"Darkly Funny" - Publishers Weekly
★
"Darkly Funny" - Publishers Weekly ★
From the Author: In suburban Wells Port, things are not what they seem: wild animals appear unexpectedly in backyards, raised garden beds produce fruit in days, not weeks, and a mysterious figure lurks across sidewalks late at night.
The stories in Starman After Midnight weave an often hilarious and sometimes melancholy spell. Four young boys are terrorized by a wiener dog on their walk to school, but strategize for a safer route. A beer-loving man befriends a likeminded neighbor, only to discover his jovial new acquaintance is a registered sex offender. An elderly Uber driver suspects a young rider is being lured by a night stalker and debates whether he should help her or mind his own business.
Connecting these stories are two next-door neighbors—Seff and Big Dave—who couldn't be more different: one a progressive-minded writer, the other a conservative plumber. Their love of beer drinking, backyard philosophizing, and gossiping brings them together. When several pets in the neighborhood wind up missing or worse—dead—Seff and Big Dave monitor their security cameras for the culprit. When they discover a naked man roaming their street late at night, suspicions are raised while hysteria spreads through the neighborhood social media app. What is the connection between the missing pets and this naked man? Seff and Big Dave form a posse of neighbors to find out.
““Darkly funny... Semegran has a knack for drawing colorful characters. This waggish slice of life is worth a look.” ”
Moving between humor and surrealism, friendship and grief, Starman After Midnight is a novel told in stories, a collection that adds up to something greater than the sum of its parts. From the quirky imagination of Scott Semegran, Starman After Midnight packs a comedic punch and uncovers the magic that seems possible in ordinary places.
Our Take: This genre-blurring, voice-rich collection slips easily between laugh-out-loud suburban absurdity and moments of startling tenderness. Told in interconnected stories, Starman After Midnight captures the strange magic of ordinary lives—where wiener dogs become villains, neighbors become investigators, and a beer on the porch might spark an existential breakthrough. Scott Semegran writes with equal parts warmth, wit, and just enough weird to keep you guessing. A perfect pick for fans of slice-of-life fiction with a surreal twist, or anyone who suspects there’s more to the cul-de-sac than meets the eye.
From the Reader: “There is a reason this author is one of my favorites. His writing is so flawless and makes reading a delight […] I love how quirky the two main characters are and how their friendship just...is. You have to read this to understand what I mean by that.”