Featured in Zoetic Press's Heathentide Orphans and Ab Terra's 2023 Science Fiction Anthology Debut author Stephen Nothum delivers a twisted and honest collection of short stories that places America in front of a black mirror. Teething and Other Tales from the American Dystopia introduces readers to a strange but familiar world where AI remnants of the deceased post online for eternity, school shooters are All-American heroes, Meme Cults run havoc across the country, and people everywhere slaughter their own livestock at slaughter gyms. Other stories explore the most essential interpersonal elements of American life: a mother trapped forever in her daughter's 9th birthday party, a man plagued by the reality that his family needs to kill him, and an irresistibly lovable neighbor whose identity is a lie. Insightful and raw, Nothum's black humor forces readers to ask the same questions asked by one story's protagonist: is America getting worse, or is it only becoming clearer what America has always been? Is dystopia the future, or are we already there?
