The Baltimore Atrocities

by John Dermot Woods (contributor)

Praise for John Dermot Electric Literature 25 Best Novels of 2014"Poignant and unsettling, and much like a good short story collection these tales resonate long after the book is closed."— Largehearted Boy"An accomplished artist and writer, in addition to being an entertaining and often an electrifying one. John Woods does something very original in his combining of the arts in this collection, and my hat's off to him in his two-hat achievement."— Stephen Dixon"Like a lost season of The Wire directed by Richard Linklater, The Baltimore Atrocities beguiles, bemuses, often horrifies, and never fails to impress. John Woods renders small moments of intimacy and violence with remarkable compression and eerie calm; together they form a rich disturbing portrait of the city-as-zonked-out-slaughterhouse, its denizens both the butchers and the butchered." —Justin Taylor, author of FlingsThe Baltimore Atrocities is a mordant, deadpan collection of more than one hundred murders, betrayals, heartbreaks, suicides, and bureaucratic snafus—each with a half-page illustration by the author—that tells the story of a couple who spends a year in Baltimore in search of their respective siblings, who were abducted decades earlier as young children.John Dermot Woods is a writer and cartoonist living in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of a collection of comics, Activities (Publishing Genius, 2013), and two previous illustrated novels, No One Told Me I Was Going to Disappear (with J.A. Tyler) and The Complete Collection of people, places & things . He and Lincoln Michel created the funny comic strip Animals in Midlife Crises for the Rumpus . He is a professor of English at Nassau Community College.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

259 pages, ebook

First published September 22, 2014

About the author

John Dermot Woods writes stories and draws comics in Brooklyn, NY. His first collection of comics, Activities, is now available from Publishing Genius Press. He is the author of the image-text novels The Complete Collection of People, Places, and Things, and, in collaboration with J. A. Tyler, No One Told Me I Was Going To Disappear. He and Lincoln Michel published their funny comic strip, Animals in Midlife Crises at The Rumpus. (Now they are hard at work on very long story featuring Werner Herzog as a park ranger.) He is a founder of the online arts journal Action, Yes and a professor of English and Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I started this book, I thought, "It's delightfully odd!"
But, the closer to the end I came, the more exhausted I felt reading this.

It's a story of two young men who meet in their senior year of high school. They come to find out they both lost a sibling to abduction - both abductions taking place in the same park in Baltimore.
It becomes an obsession for both. They move to Baltimore and try to find those siblings.

This book has a really unique formatting. Each chapter is a few pages of the actual story, followed by 3 (or more as the book progresses) vignettes describing "atrocities". Most of the atrocities are deaths; some accidental, most not. Each vignette is about a page or less and accompanied by a drawing.

For me, this book starts out with real potential and interest, but then the story never really goes anywhere. The obsession and search becomes never-ending and ends up just feeling very draining, for the characters and definitely for me as well.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are so many instances when literature waxes poetic on its chosen city, despite all odds, statistics, crime rates, etc. But not this book. This book presents Baltimore in all its gloomy, creepy, murderous splendor. One atrocity at a time.
Such an unconventional novel this is. It utilizes a method of interspersing the central narrative with random thematically connected vignettes. I know there’s a word for this technique, but it eludes me at the moment. At any rate, it worked surprisingly well, the sum total doesn’t seem disjointed. The bones held the meat. Etc.
The main plot is a story of the narrator, Barney, and his companion, searching for their siblings, both of whom have disappeared some time in the past in Baltimore. Barney and his companion get a chance to housesit In Baltimore for a year and jump on the opportunity, thinking this will help their search, only to find out once there that Baltimore isn’t a city to give up its secrets easily or at all. Barely a city at all, more of a frightening abyss of doom that hungrily devours its denizens in a variety of mordantly creative ways.
Such an odd number, but made for a strangely compelling read. The classically posh narrative tone juxtaposed ever so nicely with the morbid contents. The reality and surreality (Word insists on surrealness, but honestly my version seems more fitting) worked side by side instead of competing to create something genuinely original and compelling. There are also cartoons with each chapter, though not sure they added much to the production, other than informing you that the author can also draw.
Overall, quirky in the right way. Some kind of fun. read quickly as to not overstay its welcome. Definitely had a certain charm to it…unlike, say, Baltimore.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Kati Heng · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never been to Baltimore but I’d love to see this seedy little place in person. I wonder if the city is really like John Waters’ depictions, a place where the seedy underbelly grows so fat it spills over, covering the whole town. I thought maybe it’s just Waters’ style and the reaction of his twisted groupies, but then comes John Dermot Woods’ The Baltimore Atrocities, another look into the cruel, creepy and cringe-worthy actions of despicable people, once again set in Baltimore.

Woods’ story starts off with our narrator filling you in on the grotesque Baltimore school system of his childhood. A little boy, he and his lab partner are sent to the principal’s office for dissecting a frog and then swirling the guts inside the dish to make a beautiful arrangement. Gross, sure, but the kid doesn’t understand why making something so beautiful out of something so morbid gets them into trouble.

From there, we get more of the narrator’s story spliced through the pages. As he grows, he loses his sister somewhere near the park. It’s strange for most, but in Baltimore, it happens to so many. Families lose their eldest. Siblings go missing. Authorities seem lacking in care or maybe, just really bad at tracking the kids down.

And so, our narrator and another young man, one who had lost his brother in almost the same area team up to start an investigation of their own. Just like the kid did with that frog, the young man cut up the gross insides of the town, spread them out for all to see, and ultimately, create something morbidly beautiful and fascinating from the filth.

While a frame, the narrator and his companion’s story are just a small part of Wood’s masterpiece. I’d say at least 75% of the emotional stuff, the horror, the filth and the humor is found in the short 2-page caricatures of the city’s freaks, one page dedicated to the tales of these despicable people, the other to a Woods’ drawn profile of the creeps (think a Daniel Clowes’ down to under-earth style honesty to the drawings, which, YUM).

Remember how early I just mentioned how the school system was messed up for punishing kids for dissecting kids the wrong way? Investigation into the Baltimore Atrocities uncovers way more filth than that. For instance, a teacher finds a note signed by 18 children in the class making fun of him, then gets his revenge by cutting off the pinkie fingers of all offending children. A child gets sent to school with home baked treats from her father, which, we learn, he has laced with poison, killing almost the entire class. Kids in this town are lost everyday.

It seems everyone in the city has a dark disgusting secret or a missing relative or child. There are over a hundred murders in here. Limbs are more expendable than in the “Saw” franchise (although the blood does not get as big of a close up, so don’t set this book aside because of puke-factor). So why didn’t I just set this book aside and read something uplifting? The thing is, like a bad limerick, Woods’ caricatures are extreme and vial, but ultimately, more relatable to the type of people who believe everyone’s got a dark side, whether you see it on the surface or have to wait for it to be uncovered by the police reports.

[Frank Bonomo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky, like Bmore. Slow plot, not easy to connect.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Joke

If you like jokes that aren't funny, movies that have no ending, or library books with stained pages, this may be a novelfor you. If this was a parody it almost succeeded.

[Brendan T mooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightfully queer

While comprised of many somewhat related bizarre short stories, you can’t help being entertained, engaged, perplexed, and left wanting more.

[Theresa Kulenkamp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Morbid, plodding and sophomoric. Illustrations are subpar.

[Cara Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a lifetime of hearing, reading, and watching stories, in books, on radio, in TV, and in film, I'm increasingly in search of oddity - not a twist, which has almost become a formula unto itself - but a story doing something I might once have believed a story ought never do, and then discovering that it works. This story is like that. I enjoyed The Baltimore Atrocities with a sense of wonder at unearthing a series of oddities. The story's premise, structure, point-of-view, voice, and conclusion were all unexpected. The material was dark, but never too heavy. It pushed me to engage my brain, but never left me confused. I loved the way each moment was self-contained yet contributed to a fascinating whole. If you prefer weird and unsettling over comfortable, then this book is for you.

[Daniel Koch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clever concept but extremely tedious to read through. Some insightful observations to be sure, but my lord is it repetitive. John Dermot Woods nails the Baltimore as Ravenloft gloomy vibe, but the main storyline that is woven throughout the collection of short story chapters is an unremarkable slog.

A whole lot of murder, suicide, animal violence, despair depression, disappearances, and death in play here. I am sure goths would love it. I did not.

[Brooks Sterritt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"My least favorite civic institutions, which, to my knowledge, only exist in Baltimore, are dead animal lending libraries and, as such, I've always had a distaste for the people who frequent and work at these institutions."

[Wendy]

This wasn't for me. I made it to 51% and called it.

[Marti Pomplon]

Awful, I couldn't finish it.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slackers are boring

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, even though I had no idea what to expect going in. It was gloomy and depressing and the anecdotes between chapters had such a good balance of vaguely humorous crimes and really terrible atrocities. I felt like the book as a whole had a similar atmosphere to "Fight Club", so I was especially glad that we didn't have some sort of twist involving the two investigating characters. I liked that Woods never tried to back down or undercut the atrocities he was describing, and the atmosphere of the book was really compelling even as it was awful.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange little book that seems to have very little to do with the real city of Baltimore other than an impressive inclusion of neighborhood names and local landmarks. The overwhelmingly white characters lacked the diversity that pretty much defines Baltimore. I don’t know. I liked it well enough, I guess, but it could have been so much more.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

It started out ok but soon became clear this was the strangest most dreary book I’ve ever read. I couldn’t wait to finish it and move on to something that made sense and didn’t make me feel like I was walking under a black cloud all the time!

[Sabra Kurth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky, sad. An interesting look at Baltimore through a narrator whose sister disappeared in the city. Years later, he and a high school classmate whose brother also disappeared in Baltimore, move to the city to try to find their siblings. They uncover many sad tales in Baltimore and other places.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5- This is a very strange book that is often annoying in places (especially the drawings) but I found quite moving in gestalt.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, it has a whole other atmosphere. There are multiple plot twists that leave you guessing what will happen next.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the stranger books I've ever read. I suspect I'll be thinking about it for a while.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange book. Well-crafted, it alternates between (very)short stories and the tale of 2yong Men searching for their missing siblings. Some stories are poignant, most are dark all are into.

[Eric Brandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

What starts out as an interesting literary device winds up just feeling like a gimmick. And the “shaggy dog story” that is the underlying plot doesn’t help. Engaging writing that goes nowhere.

[Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique

This is a strange and bizarre book. I knew it would be out of the norm when I chose to read it. Did I like it? I guess so. It would be a fascinating movie or TV series.

[Erik Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was interesting. Drug a bit for the last 1/3rd. Not that the characters were unlikable but it felt scattered. I enjoyed the author's voice and night give one of his other books a shot

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I moved to Baltimore a few months ago and so I was curious about this book when I heard about it. Turns out, it really has very little to do with Baltimore, but I liked it anyway. Creepy and ambiguous. I feel like there are seeds of some hazy metaphor buried in this book -- something about lost children, something about finding purpose in life. But any deep meaning was pleasantly obscure.

I was about halfway through reading this when I flipped it open and noticed its dedication to Thomas Bernhard -- the same author I just read for the first time the week before! I can see why John Dermot Woods dedicated this to him, but I liked The Baltimore Atrocities much more than The Loser.

[Berenice · Rating 1 out of 5]

You probably shouldn't take my word for it: I skimmed it, because I really didn't like it, but was assigned to read for class.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a 3.5/4. I really enjoyed this book. The pace, the writing style, and the brief yet dark anecdotes throughout that wove the story the together.

[Erik H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, a mystery interwoven between the glimpses of tales of modern tragedy and absurdity. A mix of illustration and narration that left me intrigued by and excited for what was to come.

[Suzanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

A bunch of unrelated grisly tales of missing persons, murder, or loss of some kind. Underlying chapter prefaces two kids lost someone and as adults they try to find them.