Tenebrous089: Frighteningly Plausible
I changed my hairstyle, so many times now, I don't know what I look like
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
There’s a quote from FanFiAddict’s Ed Crocker in his review of Koji A. Dae’s upcoming debut novel, CASUAL: “one of the most plausible futures I’ve read recently.”
It’s a thorough and overwhelmingly positive review, so naturally you should go read it right after you finish reading this newsletter (and thank you, Ed!) And no, it’s not groundbreaking to describe dystopian science fiction as “plausible”. Sci-Fi writers have been predicting the future with remarkable accuracy for a while now.
They don’t always get it right, of course:
But the plausibility of Koji’s novel is what really injects the Horror into the New Weird of CASUAL.
As it stands, the U.S. is entering—already living in?—a murky period where the questions and legalities and limits of “bodily autonomy” are gonna get flensed and poked at and studied under a microscope and then, potentially, tossed in the rubbish. Particularly if you are anything but a cis identifying man. And we’re seeing these alarming trends all throughout the world.
I daren’t say anything preposterous like “CASUAL is the most important science fiction novel you’ll read in 2025!”, because honestly I don’t know what the hell else anyone is publishing in 2025 (would you believe, running an indie publisher doesn’t leave me a whole lot of time to keep up with everyone else’s schedule).
But it’s definitely one of the least-speculative SpecFic novels you’ll read; it’s a future that…yep, it’s pretty much here, wearing slightly different duds (give it time).
And it’s available to preorder now.
About CASUAL:
Valya’s neural implant is amazing.
Its game-like app, CASUAL, has managed her depression and anxiety, stabilized her mood, and helped the infertile Valya get pregnant. But new laws forbid her from using the device when she's sole caregiver for her infant. Her gaslighting ex won't help her, and she can't afford a nanny, so her obstetrician insists that Valya wean off CASUAL before giving birth.
Despite a will to quit and a supportive new love interest in her birthing class, disabling CASUAL turns Valya's anxiety into full-blown panic attacks. Her psychiatrist offers to enroll her in a controversial clinical trial that would place a tandem implant in the baby and allow Valya to keep hers active. Valya must decide whether she should attempt parenting without CASUAL or install a minimally tested device in her vulnerable child.
Casual is a stark and cutting glance at a near future that looks uncannily like our present, exploring themes of bodily autonomy and the struggle for mental health in a world increasingly divided.
“Complex, compelling, and incredibly imagined. Akin to classic dystopian literature like 1984 and Brave New World. It left me reeling."
Ivy Grimes, author of Glass Stories
"A stunningly written story about class, mental health, women’s autonomy and all the ways a society can seek to control these in a future so real I could almost touch it.”
Ed Crocker, FanFiAddict
CASUAL is out February 11, 2025.
Or just subscribe to our 2025 Book Club
And you’ll get CASUAL without lifting a damn finger! Along with seven other books and varying degrees of goodies (depending if you go print+eBook or eBook-only):
We’ve already shared the cover to Valkyrie Loughcrewe’s PUPPET’S BANQUET:
And we’ll be dropping the cover art to Jacy Morris’ WE LIKE IT CHERRY next week.
You can read more here, including synopses of all of next year’s titles.
The Tenebrous Anniversary Bonanza…held over by popular demand (and too much fun s#!t)
This week we’ve got a piece of flash fiction from D.Matthew Urban, author of the extraordinary Nonsense Words from last year’s SPLIT SCREAM Vol. 4.
We’ve paired it with a surreal sketch courtesy of TRVE CVLT’s Michael Bettendorf that bares little thematic relevance (or maybe it does? Interpret it freely!) but it fit the page well and I’m not about to let cool free art go to waste:
SPLIT SCREAM Vol. 4 explored a “History of Horror”, and in addition to Urban’s Weird Cosmic tale of dark academia, also showcases Holly Lyn Walrath’s lighthouse ghost horromance, Bone Light. Pick it up here if you haven’t already.
Fans of FROM THE BELLY—and there are a lot of you—we’ve got a special treat for you! Author Emmett Nahil has written a coda of sorts to his epic Weird whaling novel.
For those who haven’t read FROM THE BELLY, this is vaguely spoiler-y, so be warned:
The house in which Isaiah Chase had taken up residence was small; tiny, even, compared to what his family residence had been. But it still dwarfed him in comparison to the cramped bunk that had been his last home on board the Merciful. His found cottage—more like a hut, really—had been occupied up until a few years previous by some crab trappers and fishermen, who’d left the decaying shack in a pitiable condition. He slept there, and much to his frustration, dreamed there too.
This time, he was back within the wooden ribs of the ship. Inside it, waiting, for Lice (long dead, long dead) to call the change of the watch that would allow him to slip below to the belly, to the stomach, to the innards—
He awoke with a start, having pulled himself out of the dream as soon as he sensed its approach. It was something he’d gotten quite good at now, and Isaiah found he was able to shake himself out of almost any night terror that poked a head out from the bowels of his subconscious. Six months of waking drenched in sweat, out of breath and heart hammering, put the necessity of such a skill at the top of mind.
This time, night and her accompanying sister shadows cloaked the shack, dancing to reveal strips of the whitewashed walls in the moonlight, as it seeped in from the windows. As Isaiah’s eyes adjusted, the dark played around a shape just past his bed. He stared squintingly into the place just beyond where the light touched.
The shape molded, melted, into a figure. A man’s shape stood in the body of the house, long hair hung low over his face.
He dripped salt water onto the floor of Isaiah’s cottage.
“What went we,” the man said, quietly, tentatively, “When we lost what love was once ours?”
Isaiah scrubbed his eyes, shaking his head. Hoped against all hope that this would be what would wake him up from this last, most painful dream.
The shape, the man, stood motionless.
He sighed from the shadows, and Isaiah was just barely able to see the faintly reflected gleam of the other man’s eyes. “You will not be rid of me. Not as easily as you want to be.”
The dingy, hollow cottage, full of nothing but memories and fear and regret, leaned in, as if to listen. To cleave to the man’s presence, in spite of the apprehension and fear that wracked Isaiah, even now. Below that, there was another sensation: an instinctual knowing, a longing, a recognition.
Before Isaiah thought to hesitate, he gave it voice. “I…don’t want to be rid of you.”
With a minute tilt of his head, the man extended one scarred hand, into the light, and Isaiah rose from his bed, to take it in his.
FROM THE BELLY recounts the uncanny, inhuman events upon the doomed whaling vessel Merciful after a living man is recovered from the belly of a dead whale and brought aboard. You can check it out here.
Last Bit of Business: THE SKULL & LAUREL Issue 002 is out in one month
Our second issue is (relatively) just around the corner! If reaction to Issue 001 is anything to go by, you wholeheartedly approve of our approach. Which is good, because we’re sticking to it: only the finest and Weirdest fiction from all corners of the globe. Story over star power.
Issue 002 features stories from Neal Auch, Ria Hill, Beau Farrow, Anne Liberton, Letícia Werner, Cedrick May, Jonathan Olfert, Atalanti Evripidou and Dmitri Akers; an incredible non-fiction piece on Mascot Horror (a term I’d never personally considered but now makes so much sense) by Xochilt Avila; horrorscopes, classified ads and more.
We’ll see you next week with a cover reveal or two, and some final Anniversary contributions from Valkyrie Loughcrewe and Bitter Karella. They oughta be suitably Weird.
Tend your mental garden. Touch something crafted by human hands. Or make something yourself.
Hail Indie Publishing.
Hail the New Weird.
Matt + Alex