Reviews

“Striking debut collection. Distinctly horror tales of the ‘What threatens your existence and what will you do to get through?’ variety, with a coldly angry 21st-century edge.” —New York Times

“Bulkin takes roads less traveled, uncovering the things that squirm in the dark while daring readers to look away. […] Bulkin serves up cerebral horror with plenty of bite.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A rising star of the weird fiction subgenre. Her stories weigh differing perspectives, give powerful voice to the forgotten, and find horror in experiences both extraordinary and mundane. In her hands, terror comes from the underlying truth that these stories are firmly rooted in the circumstances of our current society.” —Becky Spratford, Library Journal

“It’s one of the best collections of this or any other year. There is no other writer like Nadia working today and her socio-political horror stories will knock you on your butt.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World

“Weird fiction has been stuck in the era of new-fangled radio sets and fifteen-cent pulp magazines for ninety years. Finally, Nadia Bulkin has come to drag us kicking and screaming into the horrors of The Endless Now with a collection of hip, ultracontemporary, politically astute, and chilling stories.” —Nick Mamatas, author of I Am Providence and The Last Weekend

“Bulkin delivers a dose of delicious darkness with her debut collection.” —Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic

“Nadia Bulkin writes prose like a scalpel, deftly slicing to the beating hearts of her characters and the dilemmas they confront. Impressive in subject and setting, these stories range far and wide through literary and cultural history to find the darkness that threads through the (post) modern world. As substantial a debut as I’ve seen, and highly recommended.” —John Langan, author of The Fisherman

“Nadia is the coming storm, a 21st-century baby whose particular brand of politicalpunk witchcraft should determine the way the wind blows over horror’s next few decades. She’s exactly the sort of fabulist we most deserve, especially in this potentially catastrophic era… one who casts a cold, assessing eye over the wreckage before cobbling it together into the image of some loathsome new god, the kind that runs on blood worship and drunken karmic nihilism. And when we’re all down in the mud crying and cutting each other like good little cultists, pinned flat by the weight of her shadow, I can only aspire to be the first to admit we did this to ourselves.” —Gemma Files, author of Experimental Film

“Dark, hard-hitting, inventive literary horror twined around feminist and postcolonial themes––as literary as Mariana Enriquez and Brian Evenson, and scarier than both combined. All of these stories were riveting, and half of them felt like they were slicing the top of my head clean off.” —Amy Gentry, author of Good As Gone and Last Woman Standing

“An expert balance of the fantastic and horrific, She Said Destroy is a prime example of how modern fabulism continues to reinvigorate and reinvent all modes of speculative fiction. This book is inventive, insightful, and inspiring, not to mention unnerving. The stories inside deftly blend the horrors of the cosmic with those of the personal, evoking awe both terrifying and sublime. Nadia Bulkin’s writing is beautiful, exciting, and a stellar contribution to the field of fantastic literature.” —Simon Strantzas, author of Burnt Black Suns

“Horror is a tough act to perfect, but time after time, piece after piece, Nadia Bulkin shows us how it’s fucking done. Her fiction dances along a razorwire tightrope, juggling the horrific and the grotesque with flourishes of pitch black humor, the darkly fantastical with the achingly real, and more original monsters than a medieval bestiary. This sharp, sinister, and stylish collection encapsulates why Bulkin is one of my favorite contemporary short story writers.” —Jesse Bullington, author of The Enterprise of Death

“This collection feels timely thanks to Nadia’s superb insight on the socio-political and cultural horror at humanity’s core. Simply put, this book is a work of genius.” —Hailey Piper, author of The Worm And His Kings

“The dark stories of She Said Destroy are harrowing, astute tales of horror and the fantastic, vagabond journeys through the regions and classes of today’s world, alongside the forgotten and the monstrous. Bulkin’s craft is an enlivening, challenging, and distinctive voice that lingers long after reading, and reshapes weird fiction each time.” —Andrew S. Fuller, author, editor of Three-lobed Burning Eye

“Nadia Bulkin’s unique, intelligent voice captured me the first time I read one of her stories. She’s never let me down since!” —Paula Guran, editor of The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror

“Already, Bulkin has earned a reputation as a writer interested in the political implications of her stories’ situations. It’s certainly true, but there’s a way in which the political in her work frequently leads back to the personal, to the desires that split us. Long after the last page has been turned, her complement of monsters stalks the edges of our vision.” —John Langan, Locus

“A smart, powerful debut collection.” —Ellen Datlow, Locus

“Great horror happens when a story reveals some profoundly personal truth or when it reflects something ugly we can recognize on a broad, systemic scale. Nadia Bulkin writes what she describes as ‘socio-political horror’ and it colors many of the stories in a debut collection that will surely be recognized as one of the year’s sharpest.” —Theresa DeLucci, Tor.com

“Within these pages, you’ll find cold hard death, wry dark humor, pain and suffering, hauntings, strange religions, twists on cosmic horrors, familial legacies, and much more. Do yourself a treat, get this book, mark out a nice block of uninterrupted time, and sink on in. Just remember, this is the heavy stuff, the dark stuff; this is not gonzo splatter or quiet literary but its own deep brand of dread-at-the-core.” —Christine Morgan, The Horror Fiction Review