Overdue Podcast Episode 746

Book: Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock by Maud Woolf
Date: March 16, 2026
Hosts: Andrew and Craig

Episode Overview

This episode features Andrew and Craig exploring Maud Woolf’s debut speculative fiction novel, Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock, shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The hosts dive into its high-concept premise—licensed “portraits” (clones) of a B-list celebrity tasked with decommissioning their own kind—while discussing themes of identity, selfhood, and the peculiar shapes modern sci-fi can take. The conversation retains Overdue's signature mix of wry humor, literary insight, and lively banter.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Author and Book Context

• Maud Woolf’s Background:
  • Scottish speculative writer, background in horror and sci-fi
  • Studied creative writing at University of Glasgow
  • Past jobs: bookseller, waitress, sign-holder, tour guide at a German dollhouse museum (06:07)
• Book Discovery:
  • Andrew found Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock via a “best of 2025” list, showing up on the Arthur C. Clarke shortlist (05:00).
• Publisher & Press:
  • Published by Angry Robot
  • “There’s nothing much on this book—Maud is young, first book, limited web presence.” (05:38)

2. Core Premise and Worldbuilding

• Setting: Near-future “Bubble City”—a semi-futuristic city inspired by Futurama, colored by extremes of wealth, tech, and urban oddities (15:10, 66:01).
• Society: The rich can create “portraits” (automata/clones), essentially licensed clone-like selves with specific sub-programmed roles (12:20).
  • “Portraits” can mimic the original—look, act, and (sometimes) feel like their progenitor.
• Central Conflict:
  • Lulabelle Rock, a C-list celebrity, creates a 13th portrait to hunt down and decommission the remaining 12, prompted (ostensibly) by an upcoming Medea film adaptation’s PR needs (24:00).
  • Decommissioning clones is legal when performed by the owner; sending a clone to do it is a loophole—“Ain’t no rule says you can’t have one of your portraits retire the others!” (25:21).

3. Structure and Literary Devices

• Tarot-Inspired Structure:
  • Woolf based each of the 13 chapters/encounters on a Major Arcana tarot card.
  • The 13th portrait = Death card (11:09).
  • “Having this clear skeleton in place made everything else easy, and the words came faster than anything I’d written before.” — Maud Woolf (10:14).
• Tone:
  • Aims for dark comedy—exploring potentially grim themes with a levity that avoids making light of serious subjects, but offsetting existential heaviness (14:00).
• Literary Predecessors:
  • References to Orphan Black, Never Let Me Go, Dostoevsky’s The Double, and broader clone fiction traditions (16:28, 18:23).

4. Plot Breakdown and Notable Scenes

• Opening:
  • Thirteen (13th portrait) awakens, speaking to the “real” Lulabelle and learning her mission: kill all prior portraits (“You were fished out of a vat in my basement. I made them because I’m a busy, busy girl and there are only so many hours in a day.” — Lulabelle, 22:32).
  • Lulabelle Rock is “not meant to be a character who we think is morally awesome.” (23:41)
• Mission Rationale:
  • Ostensibly a PR stunt for a Medea adaptation, with extra implications around property/law and celebrity scarcity (24:00, 25:54).
  • Clones = property; disposing of one’s own is legal; decommissioning portraits upon death required by law after legal wrangling (26:46).
• Clone Individuality:
  • Portraits have initial programming; some with jobs (“social media Lulabelle,” “artist,” “tax reasons”), each distinct in habits and self-expression (31:22, 35:33).
  • Favorite ice-cream experiment: testing for emergent individuality (31:22).
  • Thirteen’s memories: “These are sepia, flat and scentless, like a photograph… I feel nothing at all towards them. These memories are like a dream.” — Narration (22:32, paraphrased).
• Encounters with Other Portraits:
  • Brunch portrait: Programmed to wait and sign autographs, mercy-killed after being abandoned (40:55).
  • Party portrait: Doomed to party eternally; welcomes being “relieved” of duty (44:28).
  • Polka-dot portrait: Trademark sartorial difference; “Are the clones their own unique people? The polka-dot thing.” (42:30).
  • The Artist: Created to test Lulabelle’s “latent talents”; ultimately, bad at everything, which Lulabelle finds comforting (34:29), and she becomes romantically involved with Thirteen.
• Programmed Purpose and Agency:
  • Clones tasked with single life-purpose, but can diverge. Some resist decommissioning, others welcome it; moral questions revolve around autonomy and programming (33:29, 36:21).
  • “The tragic thing about the artist… is she is just really bad at all the stuff that she tries to do… Lulibel finds this comforting… it means I did make all the right choices.” — Andrew (34:36)
• Escalation:
  • As Thirteen makes progress, surviving portraits warn each other, resulting in resistance: martial-arts-trained portrait fights back; mitosis (the company) intervenes in some cases (47:45).
  • Others, like the social media portrait, end their own lives (48:10).
• Narrative Rhythm:
  • Not every encounter is in-depth—rapid kills for some, extended interactions (like with the Artist) for others (48:30).
  • “[Thirteen is] meeting the same person over and over again, but… after that point, they all branch out a little bit.” — Andrew (36:21)
• Rejection of Mission:
  • Thirteen struggles with the morality of her mission, especially after becoming close to the Artist. She puts off killing her favorite, then plans a different future (53:25).

5. Major Reveal / Ending (Spoilers)

• Spoiler Alert (54:03)
  • Lulabelle Prime is not the original: The “real” Lulabelle is alive but terminally ill, hidden in a hospital, while the supposed “prime” is actually Portrait #1 seeking to preserve her own agency and the Lulabelle “brand.”
  • Legal and business complications arise: upon death, all portraits must be decommissioned. Stakes revolve around whether Lulabelle can remain as an “immortal business,” not just a person (57:35).
  • Thirteen and the Artist decide to leave and pursue individual happiness, letting “prime” keep up the celebrity act: “We’re gonna go off and be lesbian clones… You can be Lulabelle Rock.” (59:30)
  • Final gesture: They pantomime shooting each other with finger guns, which seems to break their programming (59:59).
  • “At least a happily-for-now sort of ending.” — Andrew (60:14)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You were fished out of a vat in my basement.”
  (Lulabelle to Thirteen, 22:32)

• “I made them because I’m a busy, busy girl and there are only so many hours in a day.”
  (Lulabelle, 22:32)

• “I feel nothing at all towards them. These memories are like a dream.”
  (Thirteen on inherited memories, 22:32)

• “Portraits belong to their creator—the original. Think of it like copyright.”
  (Legal world logic, 24:27)

• “How different are the clones from each other?”
  (Craig, recurring, e.g. 21:41, 35:30)

• “There's not going to be a portrait, 'I gotta rise up and take the place of my human counterpart.'”
  (Andrew on the book's tone toward clone tropes, 33:01)

• “Some of them are more accepting of the fact that they're being terminated… others push back.”
  (Andrew, 35:48)

• On romance:
  “We do find out that [the clones] can experience sexual pleasure… When Thirteen and the Artist start hooking up, which is just a weird—which is just strange. … There is, like, whether there’s some kind of, like, is it incest? … The book tries to make it less strange by never, ever countenancing how strange it is.”
  (Andrew, 38:37)

• “It's a bit like the Time Traveler's Wife… I should have a sign on my wall for how long since I last thought about that scene.”
  (Craig, 39:12)

• “Some people go by pretty quickly and some people take more time. Some people are set pieces and some people are not.”
  (Andrew on the structure, 48:30)

Critical & Thematic Reflections

On the Book’s Humor and Tone

• Woolf intentionally keeps the tone light even amidst existential questions and violence (“wants to leaven darker implications with humor” 14:00).
• The hosts appreciate this balance: “Some subjects we can't approach any way but with humor… that's the way [Woolf] works through scary stuff.” (14:00)

On Originality and Sci-Fi

• High-concept, fast-paced, and doesn’t overstay its welcome—fits a trend in modern genre fiction both hosts appreciate (09:05).
• Discuss similarities/differences with other clone media: Orphan Black, Never Let Me Go, Cloud Atlas, and more (16:28).

On Individuality and Programming

• Core theme: How much agency and identity can a clone develop?
  • “They’re all the same up to a point, then all branch out a little bit.”
  • Programming is initially absolute, but lived experience and small divergences accumulate.

Narrative Critiques (drawn from Goodreads reviews and host discussion)

• Some listeners/readers may want more depth or world-building; the format leaves certain portraits two-dimensional, but this is both a strength (pacing, humor) and a limitation (49:52, 66:01).
• World remains more a backdrop than a deeply interrogated setting; major conflicts and stakes are personal, not societal (67:38).
• “[If] you explain more about that and it’s just midichlorians… who cares? … It didn’t bother me, but I understand it as a criticism of the book.” — Andrew (66:51)

Memorable Comparison with “Born Sexy Yesterday” Trope

• Briefly referenced in context of Thirteen’s “blank slate” personality, but sidestepped by the book’s focus (70:20).

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |---|---| | 03:12 | Show proper begins (after intro/ads) | | 05:00 | Book/author context, Arthur C. Clarke shortlist | | 10:09 | Structure & Tarot influences | | 12:06 | Book premise in detail (clones, legality, mission)| | 21:15 | Book plot summary/analysis begins| | 24:00 | Mission rationale: PR and clone law| | 28:11 | Tarot thematic guide| | 31:22 | Individuality test: ice-cream | | 34:29 | The Artist—failed hobbies & emotional ramifications | | 42:30 | “Polka-dot” portrait, individuality through quirks | | 47:45 | Martial-arts clone, resistance| | 54:03 | SPOILERS: Original clone switcheroo, ending| | 60:29 | Hosts’ reflections on structure & conclusion| | 63:20 | Goodreads three-star review segment | | 66:01 | Worldbuilding critiques & context| | 70:20 | Born Sexy Yesterday trope discussion | | 72:24 | Outro—thanks, upcoming books |

Final Thoughts & Takeaways

• Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock is an inventive, brisk, darkly comic take on literary sci-fi clone tropes. While some readers may want more world depth, the book excels at using high concept and character-to-character encounters to meditate on selfhood, agency, and the absurdity of celebrity.
• According to the hosts, the book’s tonal balance—deadpan humor over heavy existential dread—lands well, though the narrative’s trimness leaves some potential explorations of clone individuality on the table.
• Good for readers who appreciate high-concept literary sci-fi and a fresh take on the classic “what makes you, you?” question.

Sample Quote for the Episode’s Feel:

“We’re gonna go off and be lesbian clones… You can be Lulabelle Rock.”
— Andrew (paraphrasing the book’s ending, 59:30)

Next time on Overdue:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Vol. 1 by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird. “I have never read Ninja Turtles comics prior to this. They are something else.” (74:13)

[All references to timestamps approximate, based on transcript markup. Episode summary by Overdue super-fan (or a very clever AI). Cowabunga, and try to be happy!]