Podcast Summary: New Books Network
Episode: Lindsay Wong, "Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies" (Penguin Random House Canada, 2026)
Host: Holly Gattery
Date: March 1, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features an engaging conversation between host Holly Gattery and acclaimed author Lindsay Wong about her latest novel, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies. The book tackles the darkly humorous and gothic tale of Lucinda, a broke, indebted Asian Canadian woman who signs her life away in a “corpse marriage”—an ancient Chinese tradition. The discussion dives deep into the origins of corpse marriage and villain hitting, issues facing model minorities, the use of horror and absurdity, and the complexities of writing unlikable but sympathetic characters. Wong and Gattery explore themes of class, cultural stereotype, creative survival, and literary playfulness.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origin of the Novel & Corpse Marriage

• Inspiration from Personal & Cultural Experiences
  • Lindsay Wong shares how her upbringing included warnings about unmarried women and burial traditions in Chinese culture (03:33).
  • Visiting Hong Kong in 2023, she heard startling urban legends about women being kidnapped for corpse marriage, a practice tracing back to the Tang dynasty, where deceased men and women were paired so no one would be alone in the afterlife.
  • Wong’s curiosity: “I have really bad luck, so I know the killing would go horribly wrong. And I would wake up next to a corpse...what happens if this person is really boring?” (03:33).

2. Characterization of Lucinda

• Subverting the Model Minority Stereotype
  • Lucinda is described as “poor, vicious...a nobody with a powerful witch for a grandmother and an undead corpse kid sister as her only friend,” embodying both vulnerability and ferocity (05:07).
  • Wong intentionally writes against the stereotype of the passive Asian woman: “It was really important for Lucinda to kind of push back against the model minority...she has these really unkind thoughts sometimes and that’s very normal and human, right?” (07:09).
  • Lucinda’s likability is discussed as complex—readers may enjoy her narrative presence while recognizing she may not be pleasant in real life.

3. Blending Horror, Gore, and Gothic Sensibilities

• Evoking Atmosphere Without Overwhelming the Reader
  • Gattery notes the book’s blend of radiant and poetic writing with gothic gore, describing it as “deliciously gothic...with a really modern edge” (09:48).
  • Wong’s approach is intentional and metaphorical: “Being able to see that there is beauty in decay, there is beauty in horror” (12:03).
  • Research for the book included studying maggots and visceral decomposition to create atmosphere without gratuitous shock (13:01).

4. Villain Hitting Explained

• A Real, Gendered Cultural Practice
  • Wong explains villain hitting is another ancient Chinese tradition, performed mostly by impoverished elderly women in Hong Kong (16:12).
  • For a small fee, women will curse a person’s enemies using a shoe to beat an effigy, symbolizing vengeance when real power is lacking.
  • “It's really just...a symbolic act of vengeance, like when you really can’t do anything in your life against people, right?” (16:12).
  • Thematically ties into the book’s focus on gender, powerlessness, and societal oppression.

5. Playful Structure: Footnotes and Literary Satire

• Role of Footnotes in the Book
  • The novel incorporates abundant, cheeky, and sometimes petty footnotes—“joyfully petty as well...my favorite kind of pettiness and joy,” Gattery remarks (28:17).
  • Wong uses them to slip in personal grievances, writerly in-jokes, and secret messages to the community: “I kind of put in these observations about colleagues...because I think they’re not going to read the book or read the footnotes. At least I hope not.” (28:17).
  • Footnotes also provide historical context and information, making the reading experience layered and engaging.

6. Socioeconomic Satire: Choicelessness Under Late Capitalism

• Why Lucinda “Chooses” Corpse Marriage
  • Lucinda’s path is driven by lack of options—a broke MFA dropout, unemployed, crushed by debt, trying to rescue her family from a triad (31:30).
  • Wong draws on her own experiences post-MFA, living with six roommates and doing odd jobs despite literary recognition.
  • “I wanted to show that even in today’s society, there are no options for a lot of people who don’t come from wealth...her choicelessness” (31:30).
  • Addresses the fallacy of artistic success equating to financial security or stability.

7. Ending & Emotional Resolution (No Major Spoilers)

• Feelings Toward the Conclusion
  • Wong shares: “I always knew going in that it would not be a happy fate for Lucinda...it’s really just about reconciling with what she thinks she has done in her life and really just accepting that her relationships with her sister and grandmother are going to be complicated...maybe, I think in some ways, she does become a little bit kinder to herself” (35:48).
  • The ending is described as both meditative and suspenseful—a tension with “an inevitable outcome that I could not grasp yet” (34:39).

8. Genre-Bending & What’s Next

• Absurdist Gothic, Satire, & Not Quite Horror
  • Both Gattery and Wong muse on the book’s genre-defying qualities: “I don’t know if I consider you a horror writer either. To me, your work has too much agility” (39:05).
  • Wong is working on a new, unannounced novel involving Chinese hell and prairie horror, potentially set in Winnipeg (38:32).
  • Discussion of the industry’s historic resistance to Canadian-set stories, and hope for changing trends (40:18).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We do everything together. We’re supposed to eat together, we’re supposed to shop together, and then we’re supposed to die together.” – Lindsay Wong (03:33)
• “What if you arrange death marriage?” – Lindsay Wong (05:01)
• “There’s beauty in decay, there’s beauty in horror.” – Lindsay Wong (12:03)
• “May someone, not me, curse you with a shoe.” – Wong’s dedication as read by Holly Gattery (21:32)
• “If someone told me that Lindsay Wong has written footnotes on used toilet paper that you can only find in a dumpster right now, I’d go find it.” – Holly Gattery (30:00)
• “As you know, we always say we’re like writers from the margins or writing in the margins. So it was sort of like a really play on that.” – Lindsay Wong (29:23)
• “If this is what artistic success is like, you know, it’s horrible and terrible. Like we can’t even afford beds.” – Lindsay Wong (33:06)
• “Be nice to me or I’ll write about you. That’s what I always tell people.” – Lindsay Wong (39:37)
• “There’s something about candy, right, that is kind of sinister, right? You don’t know what’s in it.” – Lindsay Wong (26:41)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:33 – Corpse marriage origin, cultural myths, and book inception
• 05:07 – Lucinda’s characterization and subverting stereotypes
• 09:48 – Use of gothic horror and balancing gore
• 12:03 – Thematic exploration of beauty and decay
• 13:01 – Research on maggots, body horror, and atmosphere
• 16:12 – Villain hitting tradition explained
• 21:22 – Wong’s cheeky dedication and sample reading
• 28:17 – Discussion of footnotes, pettiness, and satire
• 31:30 – Economic precarity and Lucinda’s (lack of) choices
• 35:48 – Approaching the novel’s ending
• 38:32 – Next project: prairie horror in Winnipeg, changing attitudes to Canadian settings
• 40:18 – Publishing world’s view on Canadian locales

Tone and Style

The conversation is lively, irreverent, and openly playful, matching the satirical, darkly comic tone of Wong’s novel. Both speakers veer between the macabre and the absurd, often drawing on personal anecdotes and experiences to ground the discussion of broader cultural issues. Their banter underscores the book’s central tensions: horror and humor, tradition and rebellion, the grotesque and the beautiful.

Final Thoughts

Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is praised as an original, genre-bending reflection on the oppressive demands placed on marginalized women and the weird, gothic, and comedic forms survival can take. Lindsay Wong discusses her intent to create space for anti-heroes like Lucinda, who are at once bitter, desperate, and darkly hilarious, highlighting that true horror for model minorities under late capitalism may be less about ghosts than about real, material limitations and impossible family expectations.

This episode is highly recommended for readers and writers interested in literary subversion, Asian diasporic narratives, contemporary horror, and biting social satire.