The Subterranean Season — Dale Bailey

A disgruntled grad student finds a way to get rid of his problems in this “creepy, satiric twist on the campus novel” with an “utterly chilling ending” (Publishers Weekly).

An International Horror Guild and Shirley Jackson Award�"Winning Author and a Bram Stoker Award Nominee

Massive crowds of adoring fans gather at West Georgia University's football stadium every Saturday to see the mighty Fighting Bobcats. Underneath the stadium, in a dingy office, PhD student Alex Kern toils away, grading undergrads' papers, struggling to pass his own classes, and bemoaning his crumbling romantic relationship. Then one day, he discovers a strange, seemingly bottomless hole. When Alex throws a rock into it, he can't hear it land. And before long, he throws something else into it: a very annoying student.

But nothing happens. No missing-person alerts. No investigations. Alex then disposes of a world-renowned Ezra Pound scholar. Still nothing. Everything appears to be fine.

Until he makes the mistake of dropping the Fighting Bobcats' star quarterback down the hole . . .

“Takes on every aspect of campus life with razor-sharp glee, especially the all-too-common elevation of sports over academics, and the unforgiving hierarchy of academia. Alex's metamorphosis, from basically decent to completely unhinged, is both terrifying and fascinating.” -- Publishers Weekly