Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals 3

by BitterKarella

Midnight Pals' third collection covers the Pals' recent adventures as featured in social media: the Pals visit the Ackermansion! Margaret Atwood's robots! Kafka discovers hopepunk! It also features illustrations by Jennifer Albright and cover art by Gentlemonster, and an introduction by Stoker Award winner Hailey Piper.

Genres: Humor

119 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2023

About the author

Bitter Karella is a genderfluid goblin, best known as the creator of the Hugo-nominated microfiction comedy account @Midnight_Pals which asks what if all your favorite horror writers were to gather around the campfire and tell scary stories like in the classic Nickelodeon series “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” @Midnight Pals has had three successfully crowdfunded collections and is currently being adapted as an audio podcast.

Karella writes gonzo psycho-sexual body horror with a grotesquely humorous edge. His short story “Low Tide Jenny,” originally published in Seize the Press magazine, was a winner of the Brave New Weird award for best new weird fiction of 2022 by Tenebrous Press. His work has also appeared in Bag of Bones’ “Step into the Light,” Tenebrous Press’ “Your Body is Not Your Body,” Ghoulish Books’ “Bound in Flesh,” and From Beyond Press’ “The World Belongs to Us.” She’s the author and artist of three graphic novels, including a comic adaptation of the Malleus Maleficarum, and co-host of the podcast “A Special Presentation, or Alf Will Not be Seen Tonight” about comic strips adapted into TV specials. When not writing, he also dabbles in text game design.

Reviews

[Nicole (bookwyrm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Midnight Pals are amusing as ever! I've seen some of these individual Tweets on Twitter (back when I used Twitter before it became X or whatever) but I'm still glad to have them in book form.

For myself, I like the short Tweet format the best. The Midnight Pals books also include some (fake) ads and longer stories in the style of one horror author or another, but in general I don't like those nearly as much as the Tweet discussions between the authors. And while I've never read (and likely never will read) a Dean Koontz novel, he's quite probably my favorite of the Midnight Pals.

[John Bruni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great collection of the Midnight Pals posts from Twitter before it was taken over by a billionaire edgelord and renamed something stupid because he really digs the letter X for some reason. I wonder if he knows he's a character in these things. He won't show up until book 4, I believe, and I sincerely hope there's a book 4.

From the Department of Full Disclosure: I invested money in the Kickstarter for this book, and it's amazing. Of course I would think that. But hey, my last name was misspelled in the acknowledgements, and I'm still giving it five stars, got it? It's that good.

If you love horror, then why don't you have these books in your library? You should stop reading this and get on that immediately.

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some classics here: the Ackermansion, literally killing people by writing about them in books, Stoker & Hailey Piper, and so many more. Also: two pages of where the references come from! 😮 And other bonus stuff like fake ads and magazine layouts, a guide to haunted houses, stories in the style of (famous writer) and more.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recent Reads: Submitted For The Approval Of The Midnight Pals 3. The latest collection of Bitter Karella's hilarious Twitter threads continues to lovingly skewer the horror world (and the rest of genre fiction when there's time). For the uninitiated there are now footnotes!

[Ryan Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea how Bitter Karella keeps coming up with ideas this original and funny. In addition to that, Karella has introduced me to so many new writers through this series.