At the same time in the Leach Lake Prison there is Jim Cottonwood, a cellmate of Father Bryce. Jim Cottonwood is a native American and has a shamanistic power to posses and "ride" crows. Jim Cottonwood was sentenced on false charges of raping Judy Jonson. But as a result of these charges Judy Jonson's son Alan believes that he is a son of Jim Cottonwood, and even changes his surname to be Alan Cottonwood. But in fact Alan is a son of Judy's father reverend John Johnson but he doesn't know about it. So, Alan visits Jim Cottonwood in prison and Jim urges him to make a DNA test, which can let him out of prison if he is not his father. Also as a practioner of Native American religion Jim gets a monthly collection of "magical" herbs from a witch doctor for his monthly "sweet lodge". Also, Diana's mother Ms. Turney runs a nursing home, Navaho House, a in the Leech Lake town. One of the nurses there, Luise, is the mother of Jim Cottonwood. And somehow from her Diana gets mandrake, which is one of "magical" herbs used in the native American sweet lodge. Also Diana meets Alan in the Navaho lodge and they fall in love.

So, Diana starts investigating the mandrake roots. But she get's in a car accident, after which she is saved by another prison guard Tommy W. Tommy W takes her to his home, there he installed a personal sauna similar to the sweet lodge in prison. He invites Diana to use his Sauna and they add mandrake roots to the sauna aromatics as Tommy W recognized them as one of the native American "magical" herbs. But after the sauna Diana accidently turns Tommy W into a moose. Then the moose is killed by his own dog Beauty or Beast, a German Shepherd. These scene is a clear parallel to a classical myth "Diana and Actaeon" as Tommy W is described as quite a hunter. But what is important is that Diana has a power not only to see others fursonas but also to turn people to corresponding animals. But this only works if both Diana and her victim are intoxicated on mandrake. Also for some reason her magic don't work on virgins. This power boost was somehow imposed on her by farm's smokehouse's ghost Wes. And Wes wants Diana to use it to kill more people.

But let's first return to the Alan's story. His parent's learn that he is conspiring with Jim Cottonwood and banish Alan from home. So Alan decides to live permanently in Navaho house. But what is also important, Reverend Johnson in a fit of rage breaks a display of Alan's computer. And in that way Alan collect's some Reverend's blood. And he sends this blood to a DNA test instead of Jim's. And so he learns that Reverend is his actual father. But they also test Jim's blood somehow. So the truth is known about Alan's origin. And Jim's lawyer declares that there is some advancements in his case. So Judy tries to escape the state as she is afraid that she can be charged by a perjury now. But she meets Diana first. And Diana turns her into a cat. Then she gives that cat to Kelly, and the cat gets a new name "Ginger". Eventually, Ginger escapes from Cellog's farm and goes to a native American warlock and a serial killer Marley Two Moons and asks him to kill Diana. Apparently Marley can talk to humans transformed to animals because he is a warlock. Marley Two Moons removes Ginger's coral "setting her free" and wears it as a watch. After Judy's disappearances reverend Johnson commits a suicide, but he reincarnates as spider-ghost. And as a spider Ghost he is committed to haunting and killing Alan.

So, what happens next: Diana Turney makes Alan Johnson/Cottonwood to build a sty on the Cellog's farm. Then Diana starts hunting men, calling them "male chauvinist pigs" she transforms them into literal pigs, and imprison them in the sty. Her first victim is Carl Cellog, who is christened "Hamlet" as a pig. Then there are three more pigs in the sty, all named after character's from the play "Hamlet". Kelly is made to feed the pigs, and she hate to do so. And the pigs in the sty fight a lot with each other, so Diana castrate's them with the Help of Alan and a veterinary. These sty is a metaphor for a prison Carl was working in. But now he is a prisoner.

Allan and Diana have a love relation and eventually get married. But they don't have sex, as Allan is impotent with Diana. So, Allan stays a virgin and Diana can't turn him into a pig for this reason. Diana expect Allan to inherit reverend's house and church. But she finds reverend's will, which names Jim Cottonwood as his sole heir. Also the Judy's body is discovered on a landfill. As a cat she got into a car engine and got mutilated. And then her cat's body were thrown to a landfill. But somehow after that Diana's magic was snapped somehow and the mutilated cat's corpse turned into a mutilated woman's corpse. Police suspect's Alan as a murderer but they don't have any evidences against him. So Diana decides to use the reverend's will and Judy's bag to frame him. But Loise Cottonwood finds these items first and saves Alan. Judy's body being reverted to its human form also makes Diana question her magical power.

Also, Diana meets Marley Two Moons in a native American casino. And Marley recognises her as women cat told him about. Marley also sees Diana's fursona to be a snake and recognizes her as a witch. Diana invites Marley for one night stand. She plans also to turn him into a hog. But she discovers that her power don't work on him, because Marley is a powerful warlock. Marley firstly tries to strangle Diana, but then he instead forces her to pledge him loyalty and the he rapes her. So, also Marley magically dominates Diana and makes her his servant.

On the day of Janet's release from prison. Marley and his friends slaughter the pigs from the sty. But before that Kelly releases Hamlet from sty and so Hamlet (or Carl) escapes. Alan and Kelly goes to the prison to pick up Janet. But Kelly get's lost in the prison (in fact she is just sleeping in their car). So, they use it as excuse to make a detour and visit Lewis Sinclair's grave and museum in Sauk Centre, Stearns Count. there Alan and Janet have sex in one of the motels. But after janet's return tensions on the farm escalates. Marley kidnaps Alan and imprisons him at his home's basement and tries to starve him to death. Diana tries to transform Janet into a pig. But something goes wrong and she transforms into a monster creature with a body of the pig and the head of the woman. Diana imprisons the monster into her room and keeps it on a diet of corn and whisky.

Carl as Hamlet the pig finds the body of Marley Two Moons while he is outside, doing "crow riding". Then Hamlet eats Marley killing him and also somehow becoming vey smart for the pig. After that Hamlet ravages Marley's house trying to get some food from the fridge. Eventually he discovers Alan. His head is covered with the web of ghost spider and Alan lost his ability to see. But carl eats the ghost spider and clears the web from his eyes. Then Carl as a pig feeds starved Alan Ice cream and frozen pizzas from the freezer. This scene is surreal. After this Kelly calls the shack and tells Alan and Carl about the troubles home. Diana overhears the call and travels to the Marley's shack. While going there she is stopped by a traffic cope. And she turns the traffic cope into the pig. Finally after reaching Marley's house Diana releases Alan and tries to shot Hamlet. But Hamlet just leads her to Marley Two Moons' body. So Diana is now free of his evil influence. She tries to transform Alan into a pig but he denies her mandrake tea. Eventually Diana drives Alan to Navaho House. And her goes there to bathtub to tidy himself.

In the final of the story we learn that Carl and Janet are back to human form, but Carl will be castrated for the rest of his live. Jim Cottonwood is released and got the inheritance from the reverend Johnson. Alan decides to go to seminary and get education as a priest. And Kelly now is a honorable member of Jim's and Gordon's tribe. Also Kelly decides to become a teacher. Diana reincarnates as a snake, but then she meets a traffic cop as a hog. And they kill each other again. The end.

People often dislike this novel because they want to see Diana Turney as a hero, while she is in fact a villain. But what I think actually justifies her being a villain is that she is falls from grace even in her own morale system. Her path of infamy starts with her returning to eating meat as a vegan in twin cities. From that she eventually goes organizing a sty, and slaughtering and eating her pigs. But these pigs are actually humans. So in some sense she degrades to a total cannibalism. These should be a capital sin for vegans. She also fails as a feminist. in several points in the book she relies on men to complete hard task on her farm like building a sty, castrating and slaughtering the pigs. In the Finale she is lamenting the society totally came to dismay "if the woman has to use shotgun herself to kill people". So in some sense he path to villainy stems not from she being condemned as witch by mainstream American Christian standards. But by her failure of being a "good witch" in her own morale system.

Another important topic in this novel is abuse. Starting with the topic of Ritual Satanic Sexual Child Abuse in the school. Picked by the abuse of Diana by her own father Wes. This abuse is mirrored both by Reverend Jonson abusing his daughter Judy Jonson and Marley Two Moons abusing Diana latter in the book. Finally this abuse is reflected on the institutional level in the prison, where Carl works and where Jim Cottonwood is imprisoned for false accusations. Finally, this abuse is reflected as the abuse of pigs in the sty, who are castrated and eaten. After events of the Novel, Alan who can be named a true hero of the story decides to became vegan himself. So veganism and animal rights are one thing that are proposed in this book to break the cycle of abuse.

I also like how Disch incorporated furry fetishes into this story, the transformation fetish in particular. The animal transformations are described in details and are often connected with sex. Also Gordon Pillager tells a story of him getting into the wolf's body and having sex with a she-wolf. I think here Disch shows a deep understanding of supernatural and ur-cultural roots of furry subculture.

Despite it being a good read, I'm still not ready to call this book a masterpiece. There are certain problems with the plot. As I believe the blood batch, which Alan sends to DNA testing does not contain the blood of Judy, I doubt that DNA test's can prove that reverend Johnson is Alan's father. Basically, it can only prove that he is Alan's close male relative. And we already know that, because Johnson is his grandfather. And even if it's proven that Jim isn't Alan's actual father and reverend is, it all still doesn't prove that Judy wasn't raped by Jim Cottonwood. So I don't understand why Johnson's so easily backed off after the DNA testing news. They could still insist on the rape of Judy even if everybody know that Alan is reverend's son. Also as every Supernatural Minnesota book "the sub" has rather week world-building, even though I think it has the strongest in the series, as we can see different supernatural character's interacting in this one. Basically it seems that Diana's death reverts her magic as Carl and Janet became humans after it and the pig meat in the smokehouse became humans' meat. But the traffic cop never became human (maybe because he is a cop) and he kills Diana as a snake. Maybe the spell is reverted when Diana is killed as a snake, And Cellogs became human after this slaughter. But these is unclear. And then I was reading I felt that the order of events was opposite. It defense of "the Sub" it can be said that the realistic plot and worldbuilding never were it primary goal, and it still works as a surreal tragedy. But overall it feels that Disch was already tired of writing genre fiction when was creating "the Sub".

Also, I need to note that there are very few likable characters in the book. Carl is a fat prison guard obsessed with sex. Janet has a terrible temper. Even Kelly is described as whinny. Alan seems to be a true hero of the story but for a large part of it he seems to be misguided and under influence of Diana. Maybe Jim Cottonwood and Gordon Pillager are the good guys. But they still are very strange characters. I'm not even sure if it's a bad thing. It just give a picture of the dark nihilistic world.