I’ve been excited about Tim Molloy’s latest book ever since I heard it was coming out, this excitement was then exacerbated by the publisher, Milk Shadow Books, kindly agreeing to send me a copy of the book to review. I’ve read the previous one, Mr. Unpronouncable Adventures, perhaps a dozen times since I’d gotten it after seeing it somewhere online. Unlike Adventures, Mr Unpronouncable and the Sect of the Bleeding Eye isn’t so much a collection of maddeningly meandering and interconnected stories, but rather it is a more singular story which maddeningly meanders and loops.

Mr Unpronouncable is charged with the task of clearing the City of the Ever Open Eye from the dangerous new cult that is polluting its citizens – the Sect of the Bleeding Eye. Mr Unpronouncable must face Mantis Priests, possessed philosophers, demons, ghouls, zombies, and mostly, himself.

On one hand, the story is blissful escapism. The story is ridiculously fun, and given the amount of plot twists, doesn’t slow down for a second. On the other hand, Molloy’s keen eye for society is clear. The comment being made is most prominently about religion, but also about television, drugs, even certain thoughts. I’ve said this about Tim Molloy’s last book, but whenever I read a Mr. Unpronouncable story I feel as though he could be a character in a story by Kafka. The paradoxes of his adventures closely mirroring those of Joseph K. or Gregor Samsa: brimming with confusion, facing unseen enemies,

The art, as in Tim Molloy’s other work, is beautiful. The style is bold and clear, reminiscent somewhat of Moebius (though by no means copying him). The gruesome imagery evokes the sliminess and stickiness of the disgusting things Molloy draws. One final thing which deserves praise is that the story is in many parts either silent, or told with Unpronouncable symbols, thus relying on the art to be told. One easily forgets the art is meant to be telling the story on its own, and not merely supporting the words. Tim Molloy reminds us how to tell a story with pictures.

In case you couldn’t tell from my gloating over this book, I liked it. Get it from the publisher here.