Every Fox is a Rabid Fox by Harry Gallon

Robert is an unintentional killer. Not only did he fatally elbow his twin sister out of their mother’s womb, he is also responsible for the death of his brother at a much later, unspecified age. In Harry Gallon’s second novel Every Fox is a Rabid Fox, we’re given a full tour of the inner workings of a deeply disturbed, sadistically inclined intellect as he struggles to deal with his turbulent upbringing.

Equal parts Fight Club and The Wasp Factory, the novel attempts to be as harrowing and bewildering as both but ultimately lacks the power and originality of either of those classics. The free-flowing narrative style, which continually jumps back and forth in time and place, achieves the disorientating effect it sets out for, but potentially at the expense of reader enjoyment, and at times it seems as though Gallon is pressing a little too hard on the shock factor pedal.

Having said that, the writer certainly has a lucid, eminently readable style and his dalliances with familial trauma (especially when using the tactic of the naïve narrator) are compelling and compassionate. It’s a worthy, mind-piquing read with loftily cynical sights which doesn’t always score a clean hit – but which may well be all the better off for the raggedness of its wounds. At its best, an overtly stylised and shocking exploration of a disturbed mind, from the exciting new publisher Dead Ink. [Jonny Sweet]