Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals II

by BitterKarella

Submitted for the Approval of the Midnight Pals II is the omnibus collection of MORE of the best tweets of @midnight_pals, the twitter microfiction account detailing the hypothetical adventures of the greatest horror creators - including Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, Edgar Allen Poe, and many more - as they gather to spin yarns around the campfire a-la classic Nickelodeon series Are You Afraid of the Dark? This book includes EXTRA exclusive material, including an introduction by Ursula Vernon, illustrations and cover by Michael Ramstead, extra one-page parody stories in the styles of Edgar Allan Poe, RL Stine, JK Rowling, and more!

Genres: Horror, Humor

Paperback

Published June 18, 2021

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

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a few years, there will need to be an annotated reissue of this book for all the Twitter nonsense that inspired some of the storylines, but the amount of laughing aloud I did...Midnight Pals is a highlight of Twitter and I hope Bitter Karella loves doing this as much as my friends and I love reading it. (Sometimes out loud. Dramatically.)

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

This is another fun collection of Tweets from the @midnight_pals account, plus some fun illustrations and other additions. I enjoyed it a lot, though I am not the biggest fan of horror and so I had to look up some of the characters presented here.

[Lincoln Eddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for any horror fan. Bitter Karella captures the authors' voices, vices, and foibles in such hilarious fashion that it has started coloring my view of the actual people: Dean Koontz is a dog-obsessed innocent, Stephen King just loves his large adult son, and Mary Shelley will fuck you up as soon as look at you.

Read this book.

[John Bruni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great collection of the Twitter posts regarding the Midnight Pals. The first one? I hadn't caught them all. This one, though, I think I almost read them all before. In this one, JK Rowling becomes more and more prominent at the Midnight Society with her usual anti-trans garbage, but I think the next book is where she really comes into her own. That's up next, by the way.

As far as extras go, I think my favorite is the Horror City USA map. It's a shame that not every horror locale could be on the map, but there are a lot of them, and they're all fun. I'm glad to see Collinsport represented, although I'm not sure why it's at the northern tip of Maine, about as far as you can go before hitting Canada. If memory serves, it was supposed to be close to Bangor near the coast of the Atlantic.

Regardless, this is a great book. If you love horror, you should be reading the Midnight Pals.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably shouldn't have read this right after the first volume. Still made me laugh quite a bit, but felt more repetitive. Since The Midnight Pals are often reacting to current events, it also may not wear very well (I'd already forgotten about Joyce Carol Oates' foot; look, 2020 was very long). I also wonder if there may be temptation to optimize for the real-time Twitter audience, e.g., if JKR popping in to say something transphobic means a tweet does good numbers, that becomes a very comfortable option. (Spoiler alert: JKR pops up a lot to say transphobic stuff.)

[Spencer Koelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you loved the first one, you can expect more of the same quality.

Bitter Karella's taste in horror is far from universal, but the takes are always engaging. If you love horror writing, and even more if you love behind-the-scenes drama that takes place in the horror community, this book is great. If you just want to chuckle and be entertained in a format that's easy to splurge through, this book is for you to.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recent Reads: Submitted For The Approval Of The Midnight Pals II. More of Bitter Karella's hilarious Midnight Society tweets collected in paper form. Worth reading for the bonus materials, which show the author's love of horror fiction in all its forms, a love that laughs.

[Mira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still wish they'd come up with a better joke for Bram Stoker, but funny.

[rixx · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of the same: Good ideas, but go read them on Twitter, as the print version takes zero care with the layouting. Still glad I supported the account, but man, what a wasted chance.