The Job of the Wasp: A Novel

"A witty and grisly gothic unlike anything I've ever read. You should absolutely read this." Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

A new arrival at an isolated school for orphaned boys quickly comes to realize there is something wrong with his new home. He hears chilling whispers in the night, his troubled classmates are violent and hostile, and the Headmaster sends cryptic messages, begging his new charge to confess. As the new boy learns to survive on the edges of this impolite society, he starts to unravel a mystery at the school's dark heart. And that's when the corpses start turning up.

A coming-of-age tale, a Gothic ghost story, and a murder mystery all in one, The Job of the Wasp is a bloodcurdling and brilliantly subversive novel about paranoia, love, and the nightmare of adolescence.

"’ve never read anything like this book before. Colin Winnette’s voice is utterly unique, his writing is delirious. This book is surreal, it’s scary like a weird dream, and it is hilarious. He is a hugely talented writer. ” Patrick Hoffman, author of Every Man a Menace and The White Van

"Lord of the Flies meets Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone in this incredibly haunting book. ” John Gibbs, Assistant Store Manager / Buyer, Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco, CA

"Unreliable narrators are the best narrators. Unreliable narrators with homicidal tendencies in a creepy orphanage where everyone else also seems to have homicidal tendencies are even better . . . Best read on a gray night with a hot drink." Anton Bogomazov, Politics & Prose (Washington, D.C.)

Colin Winnette is the author of Revelation, Animal Collection, Fondly, Coyote, and Haints Stay. His writing has appeared in Playboy, McSweeney’s, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Believer, and numerous other journals and anthologies. He lives in San Francisco.