Well, damn. The last two weeks have been pretty busy for me so these story recs are coming out much later than I had planned. Luckily, a good story is a good story and these lists are never intended to only cover stories from the week they’re published anyway. No particular theme cropped up this time, though a majority of the stories involve mothers and daughters in some way, and a lot of them get dark and unsettling. We do have a mix of tones though, and some really interesting things going on in these stories. I hope you check them out and find some things here you enjoy too.
“Bargains by the Slant Light” by Cassandra Khaw from Apex Magazine Issue 113
This is the second story by Cassandra Khaw I’ve recommended in these roundups. The first, “Landmark“, was recommended back in the 4th roundup and much of what I liked about that story is what I also like about this piece of flash fiction. This story would be classified dark fantasy or perhaps horror, not science fiction, but it also is full of beautiful, poetic prose and very much about love, and relationships and the pain they can bring. Khaw’s short fiction crafts such beauty out of sentences that they are a joy to read, even when what you are reading is dark and unsettling and in that way the experience of reading these particular stories reflect the experiences of fractured love they share with us.
“Psychopomps of Central London” by Julia August from The Dark Issue 41
Another dark fantasy, though not nearly so unsettling as our first story. This tale of a mother seeking admittance to the underworld that doubles as a walking tour of a version of Central London that recedes further from the world we know with every stop is quite delightful. It makes me wish both that I could visit London myself and that A Psychogeographer’s Guide to the British Isles was a real book series that I could read.
“STET” by Sarah Gailey from Fireside Fiction Issue 60
Two things up front: this story is devastating and you should probably understand going in that STET is a writer’s note to an editor to leave a section “as is” and not change it. You should also know this story is so very well done and something of a joy to behold from a storyteller/craft point of view. It is powerful. It is unsettling. It is also very much a story relevant to the world we are becoming right now. Don’t believe me? Check out this article after you’ve read the story.
“STET” is technically a piece of flash, but the form of the story will probably leaving you feeling it is a longer piece as you might find yourself “exploring” it as well as reading it. Fireside has always had a beautiful aesthetic, but under the influence publisher and art direction of Pablo Defendini it has been pushing the envelope for integrating beautiful design and storytelling. This has been apparent in it’s physical copy of the first Fireside Quarterly, the Amal El-Mohtar poem illustrated by Molly Crabapple “Thunderstorm in Glasgow, July 5th, 2013”1It’s so beautiful. The words, illustrations, and presentation. Take a moment to check it out, you won’t regret it., and now this story told largely in the form of footnotes and comments between editor and author. It is really quite something.
“Legal Tender” by Stephanie Malia Morris from Psuedopod 576
More flash! Maybe that was this week’s theme. One certainly wonders how it took me so long to put this together when I was mostly reading flash! But about the story itself…
So this is a horror story, which shoudn’t be surprising coming from Psuedopod and I don’t usually include a lot of horror in the Rec Roundups. This isn’t because I have anything against horror, after all, I’ve been reading slush at Nightmare Magazine since its inception, but I do find myself a little less comfortable recommending horror in an impersonal way.2Such as through a blog post. Still, I was reading these stories as Halloween approached, so how could I not slip something truly disturbing onto the list for those so inclined. There is body horror here with women who literally have money growing in their bodies and some self-harm. Avoid if this will be too much for you. I think it is impossible to be anything but unsettled by this story and how it twists, like in a nightmare fun house mirror, the reality of how awful our society can be to women even without fantastical horrors added to the mix, but like all really good horror (and good stories in general) I could not stop thinking about it. It haunted me for days afterwards, and if you like horror I’m not sure how you could ask for more than that.
“A Tool to Carry Us” by Stephanie Cox from Speculative City Issue 2
After diving into some dark places in the stories I was reading it was very pleasant to come across this nice story. A story that reminds us to look for hope and that, very often, when we come together, at our best, we can find solutions to our worst problems. That the world can get better, even when we break things. That not only can we find wonder but we can sometimes create new things to wonder at. And, above all, that sometimes the best thing, the most important thing we can do is to have a good laugh. Take time to be happy. It seemed, to me, like a perfect way to end this week’s roundup.
And that is it for another great Roundup. As always, you can find a page with links to all of my Roundups here. Also, as always, if you find something you really like: share it with others!