A Globe and Mail bestseller

Praise for Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies:

“Keenly observant and wryly funny; the (many) moments of humour (if not outright hilarity) somehow exacerbate the dystopian nature of the world in which [Locinda] finds herself. This satire of late-stage capitalism is the stuff of nightmares. . . . A wondrously mind-bending, richly rendered journey through time and space and back and forth across the boundaries between life and death. . . . Wong demonstrates a cool control over even the most outrageous elements of her storytelling with exquisitely wrought prose, mordant humour, and a keen eye for both telling details and sprawling mythologies. A vital, utterly unexpected novel, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is a fresh and riotous gift of fiction.”
—Quill & Quire, starred review

“I haven’t encountered savagery so cutting since Andrew Lipstein. . . . Cold, callous, and best of all, funny. . . . There’s a consistently enjoyable glibness, a tone that persists no matter the level of gore. . . . Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is a confrontational exploration of both explicit and internalized racism, shame, and death, a scathing indictment of capitalism and certain traditions, and a middle finger to blandness.”
—The British Columbia Review

“Provocative. . . . A villain worth reading.”
—CTV

“Harrowing and hilarious. . . . Despite the dark subject matter, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, with humour popping up in places where a reader might not expect to encounter it.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

“A generations-spanning, genre-hopping debut that wraps themes of class division, family dysfunction, blind devotion to superstition and tradition, and economic exploitation into a funny but unsettling gothic-horror tale.”
—Calgary Herald

“Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is no wallflower. And not for the faint-hearted. A blackhearted—and often misanthropic—comedy, it elicits a kind of shocked amazement at the ludicrous goings-on, frequent titters of amusement, and awe at both the pitched invention of the storytelling and the caustic—blistering!—satirical attacks on everything from white privilege at Columbia University to a long history of gender politics and supernatural belief in China. Instantly recognizable to readers of The Woo-Woo, Wong’s raucous memoir of 2018, the comic voice once again presides—imperially so—across the novel’s eleven electrifying sections. . . . What innovation and inspiration! Unhinged, unfettered, unapologetic, it’s a novel with a stupendous story to tell and the vision to render it superbly.”
—The Miramichi Reader

“[A] sprawling, unsettling and genre-bending book. . . . Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies also operates as a critique of the Chinese experience in the 20th century and a postmodern take on Edward Said’s idea of Orientalism in the west.”
—The Record

“Extraordinarily imaginative and darkly hilarious, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies weaves the grotesque and the tender in a tale of ambition, ancestry, and inherited ghosts. With a sharp and provocative tongue, Wong blends contemporary realities with historical traditions and conjures a daring reflection on the price of belonging, the burden of expectation, and the wicked absurdities of life and the afterlife.”
—Francesca Ekwuyasi, author of Butter Honey Pig Bread

“Only Lindsay Wong could soak this story in death and make it crackle with such life. The subject of postmortem marriages, and the odious crimes that enable them, is examined with scalpel-sharp wit in a macabre world where curses and corpses are sold to anyone who can pay the price. Within this novel’s dark heart lies a poignant story about the complicated bond between sisters, the value we place on one another in the dehumanizing confines of capitalism, and the lengths to which we’ll go to atone for our failures.”
—Eddy Boudel Tan, author of The Tiger and the Cosmonaut

“Blending grotesque satire with haunting tenderness, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies reveals how patriarchy inscribes itself on the female body. This is a powerful meditation on survival, memory, and inherited histories. Exhilarating in scope and emotional depth, and at times ridiculous and hilarious, Lindsay Wong, with her phantasmic prose, illuminates our historical presence.”
—Sheung-King, award-winning author of Batshit Seven

“There is nothing quite like reading a book by Lindsay Wong. Darkly funny and exceedingly original, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is a defiant novel—defying categorization, convention, and preconceived notions. Through Locinda Lo and her folkloric journey, Wong holds up a mirror to society and writes a biting examination of what it is to try and live in conditions set by patriarchy, complex cultural standards, and late-stage capitalism. But make no mistake: this book is as sincere and whimsical as it is sharp-witted. Lindsay Wong demands your attention with the first sentence of this novel and never once loses it.”
—Zalika Reid-Benta, Giller-nominated author of Frying Plantain and River Mumma

“Wong delivers a wild ride of a novel; a ghost story, a battle cry for the buried, and a sharp critique of the capitalist grave-digging machine all at once. Propelled by wry wit and dark fury, this is an explosive collision of betrayal, survival, and sorcery that dares to suggest when all your choices are bad: it’s time to get vicious.”
—Anuja Varghese, Governor General’s Award–winning author of Chrysalis

“Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is a funny, unsettling and deeply poignant exploration of the fear many of us grapple with: dying alone. It’s also a fable of sisterhood, from bitter rivalry to delicious dependency. Lindsay Wong writes viscerally, as if she wields an extra ear, eye, tongue. A momentous achievement.”
—Maria Reva, Booker-nominated author of Endling

“Nobody writes a book like Lindsay Wong. In Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies, dark fairytale meets intricate cultural history as stories unfold into stories, exploring class, privilege, familial responsibility, the tangled dynamics between sisters, and the power and consequences of female rage. What drives a woman to sign her life away in a contract? Wong brings us to the answer in diamond-sharp sentences, creating a suspenseful, audacious, subversive portrait of the lives of unforgettable women. In turns beautiful and gruesome, this book made me cackle aloud, and contains extraordinary depth of thought and imagination, asking: What do we owe our families? What do we owe ourselves? It’s also a wickedly good tale.”
—Shashi Bhat, author of Death by a Thousand Cuts

“In Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies, the ancient practice of ‘corpse marriage’ comes alive with Lindsay Wong’s singular, unique, contemporary voice. This satire spanning generations offers readers a biting critique on how class divide, shame, and expectations can threaten us to our very last breath—and even beyond the grave. I found myself laughing in recognition of the commodification of our humanity, all the things we aspire to in the hope of raising our own value, and the high price we are willing to pay for the ones we love.”
—Catherine Hernandez, author and screenwriter of Scarborough, the book and film

“Genre defying and brilliant. Lindsay Wong’s latest had me at once cackling and thinking deeply about the absurdity of the rituals we blindly follow to assuage our guilt, grief, and vain desires. A masterful feminist critique of the value of women, the commercialism of objectification even in the afterlife, and a commentary on how shallow pettiness and obsession with indebtedness and fairness can shape relationships. It is a gross and wonderful ghost story with dialogue and occurrences of bad luck that hit home in an oddly relatable way.”
—Jamie Chai Yun Liew, author of the Canada Reads–shortlisted Dandelion

“Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is the deepest of delights: dark and humorous, despairing and profound. Lindsay Wong has crafted a world that sings with absurdity and love, her prose as keen and crisp as the bamboo stick that whacks her hapless narrator. Reading this book, I couldn’t help but marvel: that a thing could be so vicious, but also so very tender.”
—Amanda Leduc, author of Wild Life

“A riotous descent into the afterlife that only Lindsay Wong could conjure—where the dead won’t shut up, the living are barely hanging on, and grotesque humour oozes from every crevice. Blending Chinese folklore and the fury of the forgotten, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is a razor-sharp tale of undead matchmaking, generational burdens, and women who refuse to rest in peace. Darkly funny and deliciously unhinged, this genre-bending horror-comedy about grief and rage shows what happens when the dead—and the living—finally have their say.”
—Carrianne Leung, author of That Time I Loved You

“What happens when you cross millennial ennui with arcane Chinese superstition? You get the wildly original and scabrously irreverent ride that is Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies. With dark and mordant wit, this novel takes a skewer to the Asian immigrant narrative and a pitchfork to patriarchy. Lindsay Wong is a cunning and audacious writer.”
—Jack Wang, author of We Two Alone and The Riveter

“Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies glitters like an ominous jewel. Lindsay Wong creates a deliriously enthralling gothic tale of a dysfunctional family of women who do what they need to do to survive and are punished for it. Filled with morbid humour and piercing insight, Wong’s writing sings. It howls. Locinda and her grandmother, Baozhai, are gorgeous and gruesome; tender and cruel. They are perfect mirrors through which to reckon with our own unsettling contradictions and complexities. I know they will revisit me on my next dark night of the soul. And I’ll be glad for their company.”
—Hollay Ghadery, author of Widow Fantasies

“Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies perfectly blends harrowing body horror, Chinese afterlife and mínghūn, eldest child trauma and guilt, both good fortune and wicked curses, karma and consequences, and the unfairness of a society built on choicelessness. Wong pokes and prods at these provocative themes while exploring cruelty, isolation, and forced solitude—not to mention the desire and struggle to simply live while hiding your deepest vulnerabilities and protecting your pride—all through a tongue-in-cheek narrative that is equal parts vicious and quirky.”
—Ai Jiang, author of A Palace Near the Wind

“Deliciously wicked and devastating, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is defiant and powerful as it slithers into the space around your heart and snatches your breath away. This is a magnificent work of dark, beautiful, and sinister art that will stick to your bones long after you’ve tucked it back on your shelf.”
—Karen McBride, author of Crow Winter

“In Lindsay Wong’s Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies, a self-proclaimed ‘modern day loser’ finds that the pain of contemporary life—unending student debt compounded by a precarious gig economy and a never-ending inflationary scheme—is only exacerbated by the pain of tradition, honouring family, and beliefs and gender roles that existed long before smart phones. With outrageously dissociative dark humour, Wong tells a moving tale of sisterhood across generations and gravesites.”
—William Ping, author of Hollow Bamboo

“As spine-tingling as it is rib-tickling, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is in a class of its own. Biting and full of wit, this atmospheric page-turner examines the extremes to which down-and-out Locinda Lo will go when age-old Chinese traditions, cultural pride, and superstition collide with modern-day disparities in class and wealth, and the pressures that come with being a model-minority—so formidable that Locinda’s willing to sell herself and be buried alive. Brimming with riveting history, witches, and ghosts, this novel is as compelling as it gets.”
—Nick Medina, author of The Whistler

“Clear your schedule, dear reader, because Wong is in peak form here—delivering a propulsive and deliciously dark tightrope walk between the realms of the living and the dead. The crushing weight of capitalism, cultural expectations, and contemporary urban loneliness come to the fore in a narrative that deftly blends body horror and the darkest of dark comedy. Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is vividly rendered and utterly gripping, like a nightmare you never want to wake up from.”
—Carleigh Baker, author of Last Woman

“Like a waking nightmare that’s as absurdly funny as it is terrifying, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is a serpentine descent into a world where corpses are spouses, curses are currency, and blood-greedy zombies masquerade as the living. Corpse-bride-in-training Locinda, her burdensome undead sister Samantha, and their tenacious grandmother Baozhai are a bewitching trio of characters whose misfortune-riddled lives, both past and present, deepen with every turn of the page. Lindsay Wong’s surgically precise control of language and incisive wit mark her as a writer with a singular talent that defies the boundaries between genres. This novel is a deliciously macabre dissection of love and loyalty that will haunt you long after its end.”
—Corinna Chong, Giller-nominated author of Bad Land

“The novel is downright hilarious, yet it is also, in sections, a staggering commentary on hideous scenes of mass destruction and death in the Second World War. Wong’s description of the barbaric tortures and casualties from the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and the North Point Refugee Camp is shattering. . . . The novel’s humour is a necessary fortress against such scenes of carnage. . . . Often comic, at times tragic, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is a searing indictment of all those who fall under the spell of outside forces, unable or steadfastly refusing to be themselves.” —The Literary Review of Canada

“[Wong’s] latest novel is one of the boldest and most original Canadian works in recent memory: a grotesque, darkly funny, emotionally intelligent book that fuses immigrant family saga, savage social satire, supernatural folklore, historical reckoning, and body horror into something wholly and uniquely its own. . . . The result is a novel that feels genuinely dangerous in the best literary sense: excessive, emotionally volatile, formally unruly, and gloriously unwilling to soften its sharpest edges. . . . What makes Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies important is that it expands the possibilities of diasporic and folkloric speculative fiction. . . . Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies is unruly, inventive, and memorable fiction. It deserves serious attention.” —The Ottawa Review of Books