Back with a new selection of short stories I’ve read recently and am happy to recommend to others. I think there is a fairly good mix of stories this week, though there are a lot of looking to the future in them, and quite a bit about dealing with childhood and friendships.

“All of Us” by Kathleen Naytia from Speculative City

Here is an interesting, short, alternative history and horror story. In this world the American Civil War did not end in a victory for the North but a stalemate and truce. One where the South’s slaves would be freed…slowly. Very slowly. 100 years later Laura and her family are some of the last slaves to be freed and trying to make their way to The United States of America. There is only one safe reliable transportation for the journey: The Miracle Bus, but Laura and her father have to survive the first part of their trip just to get on the bus and to the relative safety of community.

“To Look Forward” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu from Fantasy Magazine

Here we have a story about friendship and entering the liminal phase of childhood where adults expect you begin not being a child, but a person preparing to become an adult. It is a story about figuring out who you are and how to embrace that. Mariam, Ebuka, and Funke seem to know who they are and who they want to be, whether their parents like it or not. They have confidence in the story of themselves they create and share out on the swings as they look to the future. Our protagonist and narrator isn’t so sure. Not sure of being ready for the future, not sure of who she is, what she wants to do or indeed, if she is even enough to do anything. More comfortable listening to others stories than taking a spotlight to tell her own. Even that story of who she is though, the unsure, unknowing, unready child is perhaps not completely accurate. The story really hits me in the feels and nostalgia. I see so much of my past and even present in the narrator. What a strange thing to be sure of oneself. What a truth that we are often afraid to embrace ourselves even when we know the truth, but won’t admit it. And what a very accurate look at what growing up and trying to deal with the pressures, both internal and external, to know yourself can sometimes feel like.

“Where They Keep Their Promises” by B. Pladek from Escape Pod

This isn’t technically a horror story but it is one I find unsettling. It’s one I’m still thinking about days after first reading it. B. Pladek paints a picture for us of a bleak dystopian future. One where corporation-states control the world and people buy their way into a kind of citizenship-consumer-employee status with a corp or, alternatively, sell themselves into a kind of indentured servitude-slavery with a cartel. Those are the two existences explored with some depth in the story, but it seems likely there are even worse options out there. The story is combination recollection and unsent letter. Our protagonist, an ex-corporate-branded med student turned cartel chem specialist, has sent an important gift to an ex partner and lover and is talking to him about her hopes for what it will mean and the full story of how they came to their separated place. If the world wasn’t disturbing enough, especially as it is one where virus and medicine are the battleground of the corporate states, it is the terrible feeling I have that I can’t bring myself to fully believe the protagonists hoped for happy ending will occur. She tells her lost love how she sees his getting her present to him going, and I find it hard to believe that her vision will be realized. And if it isn’t, well then she has sacrificed much for nothing, except the ability to imagine a better future than the one guaranteed if she hadn’t tried. I want to believe in it, as much as she wants to, but I’m not sure I can. If ever there was a story to help illuminate whether you’re personally in a pessimistic or optimistic mindset, this is it.

“The Funeral of Sir Edmund de Chickenstick” by Amy Leung from The Arcanist

This is a nice little flash piece and you know what? Nice is nice sometimes you know? Sir Edmund de Chickenstick is Will’s sadly deceased cat. Kelsey and Rhiannon have come out with him to mourn his beloved pet with a funeral pyre. When Rhiannon starts bringing out some special candles I had a sense of the typical place the story was going. And then…it didn’t, and I was quite pleased. Add in the notes of friendship the girls have with Will and the beginning of something else between the girls and altogether it’s, as I said, a nice story. Which is, when you think about it, something we could use a lot more.

“Juvenilia” by Lavie Tidhar from Uncanny Magazine

I really loved this collision of gothics and portal fantasy and one of the most famous literary families of all time, the Brontës. As a gothic it is excellent, and when the the portal fantasy elements slide their way in (and in a way that fits perfectly with the old house of mystery trope that gothics are known for) it starts pushing my personal buttons in the best way. The story is fun and excellent in it’s own right, especially if you too are a fan of portal fantasy, but it is also one that sent me to Google insatiably curious to find out all the little bits and pieces of the story that come from the life and writings of the Brontë sisters. If you happen to be a fan of the sisters, especially if you’re a knowledgeable one, I suspect this story will delight you even more as it is laced with references and spins a wonderful fantasy of some of their lesser known creations. If any of the elements that Lavie Tidhar has used to construct this story are things you enjoy I believe you will find a lot of enjoyment in it, if you happen to be a fan of more than one of these elements I think you will find yourself grinning from ear to ear and wanting to offer a round of applause for such a fun creation.

And that does it for the fifth short fiction rec roundup of 2020. If you’d like to see the full list of previous Roundups and the authors included in each you can find that here. I hope to be back in a week with another roundup. As always, if you find something you enjoy reading in my recommendations I hope you’ll shout that story out to people you know. Short fiction authors and markets need our love and support and word of mouth is a great way to do that.