An independent small pressPaper only · printed in our own shopFounded by Steve O’Brien
Brain Freeze Books seal: an icy BFB monogram rising from an open book, Est. NYC

Brain Freeze Books

Freeze Your Scroll

Real paperbacks, printed with care in our own shop and mailed to your door. No apps, no screens, no middlemen. Just a good story you can hold in your hands.

See the booksAbout the press

Words you can feel.
Pages you can touch.

About the Press

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Remember when you picked up a newspaper on the way to the train, folded it under your arm and actually read it? Brain Freeze Books is built on that feeling. We think people spend too much time scrolling and not enough time turning pages.

So we make books the way things used to be done. Every Brain Freeze book is printed in our own print shop, checked by hand, and shipped by the same people who made it. You won’t find our books on the big websites or in chain stores. You order straight from us, and we print and send your copy.

Words you can feel.
Pages you can touch.

Brain Freeze Books is a small, independent press founded by writer Steve O’Brien. Put down the phone, freeze the scroll, and pick up a story.

The pocket line

One story, one commute

Small books that slip into a coat pocket. One story of about 4,000 to 6,000 words, about a ride in and a ride home. Made to take the place of the morning paper.

Full-length books

Memoir & longer fiction

Bigger books for longer evenings, from true stories of the streets to illustrated dark fiction.

Made by hand

Printed in our shop

Every copy is printed to order, trimmed, bound and packed by us. That's all there is to it.

The Books

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Laces of Love cover: four sneakers tied together by one lacePocket book
The pocket line · a love story

Laces of Love

The Little Book of Jilly: Her Story, Their Love

by Steve O’Brien

“Hey, if the shoe fits…lace it up.”

Four pairs of sneakers by the door, four hearts in one story. Jilly never planned to love this way, but laughter, late-night dinners and the men who adore her have made her apartment a home like no other. A tender, funny and fearless little book about choosing connection over convention. It began as a dream the author wrote down the next morning.

  • Pocket paperback, 4 × 6 in
  • 32 pages
  • About 4,100 words
  • One commute’s read
Order a paperbackPrice coming soon
Tales of a Sinner cover: a lone figure on a rooftop over the Inwood skyline at sunset18+ adult readers
Full-length memoir

Tales of a Sinner

Sex and Drugs on the Streets of Inwood

by Steve O’Brien

“By the time I was 13 years old, I had been drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, taking acid and having sex regularly.”

Inwood, the northern tip of Manhattan, 1968 to 1979. A kid from a good Irish-American family walks out of Catholic school and into the streets: the fights, the pills, the parties, Bellevue at 15, the road to Florida, Texas and California and back, and finally a bus to Marine Corps boot camp. Twelve years, one song for each. The names are changed. The rest is the way he remembers it.

  • Paperback, 6 × 9 in
  • 218 pages
  • Memoir
  • Adult content
Order a paperback$14.99
Closet full of Broken Canes cover, art by Xoe MayComing soon
Illustrated dark fiction

Closet full of Broken Canes

With art by Xoe May

by Steve O’Brien

“Sometimes, you just have to kill a guy.”

1974. Caroline works the night shift at the hospital, smokes Lucky Strikes and drives home through the sleepy suburbs in a big red Cadillac, singing along to the radio. All she wants is a normal life of her own. To get one, she will do the unspeakable to help her grieving Momma find some companionship.

  • Paperback, 5.5 × 8.5 in
  • Illustrated
  • About 11,500 words
Tell me when it’s readyNew edition in the works

How Ordering Works

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Send us a note

Tap “Order a paperback.” An email opens with the book already filled in. Add your name and shipping address and send it.

We print your copy

We reply to confirm the details, then print, trim and bind your book in our shop.

It comes in the mail

We pack it up and mail it ourselves. A real book, delivered to your door.

Paperbacks only. That’s on purpose.

Coming Soon

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Creepy short stories

Unlocked Windows

A series of short, creepy stories that will have you checking the locks before bed.

by Steve O’Brien

Poetry

Poet Prisoner

Poetry collections, with artwork.

by Steve O’Brien

Contact

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Questions about an order, a note about a story, or just want to say hello? Drop us a line. A real person reads every email.

info@brainfreezebooks.com