Reinventing the Gothic: A Review of Colin Winnette’s “The Job of the Wasp”

There is something bizarre and unsettling at the core of Colin Winnette’s oeuvre, and whatever magical thing that is, it displays its power like the tail of a peacock in his latest, The Job of the Wasp. Released by Soft Skull Press, an indie press that ranks amongst my favorites, The Job of the Wasp is what would happen if William Golding’s Lord of the Flies crashed against Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone at high speed in a room […]

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Of Ambiguity and Evolution: Colin Winnette on Writing “The Job of the Wasp”

Some writers make use of ambiguity as a device in their work. In the case of Colin Winnette, it’s more like a weapon. In his recent novel Haints Stay, he one-upped the concept of the acid Western by presenting two killers whose relationship to one another shifts in unpredictable and revelatory ways. His latest novel, The Job of the Wasp, begins with a young man arriving at an isolated school for orphans, where he soon discovers conspiracies, unsettling histories, and […]

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