Short Story Review Round Up 3

Still behind on reviewing stories, here's ten from a few months ago.

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1. Lindsey by Stephanie Yu in Trampset

Lindsey and the narrator wake up as wolves after a sleepover. The narrator needs to go home to dinner but Lindsey’s home won’t have dinner.

She misses being a wolf.

Read This: For some wildness of wolf and family love
Don’t Read This: Transforming into a wolf never solves anything.

2. Broken-Hearted Girl by J Paige Gardner in Pastel Pastoral

Joshua has broken up with her and her heart is broken. So she takes her heart out and throws it in the trash.

Where her mother finds it.

Read This: For a story about mothers and daughters
Don’t Read This: If you don’t like literalised metaphors or scrolling through a pdf

3. Feathers and Spoons by Robyn Miller in Pastel Pastoral

Delilah returns from the funeral of her estranged husband with his ashes. A fairy greets her, wanting butter and spoons. Her daughter can’t believe she took the ashes after the funeral. The fairy comes back, with friends wanting more. Her granddaughter comes to stay, to hear fairy stories, and asks about her grandfather.

Delilah will – eventually – have enough.

Read This: Fairies and family interacting, not quite commenting on each other, also you already clicked through for Broken-Hearted Girl (above)
Don’t Read This: Quiet family history and odd fairies are not for you

4. Light Magic Girl by Breanna Bright in Underland Arcana

“Filibaster Haberford had kidnapped Misha Stevonia fifty-eight times since she was eight years old.” Misha has magic that makes it impossible to keep her so she always escapes. Until Filibaster finally tracks down an unescapable cage.

This story elegantly dips into some classic fairytales before becoming it’s own, as Misha, whose magic makes the world easy for her, comes up against something that won’t yield to her will. A little bit of peril, some growing up.

Read This: A slightly creepy fairytale
Don’t Read This: Girls getting kidnapped is not fun

5. Crater by Lucy Zhou in Crow And Cross Keys

Anna has a crater in her midriff. She’s having an affair with her boss. Disagreement about the crater spoils her date with Cat. This may all be linked. All of this will go wrong.

Read This: For a life that is collapsing as the crater is
Don’t Read This: If you want a clear link between the fantastic and the mundane elements

6. A Bride For A Flood by Sara Elkamel in Longleaf Review

A duplex poem (after Jericho Brown) in which the last line of each couplet is reflected in the next. A woman must wed a river.

Read This: For clever form and repetition creating an effective poem
Don’t Read This: Haven’t we already done marrying a river?

7. Blood In The Thread by Cheri Kami in Tor.com

There are two women, lovers, and one is a make up artist and the other an actress. And the actress succeeds and the producers put her by the side of her male co-star and the make up artist paints her with warning signs that everyone loves. And the actress comes back bruised every time.

There is an injured crane that a man cares for and it leaves then a woman comes and marries him. She weaves the finest red silk and this hurts her but she keeps doing it. The man loves his crane wife, surely, despite the pain and cost.

These two stories are the same story and they are different stories.

Read This: For a deep dive into the crane wife tale, and terrible bargains
Don’t Read This: The story is too terrible, as it must be, for fairy tales are not sweetness and light

8. Missed Calls by Nathan Tavares in GigaNotoSaurus

The dead call the living. They won’t answer the big questions but they’ll ask how you’re doing, chat, the normal stuff. As if they’re alive.

Ronny gets a call from his brother Ritchie who died in a motorcycle accident after breaking up with his partner. He wants him to look in on his dog Laika. Ronny lost his brother, and also lost his daughter within a week and he’s got a job to do and bills to pay.

Maybe the brothers have one more thing they can do for each other.

Read This: For a story of loss and failure and missing people and what comes after
Don’t Read This: If grief too raw will be too much

9. The Story Of Lil Fish Pie by Janis Freegard in Reflex Fiction

Lil Fish Pie goes to the shop and asks for some unlikely things. The shopkeeper has told them and told them and will tell them again and again.

Read This: For a bit of flash fiction like a children’s rhyme that hints are stranger things
Don’t Read This: You’d like this to actually make sense not just in a metaphorical way

10. Life On The Ship Of Your Saviour by Rhiannon Williams in Perhappening

In this poem the narrator is saved from drowning. But the saviour is on a voyage and the ship can’t stop for them. They have been saved from the sea but must remain on it.

Read This: For powerful mixed gratitude and regret
Don’t Read This: If you think the metaphor is too harsh