December Short Story Catch Up 1

My short fiction reviewing backlog has got out of control, again, so as in previous years I will put multiple stories into one unwieldy post.

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1. Bonesoup by Eugenia Triantfyllou in Strange Horizons

Dina’s Nana tells you that to make a bodypart grow stronger you need to eat that part. So tripe for an upset stomach. Bonesoup for good bones. Lambs brains for passing exams.

Dina’s Nana makes sweet things, cakes and so on for other children. Especially for Dina’s friend Katerina. Not for Dina. But now Nana has fallen ill and it is time for Dina to cook something for Nana.

Read This: Nana’s soup will keep you strong
Don’t Read This: Nothing comes without a price

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2. The Book Club At The End Of The World by Elisabeth Zukerman in Haven Spec

The pantheons of old gods (and some current ones) are manifesting. Persephone knows she has things in common with other goddesses from other cultures, more in common than with her uncles and cousins. So they have meet ups, at their book club.

They’re particular goddesses and they know something is going on. They’re not reading books.

Read This: To find out what’s going on at the book club
Don’t Read This: Apocalyptica and Eschatology are not for you

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3. 25 Men by Melissa Flores Anderson in Voidspace

25 men, and 25 songs. And they’re songs that I know, and in some cases listened to endlessly in years gone by. The stories of the men, well, they put a new context on the song. It’s like listening to them played again in a new time and place.

And this is the least of what we learn from the 25 men in this interactive piece.

Read, Listen And Play This: A mix of music and crushes, darting in intuitive, non-linear, spirals and leaps
Don’t Interact With This: It’s someone else’s regrets and nostalgia

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4. Geraldine Foggs by Yun Wei in Identity Theory

The town was supposed to get a train line so yuppies from the city bought houses. Geraldine Foggs cleaned them, and the locals houses. The town was expected to flourish, so Geraldine’s son, Parker sold shares in a supermarket scheme, one that would take advantage of this.

Parker leaves taking the money, and when the train line doesn’t come, so do the yuppies. There’s a drought and they cut the lemon trees down. Geraldine is losing her sight.

The yuppies dogs run away and Geraldine takes one on as her helper.

Read This: For a story of a town whose hope is betrayed, but finds something else
Don’t Read This: It’s just a regular town, and the weirdness is nothing special

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5. A Tree With Rotting Roots by Jamie Lackey in Swords And Sorcery Magazine

Tristan is a knight, sent to do justice for the murder of Lord Lucin. But the killer, a woman named Caelia has fled to the forest where the wood-hag rules, and she will not let her go.

As Tristan tries to learn more about the hag and the forest, he finds out more about Lord Lucin and why Caelia killed him. And from that sees the abuse that women are enduring under the façade of chivalry and the king’s justice. He can’t get Caelia back from the hag so he will have to find another route to justice.

Read This: For a fairy-tale-esque fantasy story that lifts the lid to reveal the darkness within
Don’t Read This: You don’t believe in knights that are both sans peur et sans reproche and this naïve (or unobservant)

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6. Breaking The Curse by Alex DiFrancesco in Pithead Chapel

Someone hurt her. And at the mental health crisis centre she decides to reconnect with her family’s folk traditions. Magic spells to cleanse and heal.

“Rehab, after the crisis center, works like magic — and by that I do not mean that I snap my fingers and everything is okay. I mean that I keep practicing doing the right thing for myself, and what I work for happens.”

Everybody thinks she’s doing okay. Her therapist thinks she’s doing the therapist’s job better than they are. Do the rituals help? Is she together? The only way out is through. The only way to break the curse is to do the rituals. Again and again.

They will, at least, give her a clean kitchen.

Read This: For a story of working through to find, perhaps, an ending
Don’t Read This: Rituals are meaningless, repetition a crutch

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7. Sympathetic Magic by Ellen Huang in Briars Lit

Mallory is a witch. She is in the bar, sharing stories with Olive. They both put curses on people. But they always get broken. True Love’s Kiss for instance – it turns out that True Love is common, more common than anyone would have thought. Since it’s too easy people aren’t learning the lessons apparently.

The story is sweet and funny.

Read This: For a look into the other side of fairytale curses
Don’t Read This: Cursing people should be serious

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8. Let Me Bake You A Circus, My Love by K A Nielsen in Milk Candy Review

They pitch their dough in the field and cover it in the tent to prove. Then they call all their friends, and their blowtorches to bake it. It’s bread. It’s a circus.

It’s an act of love.

Read This: The only thing better than baking and circuses is love
Don’t Read This: Baking is very serious, and this is not a serious recipe

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9. A Man Of Science by Molly Skinner in Crow And Cross Keys

She starts as his illustrator and becomes his wife, a scientist who finds important fossils. But as a wife she has no money of her own. And one day her sister sends a book of an old, old tale.

She knows then she has to make, to embroider, to illustrate. But even with the money saved – stolen – from the household budget by her maid, the thread is insufficient.

She will have to find it within her cold, controlling husband.

Read This: A hard, Victorian piece of intersecting strangenesses
Don’t Read This: A depressing piece of historical fiction with fabulist murder thrown in

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10. A Lie, A Hope, A Piece, A Promise; From The Operative Record Of Dr Baba Yaga by Edith Lockwood in The Dread Machine

Dr Baba Yaga is a surgeon. It’s been ninety-six days since she ate someone. She will not eat human flesh today.

“Can’t I want to eat children and not be evil?”

Dr Baba Yaga does her best. She is a surgeon. She does not operate on children. She is in therapy and maybe, maybe she does not have to be an evil witch who eats children. Maybe it’s something from her past, from her own childhood.

She is the only surgeon on duty and a child is dying and needs operating on.

She will not eat human flesh today. A lie, a hope, a piece, a promise.

Read This: To find out if Dr Baba Yaga will eat human flesh today
Don’t Read This: She is an evil witch of no interest to anyone
The Picture Here: Is from another modern Baba Yaga story, Baba Yaga And The Seven Hills by Kristina Ten in Lightspeed
If You Want More Baba Yaga: Then try Tell Us Three Things About Yourself One Of Which Is A Lie by Sharon Telfer in New Flash Fiction Review