Eraserhead Press, 122 pages, paperback, $9.95

With more than 45 novels to his name, the most impressive thing about Carlton Mellick III is not that he somehow manages to keep pumping out books at a rate that puts most other authors to shame, but the fact that he keeps delivering fresh narratives that are firmly rooted in the bizarre while also having layers that go above and beyond the weirdness. With Every Time We Meet at the Dairy Queen, Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes, Mellick proves that he’s not afraid to be as wild as ever while also delving into the emotional space of young adults that he so masterfully explored in Quicksand House.

Ethan is in love with the weird girl in his school. People mostly stay away from her because she has twitchy eyes, rarely speaks, and has spiders in her hair. In fact, they call her Spiderweb. Despite all this, he thinks she’s the cutest girl in school, and after many bus rides slowly getting closer to each other, the youngsters finally start officially going out. Unfortunately, there’s a problem:

“Being Spiderweb’s boyfriend is the best. It’s made me happier than I’ve ever been in my life. But there’s a big problem. Every time we go on a date, her face explodes. I don’t know how it happens. I don’t understand what can possibly cause such a thing to occur. She just seems to get so excited that pressure builds behind her skin. Her cheeks boil, her forehead bubbles, steam sifts through her lips and nostrils. Then her whole fucking face explodes.”

The poor girl regularly runs home and gets put back together with mismatched patches of skin that quickly heal, but her constant exploding is a hindrance to the budding relationship. What follows is a strange, heartwarming tale of young love in which Ethan learns about his love’s extraordinary condition, his family, and even the creepy precedence of the skin used to fix her after every explosion.

As usual, Mellick’s latest is something that can be enjoyed at face value or peeled to reveal a surprising depth that most readers unfamiliar with the bizarro genre might think is lacking based on the cover and title. Sure, this is a narrative about a couple of kids in love who have to deal with one of them exploding when they get too close to one another, but it’s also an exploration of desire and the way we pursue the things we want and love despite the obvious consequences.

There are plenty of reasons to admire Mellick. He continually pushes to create new things, to offer his readers something different, and to flip the bird at traditional publishing with eye-catching covers and insane titles. Furthermore, even though bizarro has grown exponentially as a genre, this author is at the top of the heap because he can deliver books that appear to be in disagreement with themselves. Every Time We Meet at the Dairy Queen, Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes is a perfect example of the dichotomies this author can bring to the table: a novella with the word fucking in the title that’s also a delightful and unpredictably moving story of love, longing, spiders, leaving home, and strange creatures in the basement.

If you’re a fan of Mellick, this is another great addition to his catalog. If you’ve never read him, this is a good a place as any to start, and start you should.

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Gabino Iglesias is a writer, journalist, and book reviewer living in Austin, TX. He’s the author of Zero Saints, Gutmouth, Hungry Darkness, and a few other things no one will ever read. You can find him on Twitter at @Gabino_Iglesias.