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This novel made of GIFs is kind of terrifying

This novel made of GIFs is kind of terrifying

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Blood and guts, in GIF form

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In an attempt to feed our depleting attention spans, or maybe just for fun, writer and artist Dennis Cooper has unleashed a brain-scrambling new "reading experience" onto the world. Cooper, whose work includes the drug-and-sex-fueled series known as the George Miles cycle, has released his newest novel, Zac's Haunted House, entirely in GIF form.

The novel, which is more like a visual short story, is made up of a preface, an afterword, and five chapters, all of which contain dozens of loosely interconnected GIFs. The GIFs range from pulsing hearts and grainy home movie disasters to pixel art and tumbling puppies, sourced from the depths of the entertainment world. Slinky commercials, Willard, hair metal bands, Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, Clark Gable, and even Aaron Carter make an appearance. The inherent shivering, nervous energy of the GIF form becomes a part of the story, building a tense atmosphere in a way that's more cinematic than literary. If that sounds like the kind of head-rush you need, you can view the novel online, or grab it here as a 275MB download.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, Clark Gable, and Aaron Carter make an appearance

Although we've recently seen the literary world moving towards subscription services, ebooks, and the age of Amazon, we can't say we didn't expect someone to make a GIF book sooner or later. But this one is still damn fun to look at. According to the book's credits, Zac's Haunted House is part of a "cycle-in-progress of novels" inspired by visual artist Zac Farley, with whom Cooper is currently working on an upcoming feature-length film, Like Cattle Towards Glow.