What is it about the jobs of proofreaders at romance publisher Harlequin? Does reading about heaving bosoms and throbbing manhoods lead one to depression?

First, woman-about-town and former Harlequin proofreader Emily Schultz released Heaven Is Small — a disorienting (and wonderful) take on the afterlife whose protagonist gets an ever-stranger job with a mysterious corporation in which nothing is as it appears to be and questions of basic identity are everywhere. It’s highly recommended and out this month in trade paperback from Anansi.

Now former Harlequin proofreader Peter Darbyshire comes out with The Warhol Gang (out in hardcover this month from HarperCollins), a disorienting (and chest-thumping) take on consumer culture whose protagonist gets an ever-stranger job with a mysterious corporation in which nothing is as it appears to be and questions of basic identity are all-consuming.

It’s a riveting story told in Palahniuk-spare sentences that rattle like machine-gun fire around your head, and it is also highly recommended — although you’ll want to take breaks from reading it to lighten the oppressive dystopian atmosphere likely to invade the inside of your head.