Psych nursing can be a swanky job-until it isn't.

Dominic Crowe likes his work at the hospital. Taking vitals, collecting razors, pretending the lights aren't too bright. But when his body starts to stutter-headaches, hallucinations, sleepless nights-it's clear something deeper is unraveling. The patients aren't the only ones losing touch.

As Dominic slips from well-meaning professional to self-medicating wreck, the hospital around him transforms into a surreal, jazz-haunted nightmare. Palm trees sway outside the barred windows, poppies bloom against stucco, and somewhere between the linen and the blood, he starts to see what's really sick.

A fever dream of burnout, obsession, and decay-and inspired by the real Camarillo State Hospital before it closed-Sike is a confession told from the inside of a nervous breakdown. Skin-crawling, darkly funny, and psychologically honest, it's transgressive horror for anyone who's ever wondered how far the mind can go before it breaks.

Fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis will find themselves right at home.