Short Story Review Catch Up 1
It's my annual declaration that my method of reviewing one item a day is inadequate, and rather than come up with a better one will send them out in batches until the backlog is "clear". So here's ten nine short stories I read and thought worth commenting on.
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1. Onrabull by Aisha Phoenix in Mechanics Institute Review
Strength’s Daughter lives in a city where her people were brought to. There are others there who brought them, and now they fight.
They have to fight when they come of age. They fight to give them an honourable death. They become beasts and Strength’s Daughter thinks of the Onrabull as the Minotaur.
Strength’s daughter will have to fight though she doesn’t want to. The others are just people, just people who become beasts when they fight.
Read This: Because Strength’s Daughter may not have the
answers but she has the right questions
Don’t Read This: Blatantly personifying some aspects while
obscuring others does not endear you to a story
The narrator’s late husband had a silver swan, Sygna, given to him by his grandmother. He would put his money in it and it would jingle and dance.
When she tries to put Sygna away the swan makes a crashing metallic din of protest, peering with its single sapphire eye.
Read This: For a moment where grief meets magic
Don’t Read This: The pain of letting go is not for you
3. Fisherman’s Soup by Kristina Ten in Mermaids Monthly
Molly is hosting a themed potluck about everyone’s cultural background so Po takes out her Grandmother’s soup recipes. But they go wrong, firstly because she doesn’t know how to follow and what to do as she barely knew her Grandmother. And secondly because Rusalka keep appearing in the soup pot.
She tries everything to try and get rid of them, but it doesn’t work, and neither do the soups. Or rather she doesn’t try everything, not until she talks to them.
Read This: A story about folklore and heritage and soup
Don’t Read This: Finding a fishtail in your pot sounds like
a fishy tale.
4. Mishpokhe And Ash by Sydney Rossman-Reich in Apex
Magda has built a golem. Unfortunately she lives in Hungary as the Second World War is happening and she’s both a woman and Jewish so can’t go to engineering school, or court her non-Jewish beau. But she hopes things will get better.
Golem wants to be good. Golem wants to protect and obey Magda. Magda gives Golem rules to obey, to be good. But those rules won’t be sufficient when the pogroms come home.
Read This: For a story about where myths, legends and
fairytales come up against dark history
Don’t Read This: The history is pretty dark
5. Queen Minnie’s Last Ride by Aimee Ogden in Apparition Lit
Ruth is a widow out west with a spook gun. The gun is haunted by the last person who was shot by it. That was Queen Minnie, bandit princess, who was Ruth’s lover.
Queen Minnie wants to ride out and the two of them as partners gunfighting and robbing and living large. Ruth wants to mourn, but of course Minnie is still with her so what she really wants is to lay her to rest.
Read This: A story that combines both the practical problems
of laying a ghost that haunts a gun to rest with lingering regrets
Don’t Read This: The spook gun is a trap
6. The 21 Bus Line by Gabriela Santiago in The Dark
Our narrator gets on the 21 bus, the second sketchiest in the city. And this is not the usual one, it’s the 21Z, a strange one. She meets Lottie who has a lot of complaints, about how Coyote steals the best stories and her ex is following her. The narrator wants to write stories though, as ever life gets in the way.
Read This: For a look at creation and stories from several
very strange angles
Don’t Read This: Lottie isn’t actually going to explain,
she’s out for herself
7. Sleep Goes Toast by Kelsie Colclough in Corvid Queen
Beneficent is known as the wisest witch due to her common sense so when the crown prince won’t wake up the king sends for her. This disturbs her in the middle of marmalade making for her toast, but she goes nonetheless; they need money to pay the rent. She is confident that her magic will solve the problems
This re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty takes odd turns in its short length, with Beneficent taking regular, common sense ideas and offering her own twist.
Read This: Fun and amusing common sense witch solves a
sleeping beauty
Don’t Read This: Even with twists and turns fairytales are
not for you
8. A Gift From The Queen Of Faerie To The King Of Hell by Cara Masten Digirolamo in Fantasy Magazine
A tale of tattoos and love and gifts and riddles. Our narrator took their true name and their identity form faerie but Luc, their lover is caught up in the court of the Queen. And now they are being offered as a gift to the King Of Hell.
True love and true names will have to contend to free them from interwoven requirements.
Read This: For a modern fairytale that reveals themes of
gender and identity
Don’t Read This: Riddle games are for nerds
9. Thirteen Of The Secrets Of My Purse by Rachel Swirsky in Uncanny
The narrator tells us about thirteen of the items in their purse (which, being American, is what I would call a handbag). These include lipsticks whose colours may be a little literal. A wallet that spontaneously generates pictures of children. Keys that mysteriously appear and others that vanish to the great inconvenience of the narrator. The passport that travels without her, the zip that talks, the pearl from the sacred heart of the earth (kept in a mint tin).
These add up to something in the end. A tiny adventure in advance of a larger one.
Read This: The secrets of a handbag are fascinating
Don’t Read This: You want some answers; they aren’t in the
handbag
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