Marisa Mercurio
LightNews LightNews
banner
marmercurio.bsky.social
Marisa Mercurio
@marmercurio.bsky.social
350 followers 70 following 4 posts
PhD in 19c literature | Acquiring Editor, University of Michigan | (she/they)
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
mealofthorns.bsky.social
ICYMI: Marisa Mercurio of HOWEVER IMPROBABLE (@marmercurio.bsky.social) joins to discuss Richard Marsh's THE BEETLE, a melodramatic Gothic horror about shape-shifting cultists and imperial anxieties that reads a bit like DRACULA's louder sibling!

ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2026/01/12/a...
January 22, 2026 at 1:52 PM
marmercurio.bsky.social
Victorian Egyptomania! Gender-fluid bugs! Cults! And… lots and lots of transportation.
January 14, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
For the first 2026 episode of @mealofthorns.bsky.social, @marmercurio.bsky.social is our guest and guide for Richard Marsh's THE BEETLE, a melodramatic Gothic horror-mystery with a lot going on under the carapace:
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 12, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
mealofthorns.bsky.social
If you read Dracula & thought “I like the ancient shapeshifting nemesis & the homoerotic subtext, but I don’t like how subtle the sexual & national anxieties are,” you’re in luck! Editor, reviewer, & scholar @marmercurio.bsky.social talks us through Richard Marsh's 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 12, 2026 at 12:00 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
danhartland.bsky.social
😱 NEW CRITICAL FRIENDS 😱

📚 With @marmercurio.bsky.social and Shannon Fay, on the flat affect of cosy horror.

🎢 "Horror is a series of, like, stasis, stasis, stasis, spike, right? And if it's not being delivered, then that becomes a generic problem for the novel."
Critical Friends Episode 19: On Cosy Horrors
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland is joined by Shannon Fay and Marisa Mercurio to discuss horror, and especially its cozy variety.
strangehorizons.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
danhartland.bsky.social
🎧 Also out with this week’s issue of @strangehorizons.bsky.social:🚨the latest episode of the Critical Friends podcast.🚨

This time I’m joined by @marmercurio.bsky.social and Shannon Fay to discuss horror, the gothic, and coziness: what can, should and do reviewers look for in these texts? And why?
Critical Friends Episode 19: On Cosy Horrors
In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Dan Hartland is joined by Shannon Fay and Marisa Mercurio to discuss horror, and especially its cozy variety.
strangehorizons.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
strangehorizons.bsky.social
The reviews are in!

Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby
reviewed by Marisa Mercurio

Link ⬇️
strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

#speculativefiction #specfic #sff #bookreviews
Left cover of Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby featuring a female doll in 18th century dress sitting in a birdcage. Right REVIEWS Quote "Notably, during these years contestations of the nature of womanhood bubbled up to the surface of cultural discourse; Rushby’s intent on writing a feminist interpretation of mid-century life—and how it haunts us today—is therefore apt." reviewer: Marisa Mercurio 15 December 2025 Strange Horizons
December 21, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
danhartland.bsky.social
Splendid review to start the week at SH today - @marmercurio.bsky.social on the curious Neo-Gothic of Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby (@berkleypub.bsky.social).

“A novel filled with such potential should be a pleasure to untangle.”
Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby
Scholarly analysis of an historical oddity may not be paramount to the success of a Neo-Gothic novel; but this context speaks to Slashed Beauties’s larger issue of flattening gender relations.
strangehorizons.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
404media.co
Ypsilanti, Michigan has officially decided to fight against the construction of a 'high-performance computing facility' that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away.
A Small Town Is Fighting a $1.2 Billion AI Datacenter for America's Nuclear Weapon Scientists
Ypsilanti, Michigan has officially decided to fight against the construction of a 'high-performance computing facility' that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away.
www.404media.co
November 10, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
acadpubnews.bsky.social
"When we embrace genAI without examining the domino effect it will have on library workers and users, we fail to do our jobs." @marmercurio.bsky.social networks.h-net.org/group/discus...
AI Exacerbates Labor Issues for Library Workers | H-Net
A guest post from Feeding the Elephant: A Forum for Scholarly Communications.Guest post by Marisa Mercurio, acquisitions editor, University of Michigan.
networks.h-net.org
September 12, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
hnetbookchannel.bsky.social
"When we embrace genAI without examining the domino effect it will have on library workers and users, we fail to do our jobs," writes @marmercurio.bsky.social for #FeedingTheElephant. How has the embrace of AI affect publishing, research, and teaching. Find out!
➡️ networks.h-net.org/group/discus...
Feeding the Elephant | H-Net
networks.h-net.org
September 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM
marmercurio.bsky.social
My article with @crimereads.bsky.social on one of the best, longest-running, and somehow overlooked Holmes adaptations.
crimereads.com/elementary-i...
Elementary is a Masterclass in Sherlock Holmes Adaptation
In 2012, the cable network CBS introduced the world to a new Sherlock Holmes. And he was going stateside. Set in the present day, Elementary places Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) in New York City where …
crimereads.com
August 14, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
alicesperi.bsky.social
Exclusive: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication.

My latest.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Revealed: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication
As Harvard’s feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an ‘education and Palestine’ issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the ‘Palestine exception’ to academic freedom
www.theguardian.com
July 22, 2025 at 11:17 AM
marmercurio.bsky.social
Let's get vegetable Gothic going as a subgenre. Bunnicula takes first spot.
danhartland.bsky.social Dan Hartland @danhartland.bsky.social · Jun 25
Wednesday's review is the excellent @marmercurio.bsky.social on Margie Sarsfield's Beta Vulgaris. She goes in excited to discover the vegetable gothic, and finds surprises: "readers of Strange Horizons should know that Beta Vulgaris might not fulfill your expectations of a horror novel."
Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield
These beets aren’t destined for dinner plates.
strangehorizons.com
June 25, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
danhartland.bsky.social
Wednesday's review is the excellent @marmercurio.bsky.social on Margie Sarsfield's Beta Vulgaris. She goes in excited to discover the vegetable gothic, and finds surprises: "readers of Strange Horizons should know that Beta Vulgaris might not fulfill your expectations of a horror novel."
Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield
These beets aren’t destined for dinner plates.
strangehorizons.com
June 25, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
joekatz45.bsky.social
They're trying to kill Rumeysa Ozturk for writing a fucking op ed
joshuajfriedman.com Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · Apr 10
NEW: Rümeysa Öztürk says she's had 4 painful asthma attacks in ICE custody, and not only is her asthma going untreated but a nurse tore off her hijab, saying, "You need to take that thing off your head." www.aclum.org/sites/defaul...
38. Once they finally took me to the medical center, the nurse took my temperature. She said "you need to take that thing off your head" and took off my hejab without asking my permission. I told her you can't take off my hejab and she said this is for your health. After a few minutes I put my hejab back on. But they did nothing to treat my asthma and gave me a few ibuprofen. 39. I had a third asthma attack at the Louisiana facility. Again, this happened in the cell and other woman knocked on the window to get the attention of the officers. I was told that the nurse would come to the cell to see me. She took me outside for a short bit and told me that it was all in my mind. She finally took me to the medical center but I was not treated for my difficulty breathing. The nurse left the room and didn't answer my questions 40.I had a fourth asthma attack on Wednesday March gth around noon. I used my inhaler and waited for it to pass. I was in pain and very scared but I didn't ask to go to the medical center because I don't feel that they address my medical needs. 41. I don't feel safe at the medical center because of my prior experiences there. They complain when I go there and speak to me in an insulting and condescending manner. They also write information in my medical records that is not accurate. The doctor and nurses there are rude and uncaring.
April 10, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Marisa Mercurio
danhartland.bsky.social
Today at @strangehorizons.bsky.social, @marmercurio.bsky.social on Marx and horror in the Pacific Northwest.

“Carson Winter shapes his horror novella around the friction between the bourgeoisie and proletariat.”
A Spectre is Haunting Greentree by Carson Winter
Carson Winter shapes his horror novella around the friction between the bourgeoisie and proletariat.
strangehorizons.com
March 26, 2025 at 8:43 PM