TW: The zine being reviewed, and to a lesser extent the review itself, features themes of self-harm, self-mutilation, extremely creative violence, post-apocalypse civilization, and — mostly metaphorically – gender dysphoria. Also drug use, child abuse and mass death.

Have I told you lately I really love horror? Has it come up enough that I really really love horror? I think I’ve been too normal about it. Good news! This will change because I am about to be EXTREMELY NOT NORMAL about ‘Secrets Inside Cabling’ by Calliope Neurotoxin. This is another zine from WBMC (Wiggle Bird Mailing Club), which seems to be hitting nothing but perfect strikes. Literally the only reason I’m currently unsubscribed is because Patreon and the gods hate me, and it means I’m MISSING OUT on the December zine. Everything is terrible.

Anyway, ‘Secrets Inside Cabling’ is a litzine — a short story wrapped inside a zine, in unfortunately-small font (such is the joy of zine-making, I guess). It’s partly illustrated, and about humanity’s attempt to build a “physical god”, then promptly abandoned in low Earth orbit. The Earth here is a devastated wreck of its former self, and all the space technology is a wreck, too; we’re far enough in the future that even the promised future has come and gone. It’s a gutwrenching setting that inspires a kind of existential depression — we are, it seems, at the end of everything.

I won’t say much more than that, because honestly, this zine is a fucking experience and I don’t want to take that away from you. It’s gory, nauseating, and horrifying in both the little details (it’s important to dig. dig through, and for, what? you’ll find out.) and its broader storytelling (the idea of breeding pilots for the purposes of flying Something isn’t new, but that’s part of what makes the sparseness so good — we can fill in certain dots, and others take us by surprise). The violence isn’t just violent, but refreshingly so; there’s no mundane gun violence or run-of-the-mill sexual assault here. No, we’re talking acid dissolution and brain spikes, cocaine grown from mold and more — all in, I really must stress, a 20-page zine short story. Unbelievable. Calliope Neurotoxin, when you write a full length novel or game or short story collection, I will be at the door on release day Fry-style going “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY”.

Anyway. If you want to buy the zine, even after its specialized release on WBMC, you can buy it here! To sign up for Wiggle Bird Mailing Club, check them out on Patreon over here.

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