In Frank Herbert’s 1966 novel The Green Brain, an alliance of insects unites and begins behaving in a frightening human-like manner. It’s what entomologists might call “swarm intelligence.” 

There’s a story in Dillon Wylder’s first short story collection, that touches on a similar collective consciousness idea—albeit in a more facile way. 

The unnamed narrator of “Hidden Potential” discovers that his dead father was actually a human simulacrum comprised entirely of cockroaches. Now that their human host is dead, the infestation is looking for a new body to inhabit. “They need a new hole,” says Wylder chillingly. 

Comment: Finding out that your father is a human-shaped cockroach is pretty gruesome, but the yuckiest part of the story is when the narrator accidentally discovers his takeout dinner is actually Kung Pao Kockroach. He’s disgusted, of course, but the joke’s on him. We’ll all be eating bugs for sustenance in the near future. Get used to it. 

Continuing with another creepy-crawly story, “Bug Legs” is about the sadistic thrill a young boy gets from pulling the legs off insects. Like Thom Yorke, the boy is “a weirdo and a grade-A creep.” 

Things take a twist when the kid encounters a giant insect-like creature in the woods. Although his comeuppance doesn’t come as a surprise, it’s still an absurd way to end the story of Charlie, the wriggling torso. 

There are a lot of male characters in this anthology who receive brutal comeuppance. For example,“Who Do Voodoo” is about a man who wants to kill his wife using a voodoo doll. There’s only one problem—even with a cursory Google search he can’t figure out how to go about it. Frustrated, he asks his wife (!!) to make the doll for him. She makes the doll and kills him the next morning. Let this be a lesson to all the men out there: always clear your search history before going to bed.  

There’s also a couple of fun stories featuring young women luring feeble-minded men to their doom. Most notably the lacertomorph in “Gone Fishin’” and the flirty amphibian girl in “God of the Gnar.” 

But without a doubt the volume’s centerpiece is “Truckenstein Must Die” a 2000 AD-like story about a man-made monster built from the body parts of the deceased. “Truckenstein likes to destroy electric vehicles and suck the juice from their batteries,” explains the author. “He doesn’t mind killing their owners, either.” 

He’s a massive brick wall of a man, a seven-foot-tall monster with an ugly green mug. He looks like your average run-of-the-mill Frankenstein but with a lug wrench jammed into his skull. 

Not only does he resemble Mary Shelley’s iconic creation, but he also suffers from the same existential sadness. He even quotes from the source material: “All men hate the wretched,” he moans. “How then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things?” Truckenstein’s not exactly a sympathetic creature, but readers will recognize his isolation and the hatred he inspires.

[ Ghoul! / By Dillon Wylder / First Printing: September 2025 / ISBN: 9798223498810 ]