Short Stories Catch Up 6

Four pieces that have been jammed in the review queue for a while. It's my usual habit to post one thing a day, so reviews come out about five days a week. I write them some time after I've read, watched etc whatever I'm reviewing. And then I put them in blogger in advance, to post on a later day.

I scheduled this to post on the 27th of November, with every short story (etc) review I've written to date now in the system. Since this is scheduled for the 4th of January obviously there will be more items I haven't yet read; worse still there are 14 stories on my list to write reviews for that I haven't yet done. So despite this clearing the current backlog with three stories and a poem, this post will not conclude my reviews for 2023. Anyway, here they are:

1. Changeling by Lindsay King-Miller in Baffling

When she was a baby she was stolen by a fairy. Her mother recognised that the changeling was not her baby. And that the fairy would not allow any harm to come to the changeling. She would do anything, risk anything for the daughter she loved, and would not accept any substitute.

When her daughter came out to her as gay, she said that the boys would like her if she dieted, if they got her new clothes and a haircut. That was three diets ago. She would do anything for the daughter she loved, the daughter she was so sure of, the daughter who was not the daughter in front of her.

The changeling is still out there.

Read This: The folk tale and the reality meld beautifully, terribly into one whole
Don’t Read This: Mother’s love so horribly misplaced

2. The Cauldron by Simo Srinivas in Baffling

The witch is born in Anatolia, trained in Vienna, assigned to Bledawater. She meets the Princess of Bledawater, falls in love. They brew up a child in the cauldron. A son made of jewels and silk and blood.

There are anarchist bombers and golem makers and the people turn against the witch, who is not from here. And the princess turns too, taking her son, her precious son, her son valuable enough that every limb is a fortune.

The witch has the cauldron.

Read This: A brief, tiny story of love, parenthood, magic and nationality
Don’t Read This: So many interesting aspects, merely sketched out

3. Advice For Aspiring Cartographers by Avra Margariti in Baffling

This is not advice for aspiring cartographers. There are questions that aspiring cartographers might ask themselves (what scale might you use? How sharp should the coastline be?) But more there are stories you need to hear before you formulate your questions. About an unmanned ship, about a siren, about a selkie, about a godling of the sea.

The advisor prefers not to chart the land.

Read This: For unsettling, strange stories you should learn about, even if you have no desire to become a cartographer of myth and legend
Don’t Read This: A bunch of sea stories

4. Wherein I Assess Viscount Pettigrew And Find Him An Inadequate Match by Beth Cato in Kaleidotrope

In this poem Viscount Pettigrew comes to tea. Our narrator assesses him, as he assesses her. She understands that he views her as a potential possession, a pretty thing for his collection.

Our narrator sees more though. She has inherited the sight from her grandmother. If Viscount Pettigrew had the sight he would see all the people she has loved, all the cats and horses that died, but not left her.

And she sees all the shades that follow him.

Read This: A brief dark poem about seeing a suitor
Don’t Read This: A noble has blood on his hands; another disdains him for it