We Won't Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories

by Margaret Killjoy

Death cults, queer love, and the end of everything.

Spaceships, man-eating lesbian mermaids, swords, spears, demons, ghouls, thieves, hitchhikers, and life in the margins. Margaret Killjoy’s stories have appeared for years in the science fiction and fantasy magazines both major and indie. Here, we have collected the best previously published work along with brand new material. Ranging in theme and tone, these imaginative tales bring the reader on a wild and moving ride. They’ll encounter a hacker who programs drones to troll CEOs into quitting; a group of LARPers who decide to live as orcs in the burned forests of Oregon; queer, teen love in a death cult; the terraforming of a climate-changed Earth; polyamorous love on an anarchist tea farm during the apocalypse; and much more. Killjoy writes fearless, mind-expanding fiction that is redefining the genre.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Queer, Fantasy, Science Fiction, LGBT

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2022

About the author

Margaret Killjoy is a transfeminine author and editor currently based in the Appalachian mountains. Her most recent book is an anarchist demon hunters novella called The Barrow Will Send What it May, published by Tor.com. She spends her time crafting and complaining about authoritarian power structures and she blogs at birdsbeforethestorm.net.

Reviews

[Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you'd given me these to read without telling me the author, I'd have likely guessed that they were by Killjoy; she's got a voice that just rings in my ear as uniquely her own. Everybody's just a little bit haunted and every place is just a little bit witchy and I love it. I particularly like the tender wistfulness with which she writes about love (I mean, "You have a summer birthday. I don't think that matters anymore, but I can't make myself forget" or "'You look beautiful tonight,' he said, but he was looking at the forest. He didn't look at me much anymore" - this stuff just gets me right in the teeth), but there's also this edge of folk horror that flavors all of her forests and fucked up cities and all of her queers working post-apocalypse tea farms or fighting the second American civil war that seems distinct to her writing. There's lots of important stuff to know here; among other things, that you're allowed to be the devil's maiden but also be yourself, that spring gray is different than winter gray, and that nazis don't go to Valhalla, but the less said about all the ticks in that one story, the better.

[Bogi Takács]

I was asked to blurb this collection and I loved it!

Here is what I wrote:

This book puts the punk back into punk. Margaret Killjoy knows about resistance and solidarity, about spellcasting and hitchhiking; she also knows about that one ghost whispering to you. Margaret has a singularly principled approach that comes through every story: read this collection to help orient yourself in quiet forests and in near-future battlegrounds alike. We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow is the rare book that is both knife-sharp and empathetic, that shows you how to fight and also makes you consider why. Read it, tell your friends – your enemies will scramble to catch up.
____
Source of the book: e-ARC from publisher

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 4 out of 5]

All fascists are posers.

Published in 2022 (only three years ago!) this collection of dystopian short stories rings more true than ever. It seems almost prophetic, in many ways.

Anywho, as with most short story collections, some are better than others. I enjoyed all of them, and several were truly astounding. I think because so many of them were fairly similar, a lot blended together over a relatively short reading period.

I highly appreciate Killjoy for always mentioning what kind of trees in her writing. For always contrasting the mundane with the bizarre. For macro and micro thoughts on society and individualism and community. For creating visions of the future that are far from perfect, but work when people come together and share.

With climate change destroying communities and bioregions all over the map, with the economic crisis deepening and the wealth gap widening, I think all of us are guilty of forgetting to tend our gardens.

This collection is queer and trans as hell.

And, some stories are interconnected. Some aren't. The world feels familiar overall, a two steps into the worst future, the one we're currently tramping in.

And, of course, lots and lots of Nazis are punched. And more are killed.

The thing about killing Nazis is it's a net gain of human life. The other thing about killing Nazis is that for some indiscernible reason, it's illegal.

[Corvus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of reading an ARC of Margaret Killjoy's forthcoming We Won't Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories . I'm a fan of her work and have read a few of her books and also enjoy her podcasts. I had mixed hopes for this as I expected it to be decent while also remembering that most short story collections are a mixed bag. That said, I really enjoyed this entire book. If I hadn't had so much going on, I would have finished it in days.

The stories in this book span many genres, including scifi, fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror. Killjoy does a decent job creating immersive stories from each of these inspirations. There was one fantasy story near the end that wasn't my bag, but fantasy- especially the ye olde timey kind- tends to bore me in general. However, there are several other fantasy-like stories in the book that I thoroughly enjoyed

Many stories begin with an interesting and real historical factoid that MK then builds a story from, which makes them feel all the more real. There is also plenty of LGBTQ love, friendship, and tenderness that is par for the course and was well executed. There is always something special about someone who can create Queer worlds believably with all of their glory and flaws.

Margaret's writing continues to capture topics and to create thought provoking imagery without beating you over the head with trauma or excessive and boring discourse. She has a way of exploring radical topics and using fiction in a way that does them justice while also being enjoyable to read. In the acknowledgments, Killjoy credits Ursula K Leguin for giving her the permission to write as her contribution to the revolution (even though she does much more than this as well.) I have said before that I think this plays a larger role in collective liberation than one may think. Being that we are constantly bombarded with harmful messages through much of popular fictional media and advertising, having something that combats that while also being enjoyable and entertaining is key. None of us wants to sit there all day arguing about or watching footage of the horrors of the world. This give us leisure activity that also keeps the revolution kicking around in our psyche. That's my favorite kind of fiction.

I highly recommend this anthology. It's not just for those in the anti-authoritarian left sphere, but I imagine it will find a special place in the hearts of those who call that sphere home.

This was also posted to my blog.

[Jassmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stalled reviewing this one, because I felt this book deserved an amazing and loving review from me... but clearly that didn't happen and most of the short-stories get a mini-review in the updates section anyway... so I will just say that Margaret Killjoy is amazing writer and that I really hope to read some of her longer works in 2025 because even though most of her works are kind of horrorish, they are comforting too!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. I was less enchanted by the last few stories as I was by the first two thirds. They weren’t bad I just didn’t enjoy them as much as the others.

I find the collection as a whole really interesting because there was so much variety- we had both fantasy with mermaids and gods and magic, but also science fiction dystopians with futuristic tech, as well as some spooky, folklorish tales. Yet there is a kind of common theme running through the stories- the main characters often exist on the fringes of society, runaways and criminals and castoffs.

I found the writing to be really beautiful in places and found myself wishing I’d had either the kindle or my own copy so I could save some of the quotes.

Here are a few of my favorite stories:

The Devil Lives Here - spooky, folklorish, teen girls fuck around and find out.

One Star - in the future, Uber is automated. The good news is, they are the safest cars in the world. The bad news is, you don’t control the destination.

The Bones of Children - Solidly creepy, Lovecraft inspired.

Mary Marrow - I don’t even know how to describe this one. It has that folklore feeling of someone telling you a scary story late at night. The last couple lines leave you questioning what was going on in the best way. Vampire-ish?

The Northern Host - future American civil war soldier gets some help from a surprising place. Kind of mystical/mythology feeling. Told in interview style.

We Who Will Destroy The Future - Temporal prisoners plot escape! Time travel dystopian. Loved the concept and the ending.


But really I found something to enjoy about all the stories, and it’s rare I say that about a collection. Absolutely will read more from Killjoy in the future.

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhh feels so good and special that I got to hear Margaret read the penultimate story while she was on her tour.
So many trans characters - probably more in this one book than in all previous books i've read combined (granted, they were short stories so there was room for lots of characters).
Some favorites //
Into The Gray - man eating mermaids need i say more!!!
We Won't Be Here Tomorrow - I could read a whole series on these ghoul-fighting young adults doomed to die
Imagine a World So Forgiving - love a classic evil scientist and mission to assess Earth exploratory mission many years after humanity has fled to the stars

[Bailey ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 ⭐️ My cool coworker's friend wrote this! That's so crazy! She let me borrow her signed copy! Wow! Awesome set of short stories! Very anti-Nazi! Really cool apocalyptic fiction featuring queer characters! I loved it! Thanks Robin!

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another masterpiece by Margaret Killjoy. I love her music, I love her podcasts, and I loved her novel. Now I love her short stories.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killjoy is a trans writer who often centers trans characters in her fiction. This collection of short stories features a number of well-drawn characters facing crises, often life-threatening. I noticed a fair number of stories about post-apocalyptic enclaves facing outsider threats, and various ways of responding. Also, lots of forests (including those post-apocalyptic enclaves).

What I especially liked about this collection is that each character is different, although they may share some similarities. The voices are all rendered differently, so you get a sense of their personality. Some stories are told in the first person, some not but in an omniscient sense, so it is still centered on the POV character.

A few of the non-post-apocalyptic stories remind me of Cory Doctorow's writing, in that they deal with a sophisticated technology that is used by Big Brothers to oppress the people, and the clever way the people can circumvent it. “One Star” is an example of this, where a person summons an automated taxi, only to find that it has decided he's suspicious and will drive him to the police station. How to get out of this rolling jail cell? Pretty clever.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, most with a sff or horror tinge. My favorites were the ones set in not-far futures where humans lived in collectives in the woods. Most stories have a main character who is all too aware of how awful humans and human systems can be, but not in a nihilistic way. Despite portraying horrors like eldritch forest gods, satanic cults, and tech-driven panopticons, the stories by and large felt positively energizing because people in them were so determined to live as their true selves making their own choices.

[Groucho42 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Short story collection that uses a sledge hammer rather than a paint brush. Good authors use a story to talk about gender identity as a part of the story. With this author, it's first, foremost and tiring. It's especially bad in that she's another idiot who can't figure out that Xe/Ze is a singular, non-binary pronoun while they is a plural pronoun.

I got through about four or five stories. They (see, plural, referring to a collection of stories) would have been 3 or 4 stars without the sledge hammer. As it is, I just got tired.

[Mathieu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read in 2023, which is a shame because it's going to be hard to top this one.

[Goran Lowie · Rating 4 out of 5]

WE WON'T BE HERE TOMORROW is an excellent collection of Killjoy's short fiction, which has been published in various anthologies and magazines throughout the past decade or so. This is my first work of her I've ever read (though I've been meaning to read A COUNTRY OF GHOSTS for years...) and it's instantly noticeable how she has a distinct voice and principles which are a part of everything she writes.

There's a variety of genres here (mostly horror and sci-fi with the occasional fantasy) with plenty of queer representation and themes of (radical) activism, revolution, trauma and other themes you'd typically associate with that crowd. There were three stories I loved, but even the ones I didn't love I quite enjoyed.

Look forward to reading more Killjoy. Perhaps it's finally time to try a country of ghosts.

Reviews for the individual stories below:



The Devil Lives Here (3.5/5)

An interesting little horror take about a girl and her friend who try to find her brother in a cave. The devil is involved. Has the right amount of mystery throughout to keep you interested, with a satisfying enough ending.

The Free Orcs of Cascadia (2/5)

I thought this was a mostly meaningless story, a dull location focused on something that could be interesting (people's desire to create a real dream and then actually living it), but it's a largely plotless affair. Could've been *more*.

Not One of Us Will Survive this Fog (3/5)

It's King's THE MIST except the fog is apocalyptic, slowly encroaching the entire earth. This is a flash fiction-length diary entry of someone talking about it.

One Star (3.5/5)

Dystopian story of a future autonomous taxi flagging your location as potentially illegal and driving you to the police. The car is impossible to escape, so the protagonist tries to get out of by fooling its computer brain. A good story.

We Won't Be Here Tomorrow (3.5.5)

A group of teens strike a deal with some ghouls-- you get to live essentially the life you want (safe from the police/laws), but you have to die before 30. Our protagonist has outlived nearly all of her friends and now, at 30, decides she doesn't want to die just yet. A strong story about wanting to live again.

The Fortunate Death of Jonathan Sandelson (3.5/5)

A fun story about future activism/terrorism including hackers, AI and drone technology.

Imagine a World so Forgiving (3.5/5)

Caroline is stuck on an abandoned Earth with some crazy scientist who engineered the new life on Earth to kill all humans (because humans are a cancer). I liked the ending.

Everything That Isn't Winter (3/5)

A violent post-apocalypse story filled with action. Felt like a "The Walking Dead" episode with surprisingly well-developed characters for its length and welcome reversed gender stereotypes. Didn't care for the romance, which took up a sizeable part of the story.

Into the Gray (4/5)

A girl in love with a mermaid brings her victims to feed on. She wants (no, longs for) more. I quite enjoyed this story, but then I'll always have a thing for mermaid stories. It's a very atmospheric story and reads almost like a fairytale. Excellent stuff.

The Bones of Children (3/5)

A group of Lovecraft addicts is ready for the real deal. But are they really ready for what they'll get? A decent, very short story.

Mary Marrow (3/5)

The protagonist watches Mary Marrow "disappear" and investigates.

Beyond Sapphire Glass (3/5)

This is so short to basically just be a concept; people upload their minds and our protagonist protects the machines storing them. She thinks it's suicide but accepts it because... well, you'll have to read the story.

The Northern Host (4.5/5)

Nazis don't go to Valhalla. This is a delightful story of a bunch of (not-)Vikings apparently joining every battle there is to join.

Malediction (3.5/5)

There are angels in this world cursing people. The protagonist is a squatter who, of course, ends up interacting with one of these angels. Cool concept, so-so execution.

Invisible People (3/5)

Crippling anxiety plays a center role in this story of a squatter hacker who fights back against cops.

We Who Will Destroy the Future (4/5)

Maya meets a time traveler who wants to blow up the entire world to end this particular sliver of time ruled by a government they vehemently disagree with. Great story.

Men of the Ashen Morrow (5/5)

A fantastic mythological story reminiscent of Evan Dicken's WHEN WE GO. Self-sacrifice, community, and gods play an important role in this beautiful work.

A Reasonable Place If You're Careful (2/5)

A flash fiction review of some place related to death. Didn't really do anything for me.

The Name of the Forest (4/5)

A hitchhiker lives with some strange pottery-witch-lady and they essentially enter a suicide pact. Another wonderful story, even if I was hoping it was leading to a special ending, instead of just a sizzle.

It Bleeds, It Burrows, It Breaks the Bone (3/5)

A speaking house and a h(a)unted person. Mental health and escape are what this story is about. Decent enough.

The Thirty-Seven Marble Steps (3/5)

A story that reads like a folktale about a strange old woman up in a house in the mountains.

[Jami · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the same thing about these stories as I love about Margaret Killjoy's podcasts: hope in the face of plenty of reasons to despair. As an added bonus, there's wonderful love stories throughout this book, some of them new ways for this old lady to think about love.

[Max Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of horror short stories with anarchist morality.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story collection is one of the grittiest I've ever read, and I thought it was brilliant. Creative premises meet an overarching theme of fighting for one's values and survival.

[Sarrah Arastu · Rating 4 out of 5]

did not read all of the short stories in this collection (there's like 15?) but I mostly enjoyed the ones I did read! weird queer stories that also often involve punching Nazis for the win

[Jennifer Abdo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spooky, haunting stuff with an anarchist undercurrent. Not your average short stories. Asheville and the Appalachian Mountains feature in some of the stories and there are more gay and trans characters than I've encountered before. There's a little dystopia, fantasy, sci-fi, ghost story. I loved this collection.

My faves are: Imagine a World So Forgiving, Everything That Isn't Winter, Into the Gray, It Bleeds, It Burrows, It Breaks the Bone.

[Madigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

these stories are gonna stay with me for awhile

[Zella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good. Excellent collection.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

As any short story collection, some are better than others. But god, I just really like Killjoy's world and characters and themes.

[amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute masterpiece - this is the first book of Margaret Killjoy's I've read, and I immediately purchased another after finishing this one. If it's as good as this one, I'll no doubt pick up more of her work. The stories within We Won't Be Here Tomorrow span multiple genres, and they range from haunting to tense to beautiful to downright funny. There are so many moments that are downright tender, and gay and trans characters center in nearly every story (if not every story). I've been thinking about the line "I cooked lasagna, even though it takes hours, my last hours" for two weeks straight and show no signs of stopping.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very much off brand for me. I don’t tend to read fiction books and much prefer fantasy. I went into this book with little expectations and a lot of hope that it could open me up to fiction as it sounded like a good mix of fiction and fantasy.

The short stories were each written beautifully and they were all interesting, some more than others. However, this book made me feel dumb and although I enjoyed the short stories, I could maybe explain 3 of them to someone. This isn’t because the stories were poorly written or vague but more so that I am stupid.

With that said, if you enjoy fiction books and don’t want to get into a long book, then this book and the stories within would be great for you. You’ll probably enjoy it a lot more than my dumb self.

*Thank you to Goodreads and the publishers for hosting a giveaway for this book.

[Grandt White · Rating 5 out of 5]

What’s reading Margaret Killjoy again my… me! I am. I’m the one who is, or rather, just did, and wow. Everything I’ve said about her writing applies here. This anthology of short stories by the aforementioned Margaret Killjoy is equal parts chilling, charming, and epic. Every character is relatable and every story is imaginative and… I mean wow. I envy Margaret Killjoy’s imagination, it’s childlike. Her writing style is so simple yet outside the box, I don’t even know how to explain how much I love reading her writing, and this collection of short stories just further confirms it.

[Anyja · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0

“one star” was my favorite because imagine getting a self-driving Uber to take your to your friends house and said Uber takes you hostage and attempts to drive you to jail

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margaret Killjoy examines love and loss in dystopian worlds through the collection We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories. Ranging from a two-page national park review to an interview with the last free orcs, Killjoy’s works span everything in between. The opening tale, The Devil Lives Here, follows a teen girl searching for her love interest’s young brother after he falls down a gorge into a mysterious cavern. The Last Free Orcs of Cascadia feature a derelict tribe of post-punk musicians fighting off their rivals in the woods of Oregon. A creeping mist of doom descends on a family during Not One of Us Will Survive This Fog, while a wanted hacker tries to override her self-driving taxi as One Star unfolds. The titular story, We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow, sees an almost-thirty something try to elude the Louisiana ghouls she sold her soul to years ago. A cyber-warrior who targets corporations teams with a revenge-seeking immigrant as The Fortunate Death of Jonathan Sanderson twists and turns. An astronaut returns to earth only to find it thrives better without humans in Imagine a World So Forgiving, a man at war with himself finds renewed vigor after his colony is threatened during Everything That Isn’t Winter, and a thief yearns for a watery life alongside his mermaid lover within Into the Gray. Ancient texts reveal the untold truth behind Lovecraftian nightmares during the heist committed in The Bones of Children, while the protagonist of Mary Marrow warns others against eating the red berries that grow by the undead witch. Beyond Sapphire Glass highlights an electronic afterlife to be forever guarded by the living; The Northern Host details a future American war where the warriors of Valhalla returned for another in a series of unending battles. The world of Malediction features seven angels cursing individuals, with the Angel of Persecution giving the lead character no rest. The dystopia of Invisible People showcases a pair of hackers who Robin Hood from the rich to help the communal neighborhood survive just a bit longer. Criminals are sent back in time to live out their sentences in We Who Will Destroy the Future, winter sacrifices to an earthworm deity are not without consequences during Men of the Ashen Morrow, and a reviewer tells readers to avoid eating the special tree bark from A Reasonable Place if You’re Careful. A defeatist drifter is convinced by his new hippie friend to help end the world by unleashing an ancient power as The Name of the Forest unravels. It Bleeds, It Burrows, It Breaks the Bone follows an arsonist who has befriended a dead girl in a recent safehouse, and must follow her instructions to escape federal pursuit. The collection concludes with The Thirty-Seven Marble Steps, which lead up to a crack in the earth that may or may not hold a horrifically hungry daughter of the town witch. Margaret Killjoy’s stories tackle the macabre to the downtrodden, from the futuristic to the classical, from the postmodern to the banal. Every take however is linked by its discussion of relationships. Whether it is between people, friends, family, lovers, nature, or even oneself, the underlying foundation is how the characters interact with the connections made to the world around them. This however comes at a sacrifice of storytelling; many tales lack in information and detail from the overt focus of relationship-building. Many of the short fables contained within would benefit from expounding on the history and backstory to help make them engaging long after the final page is turned. We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories shines a quick light into the multitude of fictional universes, but needs more power to highlight their overall uniqueness.

[Jacob Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sheer weirdness is often a feature I appreciate in fiction, and there’s one story in this collection that I find highly memorable by that metric: “The Free Orcs of Cascadia”, in which a music/travel blogger visits a society where the people identify as orcs.

That story is also interesting in that it’s not clear how the author feels about the situation she’s describing, or what (if any) message she wants to convey. Some parts seem to be poking fun, as when Golfimbul—who killed a rival onstage at a concert—tries to sanitize his actions via circumlocution:

Hellfire: Since when are murderers PC?
Golfimbul: My status as a person who has ended the life of another person carries no implications about my personal ethics other than that I clearly believe there are circumstances under which it’s okay to kill someone.[1]

Or this bit calling out the gap between the society’s conception of itself as diverse and its actual level of diversity:

Norinda told me later that there are orc villages with substantially higher proportions of people of color. That might be true, but I got the impression she said it to convince herself or me that the Free Orcs aren’t a specifically white phenomenon. No one (no one decent) likes looking around their community or scene and seeing only white faces smiling back.[2]

But at other times it seems more sympathetic:

An orc is a social construct we just fucking made up. … We know it’s make-believe. Make-believe is what gave my life meaning.[3]

Probably the story doesn’t intend to prescribe any particular overall evaluation; ambiguity is often more thought-provoking than a clear message would be.

I also really liked the cosmic-horror stories in the collection, especially “Men of the Ashen Morrow”, in which a group of hunters must annually appease an indifferent god. And the sci-fi stories explore some interesting ideas, like the self-driving cars of “One Star” which will kidnap their passengers to a police station at the authorities’ request.

My main complaint is that there seems to be a very binary, us-versus-them worldview underlying many (not all) of the stories; it’s perhaps made explicit in this quote:

There’ve always been those who want power over others, there’ve always been people who don’t. The whole of our history is the history of people like you killing people like me, of people like me killing people like you.[4]

I feel like political discourse in the US right now tends toward that sort of outlook. On the left, this takes the form of blaming almost all the world’s problems on cops and capitalism (which seems to be the view of some of this book’s protagonists), and extolling the virtue of resistance against those forces while downplaying or deriding the value of persuasion, finding compromises, or making incremental changes. This makes people increasingly ambivalent about, or approving of, violence against their opponents; I worry this is part of a vicious cycle driving us all toward some large-scale meltdown that will make everything worse and make nothing better. I see that trend reflected and reinforced in parts of this book.

[1] Margaret Killjoy, We won’t be here tomorrow and other stories (Edinburgh: AK Press, 2023), 29.

[2] Ibid., 34.

[3] Ibid., 46.

[4] Ibid., 124.

(crosspost)

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow is an engaging, yet frustrating read. Killjoy’s writing technique is rock solid, with pacing and characterization both ably drawing the reader into the stories she weaves—enough, apparently, to make up for the shortcomings in the stories’ contents. The collection was remarkably evocative of stumbling across a singer/songwriter who can hit all the right notes and strike a pleasing tune, only to find on closer examination of the lyrics that three-quarters of the album is the groan-inducing cringe of the average teen caught in the passions of their first intimate encounter with a generic, reactionary, anti-authority ethos.

Several of the stories do stand out favorably as Killjoy can deliver some solid, low-key horror. The first story is easily the strongest of the bunch, but other good ones are littered throughout, all showing real promise and leaving me curious for longer works.

As a fan of cosmic horror, I found that side of things could have been a good bit more incisive, though the right bones were in place. It’s not enough to casually put forward a fog eating the world and the protagonist choosing to submit to it: the reader needs to feel in their bones the claustrophobia of an unyielding and uncaring end closing in; to feel the protagonist’s rabid will to resist the uncanny give way inch by agonizing inch to the release of an epiphany that their efforts are, and always have been, utterly futile.

Otherwise it’s just some dude waiting for the fog to roll in.

The remainder of the stories suffer deeply from unsympathetic characters and an anarchist framing which is indistinguishable from a deliberate satire of anarchist framing. The protagonists of many of the stories are frequently their own worst enemies, often spurring the plot by carelessly falling into pitfalls they and those around them should be well aware of or inexplicably suffering through poverty and deprivation despite being elite hackers who are shown to be able to siphon the funds of the capitalist pigs practically at a whim. Much reads as farce, but the authorial intent may have been more to romanticize the valiant struggle of the downtrodden against The Man?

The peak of this curious duality is perhaps The Free Orcs of Cascadia, wherein a small band like-minded individuals have removed themselves from the “rot” of near-future society to LARP as orcs in the woods. Unfortunately, their enlightened band of comrades start and lose a war with a fascist-minded band who’ve similarly chosen to step beyond the watchful eye of the state. To my reading, this is a cautionary tale about the dead-end of abandoning efforts to build a progressive-minded coalition within society as it exists, imperfect as it is, but, again, Killjoy’s politics suggest this might not be the message the reader is meant to take away.

[Will McGee · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first by Margaret Killjoy, a book club selection. As with many short story collections, I enjoyed some of these more than others. Overall, I think Margaret Killjoy has a distinct and lyrical voice that makes her prose thoroughly engaging to read - I think it's one of her strongest features as an author. She also has an instinctive knack for interesting storytelling that, at its best, can tell a new and original story or give a unique and personal twist on the style or work of other famous authors. You also certainly couldn't call her obtuse or ambiguous with her themes - many of them appear several times throughout different stories, including direct action against fascist structures, survival as an act of resistance, and twists on old horror/folklore archetypes that recontextualize what kind of person can be the hero of a story. Her stories often feature technology, whether it's far-futuristic, near-futuristic, or just cutting edge present day, as both a tool of oppression and a tool of resistance. Lots of very novel plot devices with these. I think the only thing that sometimes hung me up in her writing is when her stories become full-on manifestos. Killjoy's values and opinions are pretty constant throughout the stories, often pausing midsentence to clarify why such-and-such thing is okay, and occasionally a newly introduced character will spend multiple paragraphs explaining their entire value system/way of life, and it's those times when I found myself checking out a little bit. It's not even particularly that I disagree, because I don't, but I felt that a lot of these kinds of ideas were told in these stories where they might have been shown, and sometimes told at great length. I felt like, for instance, the story about the Free Orcs of Cascadia read a lot more like a manifesto and a treatise on Tolkein than anything else, and while I don't doubt that that is exactly what Killjoy wanted to write, it's just not always the kind of thing I'm really in the mood to read. I can't blame her for that, of course. Overall I enjoyed the book and I thought it was an eye-opening experience to read a book written by someone with Killjoy's own life experiences as a musician, squatter, and activist. I've often been tangentially aware in my life of the people who live in communes and anarchist collectives and the like, but it was edifying and enlightening to read more about it.