Hero Custodian

By Matthew Dexter

From Anxiety Press

A narrator hallucinates through violence, absurdity, and darkness while navigating relationships with their daughter and students in this transgressive novel.

When a brutal incident shatters a suburban high school, custodian Ted Wasophagus is hailed as a hero. Ted is not heroic. He survives by polishing surfaces, restoring order, cleaning spaces where damage is scrubbed but never eliminated. His mess remains. It cannot be washed away.

"Every sentence of Hero Custodian goes so fucking hard. A brilliant concept made even better by the pure decadence of language piledriven into it, overloaded with incredible nastiness and prurient references that made me unable to stop reading because I kept wanting to see what the next sentence would do. I loved it and found myself laughing my ass off in admiration for Matthew Dexter's steel balls and ornate style."

-Blake Butler, author of Molly

"This novel is so great on so many levels. The reader hallucinating along with the narrator, the relationship with the daughter, the teacher/student stuff...the violence, the absurdity, the hilarity and super darkness. Endless anatomical grossness and mishaps. DRUGS. I love drugs."

-Paula Bomer, author of The Stalker

"This isn't writing for the faint of heart. It's the wild, hypnotic vision-prose of Burroughs, the even wilder psychedelic moontrip-hallucinations of Hunter S. Thompson. Dexter is indeed a legitimate heir to their theater."

-Douglas Cole, author of The Invisible Hand

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GZ2S5RVQ
• ISBN13: 9798243723640
• Release Date: April 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"