Review in Rue Morgue: ISSUES WITH AUTHORITY Nadia Bulkin Ghoulish Books Nadia Bulkin's first collection, She Said Destroy (Word Horde, 2017), in-troduced a fresh and powerful voice, and now her second one reaffirms this and brings further evidence of her growth. And this does not refer only to the larger size of her new stories, since this book contains two novelettes and one almost short novel-sized novella. The deceptive title of the first one, "Cop Car," metaphorically refers to its protagonist who at one point says: "I am a cop car. Once I have you, you cannot be free of me." As a young girl she was brought up in a cult, then taken over by a government agency which wanted to weaponize her abilities of telepathic influence. As it turns out, she is not a victim, but an empowered, damaged person looking for her place in the world's hierarchy. The second novelette, "Your Next Best American Girl," is a blackly satirical take on societal expecta-tions on women, told through a body horror tale of a girl whose beauty pageant contests turn increas-ingly disastrous after she develops sores and other changes on her skin, also affecting her mind. Finally, the big novella "Red Skies in the Morning" (the saying continues: "sailors take warning") builds upon the notion of a Ring-like video curse which gruesomely destroys the viewer unless they transfer it to someone else. Here Bulkin takes issue with authorities who pay willing victims to accept the "paracontagion" to prevent the curse's ultimate outcome. The levels of empathy in such a society are refracted through the protagonist's search for her missing baby sister. These tales are gripping, frightening, and affectionate, but they refuse easy, escapist answers in their acute, layered dissections of dispiritingly recognizable contemporary ills. DEJAN OGNJANOVIĆ

This review of ISSUES WITH AUTHORITY (in Rue Morgue, from earlier this year) will live near to my heart. Why? Because I don't think anyone's described my writing as affectionate before, and yet I feel SUCH affection for all my characters, even the most awful ones.

So thank you. Truly!

Thanks for the shout-out!

If you really want a demons-need-wombs story, might I recommend my own "No Gods, No Masters" in my collection She Said Destroy, about a matriarchal line of witches trying to prevent the demon from collecting its debt from their line.

SHELBY OAKS: A woman makes a series of terrible decisions in her search for her missing sister. Commits a terrible rug pull: from mildly engaging found footage about podcasters in a ghost town to a generic "normal" movie about a demon that needs wombs. Grade = D. (Hulu)

Aw that is sweet!

It's cool to see people fangirling over this photo because this is the only sort of femininity I've ever wanted to or felt like I could ever hope to embody

I'm renewing my plea for a completely gender-swapped production of Les Miserables

post your favorite film from the year you turned 18

**love each day**

Unpopular opinion: While I respect DTF as a character study... the tone, pacing, and half the dialogue of this show is just busted.

I'm hoping we get a nice grim reaper meme

Hungary election: Viktor Orbán ousted after 16 years in power as opposition wins election landslide - follow live Opposition leader Péter Magyar defeats Europe's longest-serving leader, promising closer EU ties and an anti-corruption drive.

1 down, (at least) 3 to go

www.bbc.com/news/live/c2...

SOMNIUM: An aspiring actress works at a "dream clinic" and wonders if she should just go home. The director's compassionate and grounded view of wannabe stars is refreshing, but as a story, it seems disinterested in itself - resulting in a collective shrug. Grade = C+. (Shudder)

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
- Richard Feynman, Rogers' Commission Report into the Challenger Crash (1986)

Yeah we're not doing this moral relativism camouflaging an orientalist fetish thing again. We went through this with dictatorship and cronyism and environmental mismanagement and we aren't doing it again.

a man with a beard says " who would ve thought " Alt: a man with a beard says " who would ve thought "

For some reason this feels like an appropriate response

Eventually, White Night rehearsals began, steadily increasing in regularity. Jones would say that the community was surrounded by people in the jungle wanting to kill the members. In one instance, Jones had members drink a red glass of liquid he claimed had poison in it; he said they would die in 45 minutes. After the time had passed, Jones revealed the practice was a test of loyalty. The act was termed “revolutionary suicide” and would eventually become the dress rehearsal for the group’s demise. -- by Victoria Otero for The National Archives

After work, when purported emergencies arose, the Temple sometimes conducted what Jones referred to as "White Nights."[86] During such events, Jones would call, "Alert, Alert, Alert" over Jonestown's tower speakers to call the community together in the pavilion, which was then surrounded by guards armed with guns and crossbows. On several occasions, Jones then gave his followers four options: attempt to flee to the Soviet Union, commit "revolutionary suicide", stay in Jonestown and fight the purported attackers or flee into the jungle. - Wikipedia article on Jonestown

I'm not saying we're living in Jonestown. I'm just saying that suicide drills do a number on a population.

[insert helpful message here]

I've got a suuuper meta story in this one ("Untitled #5"), if you like suuuper meta stories. It's about storytelling and urban legends and most importantly, TULPAS. Also holy hell some of those other names!

Comes out on the 14th! Very jazzed to get my copy, 3LBE always does a bang-up job.

Roommate: There's a fine line between a person who likes cats and a crazy cat person.

Me: Do you think I'm crazy?!

Roommate: ... No.

*pause*

Roommate: Not yet.

Meme: "I do not support all women. Some of you bitches are very dumb!!!"

We need more studies on this, and quickly. But this is *exactly* what I'm most afraid of.

Yeah, the "everybody's doing it/don't be left behind or you'll get stomped on" argument is so cringe. "We must all jump into the abyss!" No thanks.

Where? (Seriously, I want to know. Point me to them.)

The meeting with the angel just kills me (in a good way). I was in a grim-dark space when I watched it, frankly kind of searching for salvation, and man. I cried.

America Is Now a Rogue Superpower Washington’s conduct in the Iran war is accelerating global chaos and deepening America’s dangerous isolation.

This was hard to read as an IR major (Robert Kagan is assigned in every American IR 101 I'm pretty sure). I disagree with Kagan on a lot, but I think he's right here.

"Welcome to the era of the rogue American superpower. It will be lonely and dangerous."

www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Gwendolyn Kiste asked for examples of a resilient female character in horror -- of which of course there are many. I picked the protagonist of A Dark Song, one of my favorite movies, and enjoyed reading the other responses!

www.gwendolynkiste.com/Blog/good-fo...

The Day Robert Palins Murdered Me | I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson | Netflix YouTube video by Netflix Is A Joke

It's so dumb but I can't stop laughing. (Also this was college me trying to write stories for "literary magazines") youtu.be/6v1qNVZmofI?...

Not gonna lie, I'm obsessed with this cover. I can actually see the four protagonists from all three novellas in those four pairs of eyes. Scary vampy one in the middle is 100% Carly from "Cop Car."

Book cover for Spanish edition of ISSUES WITH AUTHORITY by Nadia Bulkin

Behold!! The gorgeous cover for the Spanish edition of my novella collection ISSUES WITH AUTHORITY, by artist Rafael Martín. 👁️👁️👁️

Coming in May from La Biblioteca de Carfax!