I Read Stories: Arachnomorphosis by Beth Goder

 

Arachnomorphosis by Beth Goder in Strange Horizons

Olivia first turned into a spider when she was 16, then at 18. Now it seems she turns into a spider every night. She roams, spiders not liking to stay where they are.

Spiders can’t close their eyes and it’s playing havoc with her sleep. Which impacts her work and her relationships. She tries to learn about spiders, to find out what happens to her. She finds a group online, whose oblique references are familiar, a group of women who turn into spiders.

She’s not ready to meet them, not ready to talk about it.

(She edits a local poetry magazine, Non-random Number Generator, that publishes poems related to the number ninety-nine).

A story that skilfully weaves regular life and difficulties with this extraordinary one, giving the flavour of life as a human and the instincts of a spider. About learning of spiders and accommodating that part of her.

Read This: Story of spiders, and coming to terms with yourself, and community
Don’t Read This: Spider transformations are a loose reflection of actual problems