blockbuster, the crew working at the store includes Eva, Jerry a movie nerd, and the manager of the store Randy. They decide to track a VCR they rented out and has racked up an internet-famous amount. Once our heroes track it down they find a nasty reason there was no return. The renter has shot herself and set it up to film them discovering the scene. Once they investigate to see if they are on tape, they find events changed.
Over a series of events that unfolded with perfect narrative flow Eva and the crew discover that the VCR itself can change the past, including the movies on their shelves. It is funny because I have read SF where history changes but something about the idea of the movies changing too creeped me out.
As a work of art Head Cleaner uses the VCR and videotape culture to weaponize nostalgia against the reader as the driving force of weird and horrific parts of the story. I am sure how this book would work for younger folks or readers without VCR experience as I don’t understand that existence.
“Everybody goes back in time to kill Hitler, but I’d totally buy a shit ton of Netflix stock.
But it was their whole “No due dates” thing that he couldn’t wrap his head around. To Randy, this new paradigm was worse than the decimation of brick-and-mortar video stores. These kids didn’t know how easy they had it these days! Randy remembered when you actually had to call a video store to hold a movie for the weekend.
And you were thankful.”
Reading that passage you may think this is an author writing about the good old days when we walked uphill both ways. Those moments are there but that doesn’t overtake the narrative, I think people who didn’t live in an era writing about it (Looking at you Stranger Things!) can get lost in the details. Head Cleaner never forgets to drive the narrative forward. One of the best scenes is when Randy gets an audio tape in the mail from himself.
“Yes, it was definitely his voice, but decades younger. He was reciting the names of everyone he hated in high school.
Be sure to erase this,” his voice added at the end of the list, and Randy pushed stop again.”
A weird SF horror hybrid about a multiverse editing VCR is built on creepy moments like the suicide and the tape in the mail. Throughout Head Cleaner tiny moments perfectly build on each other to give that Black Mirror vibe of technological investigation. It is balanced with a Clerks or Fletch-like playfulness in the dialogue. That makes the as fun as it is weird.
The biggest LOL of the book for me: “This is your yearly reminder that ‘Panera Bread’ translates as Bread Bread.”
“Nice this is your yearly reminder that Pantera Bread translates as motherfuckin’ Panther bread!” Randy said, then he stuck a fist in his mouth and growled his best Phil Anselmo microphone-enveloping roar. “And I know it’s blasphemy but that punch on the cover of Vulgar Display of Power is wack. Looks like he is playing Got Yer Nose.”
Head Cleaner is full of prose that made me grin.
“Exploring further, he found his neck under his head after all, right where he left it, and he rubbed the base of his skull to get the blood chuffing along.”
Keaton has a knack for building humor out of little moments of weirdness, as a (PKD) Dickhead, I enjoyed this, he loved to explore slightly different universes, there is a point near the end when Randy talks about little changes in movies change all of it. Using the example of Fistful of dollars having a scene that Back to The Future III riffs on.
Head Cleaner is a book of tiny details and large themes. Interesting characters and even more interesting concepts. An exploration of nostalgic themes threaded through the VCR of your mind like a movie about to overheat your machine. Jam-packed with ideas and entertainment book readers looking for SF horror hybrids won’t regret it.
NOTE: During my interview with the author I described this book as feeling like one of those nerdy film debates at the video store opened a wormhole and sucked the characters into a vortex inspired by weird-o 60s New Wave SF.
October 26, 2022
An interesting blend of Sci-fi, thriller and comedy. This story is definitely a strange and original concept with great humor in the characters' banter. Definitely a fun read.
April 26, 2023
This review was originally published on High Fever Books Reviews. Please consider subscribing to High Fever Books get my reviews and occasional updates delivered straight to your inbox!
I suspect that readers who enjoy the journey more than the destination will find more to enjoy in Head Cleaner than those looking for a logical, simple, clean-cut narrative. David James Keaton doesn't provide anything simple here, let alone answers as he leaves a few threads dangling and a handful of questions lingering upon book's end, employing a not-necessarily clear finale that might leave readers racing to Google "ending explained" videos that are all the rage in film and TV land these days.
I suspect, too, that Head Cleaner is, in fact, a partial rebellion against these types of mostly useless, mostly clickbait videos that seek to explain the obvious in a wasteland of unchallenging, same old, same old art that has been focused group to hell and back solely to appeal to the lowest common denominators amongst us, who spent more time fiddling with their cell phone instead of actually watching what was being presented before them and thus need the grand finale summarized for their attention-deficient, social media-addled minds. As much as I love the MCU, who really needs the endings of any of these movies explained at length? Head Cleaner, though... To quote Benoit Blanc, "It makes no damn sense. Compels me, though."
And compels it does. Keaton has crafted a truly intriguing puzzle-box of a narrative here, the kind that inspires debate and, likely, a few arguments betwixt friends as they theorize what actually happened, who it happened to, who was behind it all, and how. Is it time travel or big corpo Facebook fuckery? Who was the woman who blasted her head off in the book's opening pages, and how does that square against what we learn later (it's certainly not flush, I might argue)? Who is or are "The Collectors"? And is Kevin Costner's Tin Cup really the sole key to unlocking this whole damn, bloody, messy affair?
I don't know. I've been pondering it all in the 12-plus hours since I finished reading Head Cleaner (OK, maybe not the Tin Cup thing) and feel none the wiser, but my curiosity keeps plugging away at the book's multiple what ifs. What does seem clear is that Keaton has sought to answer one question I'm fairly certain nobody has ever asked, and does so rather successfully: What if David Lynch had made Clerks instead of Kevin Smith? The setting is the last Blockbuster video store in the US, whereupon a trio of clerks may have accidentally discovered a last-of-its-kind VCR that can alter reality. Pop in Titanic, pause and rewind at just the right moment, and presto-chango, the ship narrowly misses the iceberg and James Cameron's box office hit is, instead, a courtroom drama about Jack's murder of a rich douchebag at sea, all of which is supported as fact by Wikipedia. It's a discovery that violently costs Jerry, Randy, and Eva their lives when the video store is assaulted by a cadre of Men In Black. At least until they wake up the next day, or maybe it's the previous day, to find a videotape of their deaths on their doorsteps.
Head Cleaner is not the kind of disposable sci-fi beach-read it may seem at first blush. It's unrelentingly quirky, but also very demanding. It requires interrogation and challenges the reader to make heads or tails of it all, possibly with a whiteboard full of notes and interpretations. It's only partly a joke that a two-tape rental copy of Oliver Stone's JFK plays a pivotal role here, given the amount of conspiracy theorizing the presidential assassination has inspired in both real life and in celluloid. Head Cleaner inspires much of the same odd-balling bewilderment. The simplest answer may not be correct, and the more outlandish it grows the closer to reality it may appear. But that's life for you. Or is that only in the movies?
I suspect that readers who enjoy the journey more than the destination will find more to enjoy in Head Cleaner than those looking for a logical, simple, clean-cut narrative. David James Keaton doesn't provide anything simple here, let alone answers as he leaves a few threads dangling and a handful of questions lingering upon book's end, employing a not-necessarily clear finale that might leave readers racing to Google "ending explained" videos that are all the rage in film and TV land these days.
I suspect, too, that Head Cleaner is, in fact, a partial rebellion against these types of mostly useless, mostly clickbait videos that seek to explain the obvious in a wasteland of unchallenging, same old, same old art that has been focused group to hell and back solely to appeal to the lowest common denominators amongst us, who spent more time fiddling with their cell phone instead of actually watching what was being presented before them and thus need the grand finale summarized for their attention-deficient, social media-addled minds. As much as I love the MCU, who really needs the endings of any of these movies explained at length? Head Cleaner, though... To quote Benoit Blanc, "It makes no damn sense. Compels me, though."
And compels it does. Keaton has crafted a truly intriguing puzzle-box of a narrative here, the kind that inspires debate and, likely, a few arguments betwixt friends as they theorize what actually happened, who it happened to, who was behind it all, and how. Is it time travel or big corpo Facebook fuckery? Who was the woman who blasted her head off in the book's opening pages, and how does that square against what we learn later (it's certainly not flush, I might argue)? Who is or are "The Collectors"? And is Kevin Costner's Tin Cup really the sole key to unlocking this whole damn, bloody, messy affair?
I don't know. I've been pondering it all in the 12-plus hours since I finished reading Head Cleaner (OK, maybe not the Tin Cup thing) and feel none the wiser, but my curiosity keeps plugging away at the book's multiple what ifs. What does seem clear is that Keaton has sought to answer one question I'm fairly certain nobody has ever asked, and does so rather successfully: What if David Lynch had made Clerks instead of Kevin Smith? The setting is the last Blockbuster video store in the US, whereupon a trio of clerks may have accidentally discovered a last-of-its-kind VCR that can alter reality. Pop in Titanic, pause and rewind at just the right moment, and presto-chango, the ship narrowly misses the iceberg and James Cameron's box office hit is, instead, a courtroom drama about Jack's murder of a rich douchebag at sea, all of which is supported as fact by Wikipedia. It's a discovery that violently costs Jerry, Randy, and Eva their lives when the video store is assaulted by a cadre of Men In Black. At least until they wake up the next day, or maybe it's the previous day, to find a videotape of their deaths on their doorsteps.
Head Cleaner is not the kind of disposable sci-fi beach-read it may seem at first blush. It's unrelentingly quirky, but also very demanding. It requires interrogation and challenges the reader to make heads or tails of it all, possibly with a whiteboard full of notes and interpretations. It's only partly a joke that a two-tape rental copy of Oliver Stone's JFK plays a pivotal role here, given the amount of conspiracy theorizing the presidential assassination has inspired in both real life and in celluloid. Head Cleaner inspires much of the same odd-balling bewilderment. The simplest answer may not be correct, and the more outlandish it grows the closer to reality it may appear. But that's life for you. Or is that only in the movies?
January 18, 2023
This feels like a timely novel for 2023.
A merry band of anachronistic video store clerks (working for "arguably" the Last Blockbuster on Earth) consuming VHS tapes and in return seeing the tapes consume and alter their future. This is more or less what this novel is about, but to a certain extent I don't believe what-this-novel-is-about really matters. It's funny and witty like a Kevin Smith movie and eerie like a Twilight Zone episode written by a mentally disturbed person who had an encyclopedic knowledge of movies no one remembers. It gets crazy and somewhat difficult to follow at some point if you're not out there microreading, but you have to be there for the characters and not the story.
British philosopher Mark Fisher had a name for what-this-novel-is-really-about: the slow cancellation of the future. The past (or your memories of the past) taking precedence over the future. It is usually normal in the process of aging, but it is happening to younger and younger people nowadays through nostalgia and easy access to technology. Head Cleaner is a very meats-and-potatoes embodiment of this concept, but it's a fun one if a little lengthy in the second half. I'd classify this as a beach/travel read for intelligent people.
A merry band of anachronistic video store clerks (working for "arguably" the Last Blockbuster on Earth) consuming VHS tapes and in return seeing the tapes consume and alter their future. This is more or less what this novel is about, but to a certain extent I don't believe what-this-novel-is-about really matters. It's funny and witty like a Kevin Smith movie and eerie like a Twilight Zone episode written by a mentally disturbed person who had an encyclopedic knowledge of movies no one remembers. It gets crazy and somewhat difficult to follow at some point if you're not out there microreading, but you have to be there for the characters and not the story.
British philosopher Mark Fisher had a name for what-this-novel-is-really-about: the slow cancellation of the future. The past (or your memories of the past) taking precedence over the future. It is usually normal in the process of aging, but it is happening to younger and younger people nowadays through nostalgia and easy access to technology. Head Cleaner is a very meats-and-potatoes embodiment of this concept, but it's a fun one if a little lengthy in the second half. I'd classify this as a beach/travel read for intelligent people.
December 26, 2022
Fun book. I enjoyed reading it. It's about three people working at a Blockbuster who find a VHR that lets them change movies as they please (including the 'Do you like them apples' from that Matt Damon movie). Yet, if you change anything based on true events, you change those too. While it may seem fun, there may be deadly consequences to it all.
Great idea and has likable characters, I can't say it rocked my world but it was fun and I would adore seeing this adapted as a movie.
Great idea and has likable characters, I can't say it rocked my world but it was fun and I would adore seeing this adapted as a movie.
April 30, 2023
Pure 80's nostalgia. Mind bending but super fun! I listened to the audiobook and the narration was very good.
July 20, 2023
BACK AND TO THE LEFT
I devoured this faster than a VCR eating a cassette tape in a Dave Keaton novel. The plot here is fast and frenetic, and the twists come every few chapters, even in the book's two epilogues, setting up paradoxes and conspiracies like Primer by way of a Pure Cinema Podcast. The central premise--a VCR that can rewrite movies--is fantastic and used to great effect. Who wouldn't almost immediately pop in JFK? But my favorite parts were the riffs. Loved reading Keaton on the dearth of imagination in "prestige" shows, not to mention his deep dive into Clerks. It's impossible not to recommend a book where the protagonists essentially stumble into a cave of outdated technology where the Turbografx-16s are plentiful and the LaserDiscs are used as weapons.
I devoured this faster than a VCR eating a cassette tape in a Dave Keaton novel. The plot here is fast and frenetic, and the twists come every few chapters, even in the book's two epilogues, setting up paradoxes and conspiracies like Primer by way of a Pure Cinema Podcast. The central premise--a VCR that can rewrite movies--is fantastic and used to great effect. Who wouldn't almost immediately pop in JFK? But my favorite parts were the riffs. Loved reading Keaton on the dearth of imagination in "prestige" shows, not to mention his deep dive into Clerks. It's impossible not to recommend a book where the protagonists essentially stumble into a cave of outdated technology where the Turbografx-16s are plentiful and the LaserDiscs are used as weapons.
November 2, 2023
The opening scene sets you on edge right away, and you never come back from that edge. I loved how the mystery around the video tapes raised broader questions about the nature of history and remembrance, and (especially with the magical realism elements) even the nature of reality itself. So much fun media nostalgia, which also raised broader issues about popular culture, consumer culture, and the like. And, of course, some really great puns, vivid imagery, and language play that reward the attention of the careful reader. Such a fun listen!
September 10, 2023
It hurts me a little to give this just two stars, I’m a bit of a film nerd myself and the concept sounded right up my street. However the characters and their dialogue were just a bit too film nerd to be likeable, there was an annoying amount of bro fighting, and the storyline felt quite muddled. I’ve just finished and I have no real idea what was meant to be going on. On top of all of that, a bit too much of this book was just word salad.
May 2, 2023
So. This could have been an amazing book, but I made the poor decision to listen on audiobook. I lost the thread multiple times, which I believe the author meant to happen. I had to go back and restart. Let’s just say that a trippy time travel experiment book is not meant for a listening experience. It’s much more suitable to read.
Read
January 7, 2026At my film my sowrd brok many historcal nose leader
i sea that star at desert and go for my knowldg
nt my death video at doorstep
i want to end of that dark movie
can i chang the past
yes
cut and move some part of movie
its new buttle and gd fate
its beuty start
take gd weapon and play gd monolog
to gd war with happy end movie
still for y
i sea that star at desert and go for my knowldg
nt my death video at doorstep
i want to end of that dark movie
can i chang the past
yes
cut and move some part of movie
its new buttle and gd fate
its beuty start
take gd weapon and play gd monolog
to gd war with happy end movie
still for y
Read
January 31, 2023Is HEAD CLEANER by David James Keaton Sci-fi? Horror? Action? Comedy? Well, yes, actually it's ALL of those- but mostly, it's a fucking TRIP. Will you understand exactly what's going on? Nope. But will you be engaged, entertained, and taken on a chaotic, fun, absolutely bonkers ride? 100% yes!
April 5, 2023
This book is like the love child resulting from a polyamory situation between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Ready Player One, Clerks, and VHS.
Hey, I can flex my movie knowledge too!
*Insert appropriately smug gif here*
Loved the idea of this book - it's definitely a timely subject matter. The Mandela Effect has never been so apropos as now, where we are so inundated with massive overloads of information to the point where it's become a difficult endeavor to parse and take in the information that is important and relevant to ourselves.
However, I'm not sure I really enjoyed the format of this book. It came out strong with a great opening salvo, but then I felt that the writing just became overly precious - I get the *wink wink* nature of the dialogue but it was just so over the top at a certain point that I found most of the characters just flat out annoying. I think that the book could have used a good trimming of about 100 pages as I felt it meandered in a way that hampered the plot development.
I understand that this may have been what the author was going for - the idea of the "slacker mindset" of the 90's, the idea of driving around and doing dumb shit and renting movies at blockbuster cause there's nothing else better to do - but I just felt that it was completely at odds with what I perceived as the sense of urgency and danger of feeling like the protagonists could be killed at any moment.
In the end everything just felt so jumbled and over the top. Loved the idea in theory, felt like it could have used some cleaner execution. 3 stars for creativity.
Hey, I can flex my movie knowledge too!
*Insert appropriately smug gif here*
Loved the idea of this book - it's definitely a timely subject matter. The Mandela Effect has never been so apropos as now, where we are so inundated with massive overloads of information to the point where it's become a difficult endeavor to parse and take in the information that is important and relevant to ourselves.
However, I'm not sure I really enjoyed the format of this book. It came out strong with a great opening salvo, but then I felt that the writing just became overly precious - I get the *wink wink* nature of the dialogue but it was just so over the top at a certain point that I found most of the characters just flat out annoying. I think that the book could have used a good trimming of about 100 pages as I felt it meandered in a way that hampered the plot development.
I understand that this may have been what the author was going for - the idea of the "slacker mindset" of the 90's, the idea of driving around and doing dumb shit and renting movies at blockbuster cause there's nothing else better to do - but I just felt that it was completely at odds with what I perceived as the sense of urgency and danger of feeling like the protagonists could be killed at any moment.
In the end everything just felt so jumbled and over the top. Loved the idea in theory, felt like it could have used some cleaner execution. 3 stars for creativity.
September 4, 2023
4.75 Stars rounded to 5 stars.
First give me a moment to reminisce in all of the nostalgia.
**Warning** If you are not a fan of books that don't wrap up every aspect of what's going on in a tight pretty little bow, this may not be the book for you.
First give me a moment to reminisce in all of the nostalgia.
**Warning** If you are not a fan of books that don't wrap up every aspect of what's going on in a tight pretty little bow, this may not be the book for you.
January 8, 2026
Oh boy. I really tried to keep an open mind about this one, because I knew it would be…different. But man, that’s an understatement. The plot itself is intriguing, but the execution was just a mess. It could have been done so much better, but for some reason, the author went for chaos. The three main characters work at the last (but apparently not the last) Blockbuster, the latest in a long line of video rental stores they’ve worked in together. Jerry and Eva decide to go to the house of a customer with the most/longest overdue movies, and everything goes bizarre from there. They find a VCR that changes the endings of films and thus, real life. Some scary government men come after them, kill them, and then they wake up the next day, partly remembering everything and trying to figure out what’s going on.
So at this point, you think this is a crazy sci-fi/horror story, which is fine. But after way too many pages full of nonsensical ramblings by all the characters, it tries to shift to a logical, everything can be explained story, which is just ridiculous. I was really trudging through this story, and by the time I finally got to the end and the quasi-explanation/revelation, I just gave up.
It’s like the author tried to obscure the fact that the plot is filled with holes and unanswered questions by filling it with terrible, lengthy dialogue that you can’t even follow. But it doesn’t distract, it just highlights how it’s one big mess. I don’t know if people think writing like this is cool or innovative or what, but it’s just bad. The characters are terrible and never funny, like at all. Just because the book includes heaps of trivia about movies and movie-watching technology doesn’t make it interesting. Even if you’re an obsessed cinephile, the writing style will most likely annoy you to no end.
My thanks to NetGalley and Datura Books for the free advanced reading copy of this book.
So at this point, you think this is a crazy sci-fi/horror story, which is fine. But after way too many pages full of nonsensical ramblings by all the characters, it tries to shift to a logical, everything can be explained story, which is just ridiculous. I was really trudging through this story, and by the time I finally got to the end and the quasi-explanation/revelation, I just gave up.
It’s like the author tried to obscure the fact that the plot is filled with holes and unanswered questions by filling it with terrible, lengthy dialogue that you can’t even follow. But it doesn’t distract, it just highlights how it’s one big mess. I don’t know if people think writing like this is cool or innovative or what, but it’s just bad. The characters are terrible and never funny, like at all. Just because the book includes heaps of trivia about movies and movie-watching technology doesn’t make it interesting. Even if you’re an obsessed cinephile, the writing style will most likely annoy you to no end.
My thanks to NetGalley and Datura Books for the free advanced reading copy of this book.
November 29, 2023
One should show up prepared for this novel. You need to be in the right head space, with the right expectations. It’s like entering the theater to see Eraserhead or Skinamarink hoping for a straightforward horrorish story with a nice arc and plot points. Nope.
Good opening hook, cool quirky characters and setting, taking place in the Last Blockbuster store in existence. Story revolves around the three employees of the video store and an old VHS player that seems to rewrite movies, and possibly history, if said movie is based on real events. Lots of fun banter between the three main characters and tons of movie references.
Eventually things spiral and we’re moving through some alternate realities or time travel type scenarios, and we’re not quite sure what exactly is happening, which forces you to stay on your toes and remain engaged and PAY ATTENTION. Best to read in one sitting or as few as possible, to keep that momentum going. The ride is wild and bumpy, and great fun. Has you reflecting on bigger themes, like your own recollection of reality, maybe blurred by nostalgia, or maybe just intertwined memories of movies. Who knows. Again, you don’t just show up for DJK, you gotta be prepared….and the payoff is there.
Good opening hook, cool quirky characters and setting, taking place in the Last Blockbuster store in existence. Story revolves around the three employees of the video store and an old VHS player that seems to rewrite movies, and possibly history, if said movie is based on real events. Lots of fun banter between the three main characters and tons of movie references.
Eventually things spiral and we’re moving through some alternate realities or time travel type scenarios, and we’re not quite sure what exactly is happening, which forces you to stay on your toes and remain engaged and PAY ATTENTION. Best to read in one sitting or as few as possible, to keep that momentum going. The ride is wild and bumpy, and great fun. Has you reflecting on bigger themes, like your own recollection of reality, maybe blurred by nostalgia, or maybe just intertwined memories of movies. Who knows. Again, you don’t just show up for DJK, you gotta be prepared….and the payoff is there.
January 9, 2026
The last Blockbuster video store in the US is there, but barely, and at what cost? Head Cleaner follows employees Jerry, Randy, and Eva as they navigate finding their deaths on video tapes in their own store. Confused on where it comes from and if their fateful ending even holds weight, the format of this one follows all three as we get their different reactions and perceptions to the shenanigans. I absolutely loved how the author included alternate movie endings- for an early 90s girl like me, the descriptions provided warm nostalgia and it was REALLY creative to incorporate such elements into this story. Unfortunately, the timeline and the way the prose was written made this one drag on for me. The plot, albeit exciting, moved along slowly and rather disjointed in my opinion. This one could have been a LOT more, and a lot less at the same time. Excellent execution, and I look forward to trying again with this author. Thank you so much to the author, NetGalley, and Datura Books for the chance to read and review this digital ARC. All reviews are my own.
November 4, 2024
A strong 3, for me. I went into it knowing it would be full of movie trivia and media references and still found it a bit excessive at times, but it was still a fun read. I would say it's 'okay' rather than 'good,' because I found all the characters to be equally unlikeable by the end and it was a bit tonally confusing. Kind of an irreverent semi-thriller? Not funny enough to be comedy, not tense enough for me to think of it as horror, and not a whole lot of character development imo. All of the violence/craziness didn't land for me because the characters respond to it with more one-liners rather than a human reaction of any kind. Lost me at the end, not only conceptually, but in my personal investment in the story. Not a very satisfying resolution, but I still had a fun time reading this one and will be on the lookout for other works by this author, as I enjoyed his writing style and premise.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The unluckiest video store employees. The reality shifting VCR. That mysterious cat who reappears at exactly the wrong (and right?) times. That ever changing, ever shifting house. Is the weirdness due to time travel, or conspiracies, or a mixture of both? Maybe neither?
The novel is extremely complex, but I went easily along with it, as it ticked off all the right boxes for me (snarky dialogue, film buff discussions, physical media, etc). I read through it so quickly, just loving the weirdness and the interactions between the employees.
Up until the last 10% or so of the novel, where it became SO abstract, and I realized that there wasn't really going to be a real ending (anything that would conclude on the myriad of plot threads in the novel). It felt like the ending to Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, where it all became less about a specific story/character and more a showcase for ideas and concepts.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book.
The novel is extremely complex, but I went easily along with it, as it ticked off all the right boxes for me (snarky dialogue, film buff discussions, physical media, etc). I read through it so quickly, just loving the weirdness and the interactions between the employees.
Up until the last 10% or so of the novel, where it became SO abstract, and I realized that there wasn't really going to be a real ending (anything that would conclude on the myriad of plot threads in the novel). It felt like the ending to Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, where it all became less about a specific story/character and more a showcase for ideas and concepts.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book.
September 20, 2023
Tie those shoes on with the wheels in the heels, and skate into a kaleidoscopic, nostalgic, world of VHS cassettes, Rented (maybe) cursed VCR’s, and Creeps who take the chance to catch a quick glimpse as you crouch to organize the merchandise.
Head out on an adventure-filled search for that great “White Whale.”.. I won’t spoil what that might be, or why it might just mess up your evening(s?) No spoilers here. Just dead media, dead flesh and a boatload of crazy fun! This is not your mothers “remember the old days” speech, and if you don’t figure it out? Well… let’s just say, let David James Keaton take you on a ride into the shadows. A FUN ride, but a ride nonetheless.
Very cool, super exciting, and extra brain boiling- this is our author hitting his marks like a director. Don’t be left behind. The last store might be the last one you ever get to see…Totally recommended!
Head out on an adventure-filled search for that great “White Whale.”.. I won’t spoil what that might be, or why it might just mess up your evening(s?) No spoilers here. Just dead media, dead flesh and a boatload of crazy fun! This is not your mothers “remember the old days” speech, and if you don’t figure it out? Well… let’s just say, let David James Keaton take you on a ride into the shadows. A FUN ride, but a ride nonetheless.
Very cool, super exciting, and extra brain boiling- this is our author hitting his marks like a director. Don’t be left behind. The last store might be the last one you ever get to see…Totally recommended!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2025
This was a strange book. A lot of it reminded me of a Marx brothers movie where people were running in and out of rooms off a corridor and constantly missing the person they were searching for or chasing. I'm pretty good at juggling time lines and story lines, and I couldn't really get a handle on what was happening or in what direction things were going. Some of the writing was fun. There was a lot of video nerd dialogue.
Slacker loser video nerds working in the Last Blockbuster. When they go to collect the long overdue videotapes and player from The White Whale, they come upon a women who has committed suicide almost in front of them, but when they play the video recording, they find that things have been altered. And that's enough of a plot teaser.
Slacker loser video nerds working in the Last Blockbuster. When they go to collect the long overdue videotapes and player from The White Whale, they come upon a women who has committed suicide almost in front of them, but when they play the video recording, they find that things have been altered. And that's enough of a plot teaser.
January 8, 2026
This book has such a zany and interesting premise. I like the vibes of the last Blockbuster and the end of that era. I knew this would be a book in which you need to suspend your disbelief and keep an open mind. There is a time-loop trope which is hard to execute and I’m not sure if this book really nailed it either, but it was close. There is a lot going on in this book and maybe a bit too much. I think if the author edited out some of the “fluff” and narrowed in on less concepts then this book would’ve landed better. Overall, I had a pretty good time, and I would recommend it to certain people but not to just anyone.
Thank you, NetGalley and Datura for allowing me to read this early. The opinion in this review is my own.
Thank you, NetGalley and Datura for allowing me to read this early. The opinion in this review is my own.
May 19, 2023
I genuinely have no idea how to rate this book. Was it brilliant or epically nonsensical? It definitely made no sense. Some points it was almost like the sentences were put together in a way that wasn't English. And yet I read the whole thing. I was desperate to understand and just enough compelled to keep going. It reminded me a lot of a Ted Dekker novel. His books also made no sense, tried to be smarter than they were (or were they brilliant?) and ultimately left you wanting, but not necessarily knowing what it was you wanted. Clarity? Yes.
I liked this novel even if it left me mostly just confused. Like a fever dream.
I don't know that I would read from him again.
I liked this novel even if it left me mostly just confused. Like a fever dream.
I don't know that I would read from him again.
February 28, 2024
It's pretty much a blast from start to finish. It felt a bit like Community was doing a Netflix sci-fi romp. Filled with deep cuts that I loved and way too many that I didn't pick up on.
The characters were great, and the jokes were good. Felt like a love letter for forgotten relics. Of course, I didn't understand aspects of the plot, especially when it came to loops and time, but that's a better sign. If I can understand it it means that it's probably stupid. Absolutely charming and such a fun read.
Could ramble a lot but I think this just did such a good of mixing great writing with forgotten media.
The characters were great, and the jokes were good. Felt like a love letter for forgotten relics. Of course, I didn't understand aspects of the plot, especially when it came to loops and time, but that's a better sign. If I can understand it it means that it's probably stupid. Absolutely charming and such a fun read.
Could ramble a lot but I think this just did such a good of mixing great writing with forgotten media.
April 22, 2024
This was like "Clerks" meets "The Office" meets "The Twilight Zone." I honestly have no idea what just happened. For most of the time I felt like I was on drugs. I enjoyed myself for most of the read, but would have appreciated a better sense of what was actually going on by the end. We don't know anything. I experienced a level of confusion and deep frustration similar to when I finished the show "Lost." It's one thing to make up a bunch of weird stuff, but ideally at some point it would all come together in a cohesive way. I did enjoy the nostalgia of the video store days. I kind of want to get some Taco Bell and watch something on VHS. 🙂
dnf
October 21, 2025DNF. Was a bit of fun riding along with the references and banter for a reading session, but around halfway through I started to really question if there was any thing I expected to get out of more reading than what I already experienced. Gave it another session after that and just lost the plot and wasn’t interested enough in anything going on to get immersed again. Time travel mechanics didn’t make enough sense to me to be interesting, or maybe weren’t interesting enough for me to spend the time to try and understand them
January 10, 2026
received as a NetGalley arc in exchange for an honest review
3.5 stars rounded to 4
This is a fun take on old tech, intersecting timelines, and mysterious henchmen. I struggled to continue with this in the beginning because I found Jerry to be frustratingly unlikeable but I'm glad I continued through to the end.
I would classify this more as sci-fi, rather than horror. I expected it to have a stronger more atmospheric terror component but I think that's just because I've read more books on this topic in that vein.
3.5 stars rounded to 4
This is a fun take on old tech, intersecting timelines, and mysterious henchmen. I struggled to continue with this in the beginning because I found Jerry to be frustratingly unlikeable but I'm glad I continued through to the end.
I would classify this more as sci-fi, rather than horror. I expected it to have a stronger more atmospheric terror component but I think that's just because I've read more books on this topic in that vein.
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