Metal and punk mixtapes are as much a part of the story as the people and often are the most articulate emotional expressions. A mixtape could be a declaration of love, an explosion of rage, or a cri de couer. Brian is coming of the age during the era of the mixtape, when boys and girls expressed their inner selves by compiling a cassette tape that bared their souls. He thinks a lot but his ideas are inchoate–he does not yet dare to follow his ideas to the realizations that, when they come, might draw him into adulthood. He rants, plots never-gonna-happen revenge, and imagines improbably fame as a musician. Told in the first person, his voice is authentic and honest. By authentic, I mean he is repetitive at times, often banal, frequently shallow and of course, his chronic obsession with girls and sex is dwarfed by his obsession with himself. Those events loom large because there will be pictures that will freeze him in time–forever to be judged by the merits or demerits of his date.

The story is organized around the big events of the school years, homecoming and prom. Brian is very much a typical adolescent boy, trying to fit in and trying to stand out at the same time. Hairstyles of the Damned is the story of Brian Oswald, a seventeen year old boy growing up on the south side of Chicago in 19. So, it was a struggle to read the book, but the book was well worth the struggle. Coupled with the smaller than usual point size of the type and occasional use of handwriting fonts and the book design seemed to this reader like a sign that said “No Grown-ups allowed.” Serif fonts are more readable in long printed text and with the san serif, I frequently lost my place on the the page. Perhaps I am being shallow, but I don’t think so. I would have enjoyed it more with a serif font. I enjoyed Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno very much.

Hairstyles of the damned by joe meno