Jake Casella Brookins
@casella.bsky.social
Appalachian in the big city. Editor at Ancillary Review, host of A Meal of Thorns, bookseller, coffee pro, SF reviewer & scholar. He/him.
https://linktr.ee/jakecasellabrookins
https://linktr.ee/jakecasellabrookins
Pinned
I mean ... I do admire the faith in humanity that leads you to believe that Hugo nominators will ever nominate a nyrb book!
To restore cosmic balance after the Tor novella sweep, we must engineer a New Directions sweep
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Just finished The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes, which was brilliant, but I'm interested that it joins The West Passage by Jared Pechaček as my favourite secondary world fantasy novels of the last couple of years and both are very definitely maximalist in terms of their fantastical nature.
January 18, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Just finished The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes, which was brilliant, but I'm interested that it joins The West Passage by Jared Pechaček as my favourite secondary world fantasy novels of the last couple of years and both are very definitely maximalist in terms of their fantastical nature.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
spent the morning in the Eastman (Kodak) Museum and now might be obsessed with André Kertész
January 17, 2026 at 10:50 PM
spent the morning in the Eastman (Kodak) Museum and now might be obsessed with André Kertész
No more Boschian fantasies for a while, it is soup season. Borschtian fantasies only
January 18, 2026 at 1:36 AM
No more Boschian fantasies for a while, it is soup season. Borschtian fantasies only
spent the morning in the Eastman (Kodak) Museum and now might be obsessed with André Kertész
January 17, 2026 at 10:50 PM
spent the morning in the Eastman (Kodak) Museum and now might be obsessed with André Kertész
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
damn what is wrong with me, i am having the hardest time concentrating on work, i lament as i compulsively refresh live feeds of unspeakable horrors
January 17, 2026 at 7:52 PM
damn what is wrong with me, i am having the hardest time concentrating on work, i lament as i compulsively refresh live feeds of unspeakable horrors
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
this is all to say that reading books is fun and peeling through contexts is fun and sometimes i think leaning into Tolkien being a one-of-one language weirdo is good but also sometimes bending all of reality around one guy takes us down a road that I think is less fruitful than some other roads
January 17, 2026 at 8:09 PM
this is all to say that reading books is fun and peeling through contexts is fun and sometimes i think leaning into Tolkien being a one-of-one language weirdo is good but also sometimes bending all of reality around one guy takes us down a road that I think is less fruitful than some other roads
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
For the weekend crowd: check out our first episode of 2026, with @marmercurio.bsky.social talking us through Richard Marsh's melodramatic Gothic horror (with screaming not-even-sub-text) THE BEETLE!
A Meal of Thorns 41- THE BEETLE with Marisa Mercurio
If you read Dracula and thought: “I like the ancient shapeshifting nemesis and the homoerotic subtext, but I don’t like how subtle the sexual and national anxieties are,” you&rsqu…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
January 17, 2026 at 3:56 AM
For the weekend crowd: check out our first episode of 2026, with @marmercurio.bsky.social talking us through Richard Marsh's melodramatic Gothic horror (with screaming not-even-sub-text) THE BEETLE!
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Politicians who oppose the rights of trans people do not want you to control your own body or decide how you live.
It’s that simple, and it’s 100% a predictor of voting on aaallll those issues.
It’s that simple, and it’s 100% a predictor of voting on aaallll those issues.
I can't trust politicians who are anti-trans. Not because I'm "only searching for perfection" which is what centrists will be accusing me of for the rest of my life, it's because if you're not pro-trans you'll be garbage on lots of other issues too. Being anti-trans NEVER exists in a vacuum.
January 17, 2026 at 1:04 PM
Politicians who oppose the rights of trans people do not want you to control your own body or decide how you live.
It’s that simple, and it’s 100% a predictor of voting on aaallll those issues.
It’s that simple, and it’s 100% a predictor of voting on aaallll those issues.
Hard agree for practical reasons; vaguely pondering this on more abstract levels, as well—characters & terrain are both fake, but elements that literalize or concretize the former seem less problematic on first blush.
I think this is true even for first books in series, but especially for sequels: dramatis personae is better than a map every time.
January 17, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Hard agree for practical reasons; vaguely pondering this on more abstract levels, as well—characters & terrain are both fake, but elements that literalize or concretize the former seem less problematic on first blush.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
You have to block them immediately. The full nuclear. They are only here to make folks angry, and that can’t happen if we lock them out.
✅ @icegov.bsky.social has been verified by @bsky.app.
January 16, 2026 at 11:59 PM
You have to block them immediately. The full nuclear. They are only here to make folks angry, and that can’t happen if we lock them out.
continually wild (and insulting) how cramming AI features into everything isn't "what the public wants" and isn't even "we're going to cultivate a want." It's just: you will purchase this now.
Rhyming unpleasantly with the "not really gonna bother to lie about it" turn in politics.
Rhyming unpleasantly with the "not really gonna bother to lie about it" turn in politics.
January 16, 2026 at 9:22 PM
continually wild (and insulting) how cramming AI features into everything isn't "what the public wants" and isn't even "we're going to cultivate a want." It's just: you will purchase this now.
Rhyming unpleasantly with the "not really gonna bother to lie about it" turn in politics.
Rhyming unpleasantly with the "not really gonna bother to lie about it" turn in politics.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
For the podcast A Meal of Thorns, NBCC member Jake Casella Brookins was joined in conversation by critic and reviews editor Dan Hartland to talk about the year in speculative fiction:
A Meal of Thorns 40- 2025 Wrap-Up with Dan Hartland
We’re closing out this strange year with a “big-picture” episode: editor & critic Dan Hartland is on to talk about trends and directions—or lack thereof—in recent …
buff.ly
January 16, 2026 at 3:04 PM
For the podcast A Meal of Thorns, NBCC member Jake Casella Brookins was joined in conversation by critic and reviews editor Dan Hartland to talk about the year in speculative fiction:
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Nobody asks brands like Black Rifle Coffee or whoever, whose entire personality is "we want to kill libs for sport" if they feel weird about alienating a majority of Americans.
Look at this absolute queen
January 16, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Nobody asks brands like Black Rifle Coffee or whoever, whose entire personality is "we want to kill libs for sport" if they feel weird about alienating a majority of Americans.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
obviously lots to say about this shift, and lots of folks have, but what's most striking to me is how *unplanned* it was. Not prompted by big studies, landmark laws, waves of op-eds; *crime went way down*—but collectively we decided "unattended, uninjured kid" is automatically a reason to call 911.
when i was my kid's age i went to the playground by myself with my sister (younger by ~2yrs), if i let them go to the playground by themselves someone would call the cops. same neighborhood except when i was this age it was *****washington heights in the 1980s*****
January 16, 2026 at 2:56 PM
obviously lots to say about this shift, and lots of folks have, but what's most striking to me is how *unplanned* it was. Not prompted by big studies, landmark laws, waves of op-eds; *crime went way down*—but collectively we decided "unattended, uninjured kid" is automatically a reason to call 911.
you really do gotta hand it to Clute sometimes
So on @withouthistoryband.bsky.social's recommendation, I tracked down the essay "Necessary Golems" by sci-fi critic John Clute this morning.
And yeah, people need to read this, cause boy does it feel relevant.
And yeah, people need to read this, cause boy does it feel relevant.
January 16, 2026 at 2:27 AM
you really do gotta hand it to Clute sometimes
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
crazy how Attack Of The Clones predicted this
January 15, 2026 at 9:45 PM
crazy how Attack Of The Clones predicted this
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
NBCC member Jake Casella Brookins reviewed five titles for the Ancillary Review of Books: "North Sun," "Audition," "Sunbirth," "Uncertain Sons and Other Stories," and "The Heist of Hollow London":
From the Editors’ Shelves: December 2025
Jake Casella Brookins In this new occasional feature, ARB editors offer some quick thoughts on recent reads. For our first entry, Jake Casella Brookins talks about five books from this year that he…
buff.ly
January 14, 2026 at 8:01 PM
NBCC member Jake Casella Brookins reviewed five titles for the Ancillary Review of Books: "North Sun," "Audition," "Sunbirth," "Uncertain Sons and Other Stories," and "The Heist of Hollow London":
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
It's worth noting that the WSFS business meeting is Virtual this year, so you can participate even if you cannot make it to Los Angeles (or if you feel the situation in the USA is not safe for you.)
Call to Action: If you want to see a permanent speculative POETRY HUGO, please consider becoming a WSFS member by 1/31 so you can vote! www.lacon.org/register/
LAcon V Registration – LAcon V
www.lacon.org
January 15, 2026 at 7:37 PM
It's worth noting that the WSFS business meeting is Virtual this year, so you can participate even if you cannot make it to Los Angeles (or if you feel the situation in the USA is not safe for you.)
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
Imagine doing a PhD in electricity, just so you knew how to blow up nuclear power plants and heavy water-producing facilities.
“I learned from them very early that what one does with Nazis is kill them... I am not a pacifist.”
A profile in absolute courage.
“I learned from them very early that what one does with Nazis is kill them... I am not a pacifist.”
A profile in absolute courage.
January 15, 2026 at 5:59 PM
Imagine doing a PhD in electricity, just so you knew how to blow up nuclear power plants and heavy water-producing facilities.
“I learned from them very early that what one does with Nazis is kill them... I am not a pacifist.”
A profile in absolute courage.
“I learned from them very early that what one does with Nazis is kill them... I am not a pacifist.”
A profile in absolute courage.
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
insanely bleak to get tagged re: something i said in june 2020, about the crackdown after Floyd's murder. same fascists, new acronyms!
January 15, 2026 at 3:43 PM
insanely bleak to get tagged re: something i said in june 2020, about the crackdown after Floyd's murder. same fascists, new acronyms!
Reposted by Jake Casella Brookins
I think they think everyone is and wants to be as isolated as they are, caring only about their immediate families (and even then, only if they’re performing their expected role). I don’t think they can conceive of people standing on principle, because theirs are jello.
January 15, 2026 at 5:19 PM
I think they think everyone is and wants to be as isolated as they are, caring only about their immediate families (and even then, only if they’re performing their expected role). I don’t think they can conceive of people standing on principle, because theirs are jello.
If you're a member of the @horrorwritersassoc.bsky.social, may I suggest you check out @megapolisomancy.bsky.social's "Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism" for the Short Nonfiction category (and a worth a read either way):
January 15, 2026 at 3:55 PM
If you're a member of the @horrorwritersassoc.bsky.social, may I suggest you check out @megapolisomancy.bsky.social's "Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Fascism" for the Short Nonfiction category (and a worth a read either way):
drafted and deleted five hare-brained takes. Just sick with worry and all this anger with nowhere to go, and historical comparisons to give some perspective are a pretty mixed bag
January 15, 2026 at 2:21 PM
drafted and deleted five hare-brained takes. Just sick with worry and all this anger with nowhere to go, and historical comparisons to give some perspective are a pretty mixed bag