Light Switches Are My Kryptonite

Description of book

I started on light switches … I had to run my fingertip along every bit of the light switch – the edges, the corners, the button – in a particular order and pattern … If I didn't get it just right, maybe bad things would happen.


Sylvester spends a lot of time in his room, under the duvet, muttering his mantra – Timolol, Diclofenac, Alfacalcidol – and gluing glitter to the light switches. If he doesn't the evil witch might curse him, or his perverted thoughts be exposed for the world to see. Or maybe he's just being irrational...?


Forced back home to live with his dealer dad, Carl, Sylvester's imagination takes flight, along with his sanity. The next week is a roller coaster ride through OCD, paranoia, and psychedelia as Sylvester, Carl and Sylvester's fragile friend Patty negotiate a life which seems determined to push them to the limits.


Along the way there are laughs, horror and moments of tender compassion. And the story of what happened to Sylvester's mum, which has made him the young man he is: not quite broken, not quite fixed.