Book Recommendations Short Fiction Spotlight

Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: March 2024

Death, betrayal, and the unexpectedly weird in this month’s short fiction spotlight.

By Alex Brown

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Published on April 12, 2024

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We’re doing death, betrayal, and the unexpectedly weird in this short speculative fiction spotlight. I read these ten stories last month and they were so good I had to go back and read them all again.

“Everything in the Garden is Lovely” by Hannah Yang

Every now and again, a short fiction author hits me with an opening line so striking I can’t stop thinking about it. Hannah Yang gave me one of those with “Now that I’ve failed as a woman, my punishment is to become a garden.” Her story is exactly what the sentence describes. A woman fails to meet the rigid, patriarchal rules of her society—in other words, she cannot have children—and is condemned to be turned into a garden. She’ll give life one way or the other. (Apex Magazine, March 2024; issue 143)

“Flight Pattern” by Azure Arther

Gotta say, I had no idea Azure Arther’s story would end the way it did, given that it opens with a guy casually munching on the last dragonfly on earth while hiding out in a bunker with his android wife. Strong Ex Machina vibes with this one, but with a feminist twist that was thoroughly enjoyable. (Uncharted Magazine)

“Lanterns” by Manu Zolezzi

Winnet, a widow in her sixties, is forced to confront a malevolent abuser in this empowering entry. In Winnet’s town, she sits on the council helping to keep order. When the town council vote to let in the Caravan of Light, Winnet isn’t happy about it. The traveling show breaks the borders between the living and the dead and allows spirits to walk the earth for one night. A creative way to explore abuse, trauma, and community support. (IZ Digital)

“Leprechaun Gold Accepted” by Vivian Chou

I loved this little quirky piece. It’s written in the style of a GoFundMe appeal for covering healthcare costs for a fairy attacked by three children, and the comments various donors have left in support. Vivian Chou’s insightful satire pokes at the ways allies often fall into performance territory, either with performative outrage or offering meaningless sympathy. She touches on the way the system oppresses and how when individuals collectivize under resistance, the system finds another way to get at you. (Flashpoint SF, March 8, 2024)

“Let the Star Explode” by Shingai Njeri Kagunda

In a not too distant future, beings in human shape but decidedly “not human” arrive on Earth. They bring with them technology for star jumping, but now only the wealthy can afford to use it frequently. Karu has the chance to star jump, and the things she experiences during her trip change her in ways she has only begun to understand. It should be no surprise that Shingai Njeri Kagunda has written a beautiful, thought-provoking Afrofuturist tale, but if this is your first introduction to her, get ready for a journey as surreal as Karu’s. (Lightspeed, March 2024; issue 166)

“Marshman” by Sara Omer

A cryptozoologist heads out to a strange swamp near a pit on the outskirts of farmland. The pit is a strange place, made stranger by the mysterious creatures lurking around the rim. The cryptozoologist descends into the pit to explore and gets more than they bargained for. Another win for The Dark in creeping me the hell out! A great story full of looming dread. (The Dark, March 2024; issue 106)

“Naglfar” by Elin Olausson

Elin Olausson’s piece feels the way a storm does, one of those rains where you’re cooped up and miserable inside but it’s too dark and cold to go outside. Hella lives alone in her apartment after her daughter abandoned her to travel the world. She took with her a magic coat and all Hella’s hopes and dreams. The title references a ship from Norse mythology that is made of the finger and toenails of the dead, and it gets even more unsettling from there. (Gamut, March 2024; issue 4)

“Saguaro Wedding” by Jordan Kurella

This was the first story I read in the first issue of Small Wonders I’ve ever read and it was just too perfect to pass up. Jordan Kurella’s flash fiction is about the person officiating a wedding between a crow and saguaro cactus. It’s weird, queer, a little bit Western, and a whole lot random in the best way. (Small Wonders, March 2024; issue 9)

“Summitting the Moon” by Pragathi Bala

A moon landing where the moon does the landing? Pragathi Bala puts a spin on the moon landing by pushing its orbit down until it scrapes the surface of the Earth. Ghis longs to “be in space gazing down at the Earth. She imagined her problems shrinking away—her life turned into a blip when compared to the vastness of space beings.” And in a few days, she’ll get her wish, even if her wife is less than enthused. The premise is just so interesting I couldn’t help but dig this piece. (Escape Pod, March 21, 2024; #933)

“The Witch Who Lives Next Door” by Zoe Kaplan

“Father says the Witch who lives next door is frightening, and a little bit beautiful. Mother says the Witch who lives next door is beautiful, and a little bit frightening.” A child lives next door to a witch in a town where witches are both feared and relied on. As the child and the witch grow their friendship into an apprenticeship, the child learns that being feared and needed aren’t necessarily bad things. A charming story about being your true self. (Kaleidotrope, Spring 2024)

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Movies & TV monkey man

Monkey Man Seems Like a Straight Revenge Film, But It’s So Much More

Dev Patel serves up a bloody action film that’s really about communities supporting and protecting one another

By Alex Brown

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Published on April 8, 2024

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You’re going to see a lot of people describe Monkey Man as a bloody revenge film. Yes, there is a lot of blood. Like, A LOT of blood. Dev Patel is practically swimming in it for much of the movie. And yes, revenge is an underlying theme. It’s what starts Patel’s character down his blood-soaked path. 

But this movie is so much more than that. It’s about taking down the powerful and giving voice to the powerless. It’s about finding family in unexpected places and communities coming together to support and protect. It’s about rebellion against repression and resisting fascism in all forms. Monkey Man isn’t just a fun little action revenge movie but a call to take up arms and take back what your oppressors have stolen from you by any means necessary.

Dev Patel is our nameless protagonist—he is called “Bobby” for part of the film but credited simply as “Kid.” Kid begins the movie wearing a gorilla mask and getting the shit kicked out of him in staged matches in an underground fight club. His alter ego is based on Hanuman, a monkey-esque deity most known for his role in the epic poem Ramayana. His boss, a white South African man known as Tiger (Sharlto Copley) claims he found our monkey man deep in the African jungle and brought him to India as a beast to fight other “wild animals,” such as men known as King Cobra and Baloo. The fights are painful and designed so that Monkey Man will lose every time. But Kid doesn’t care. He has bigger fish to fry.

With his paltry earnings, he manages to scam his way into a job at the Kings Club, an exclusive night club run by crime boss Queenie Kapoor (Ashwini Kalsekar). Queenie’s fortress offers the wealthy everything they desire, from drugs to sex to entertainment to culinary decadence. On the walls hang portraits of dead Raja from the height of British colonialism, treated as aspirational tokens. All around him are signs of an oncoming crisis. Celebrity yogi Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), a former poor kid who claims to have bootstrapped his way to the top, is backing a rightwing politician spouting nationalist rhetoric. His right hand man is Rana (Sikandar Kher), the chief of police of Yatana (a fictional city meant to invoke Mumbai).

But Kid isn’t concerned with social issues, not at first anyway. All he wants is to get revenge. He’s clever but not particularly skilled at fighting. All heart and head, no brawn. After a spectacular fight scene, Kid ends up in the care of a commune of hijra, or third gender people, hiding out in an abandoned temple to Ardhanarishvara, the dual manifestation of the Hindu deities Shiva, the Destroyer, and Pavarti, his consort and a goddess of love, devotion, and harmony. “Male, female, both, neither,” says Alpha (Vipin Sharma), the leader of the hijra. They help him see that the best way to get revenge isn’t to take one bad guy out but to topple the whole regime. Cue training montage and third act boss fight.

Now, I’m not Indian and I don’t know enough about the current socio-political issues going on there or about Hinduism to offer any insight into whether or not Monkey Man succeeds in its metaphorical takedown of real world issues. I expect it probably doesn’t, at least not fully. From what I can tell, it doesn’t do enough to follow through on its messaging and the messaging itself feels a bit muddled even at a distance. I also wish the film had spent more time on why the hijra are such outcasts in Indian society and how their situation differs from Kid’s and other oppressed people. There was a missed opportunity to connect their story to that of the prostitutes like Neela (Adithi Kalkunte) who are suffering under the patriarchy in a way that Kid isn’t.

The tenor and themes, however, are spot on. The third act sequence with the hijra is one I will never forget. I knew in that moment that this is a movie I am going to watch again and again and again. We may not have the Bharatiya Janata Party here in the US, but we do have religious fanatics, bigots, and nationalists who use the same hateful rhetoric to sow dissent. Whole political movements have formed to position one group of people above another as the righteous and rightful “owners” of the land. The yogi, in response to a question about what happened to the villagers living in the forest where his factory was built, claims the land was “barren” (where have we heard that one before?), and then proceeds to refer to his followers in religious terms as if he is a god and they are his worshippers. The story Patel is telling is specific to his cultural context, but many of the underlying concepts are, unfortunately, universal. 

On a lighter note, this is also a movie about community. The people in power are often seen alone; if there are others around them, they’re flunkies, goons, yes men, or victims. The people without power are surrounded by others. The hijra, his childhood village, even the poorest people living in the city, all work together and support each other. There is immediate and unconditional trust. Revolutions cannot be won through individual action. Community is what really frightens those in power.

If none of that is enough to sway you, Dev Patel’s directorial choices—assisted and enhanced by cinematographer Sharone Meir—should. The movie is well shot, with some truly beautiful backdrops. Joe Galdo, Dávid Jancsó, and Tim Murrell edited some of the fight scenes so well they almost look like they were done in one long take. Divvya Gambhir and Nidhi Gambhir deserve an Oscar just for the hijra’s glittering warrior outfits. 

Let me end this by begging Hollywood to put Dev Patel in everything. Put him in action movies, romcoms, comedies, historical dramas, literally everything. We all know Patel can act, and with Monkey Man he proves he can also direct. If he’s acting in it or directing it, I’ll watch it. I want this man to have exactly the career he wants. [end-mark]

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Book Recommendations book review

H.A. Clarke’s The Feast Makers is Sharp as a Knife

A review of the final book in H.A. Clarke’s young adult fantasy series.

By Alex Brown

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Published on April 10, 2024

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It’s been a long four years since the first book in H.A. Clarke’s young adult fantasy series, The Scapegracers, and a year and a half since the sequel, The Scratch Daughters. Clarke closes out their trilogy with The Feast Makers. The real question is: Does the third book live up to the series hype? I think you already know the answer to that…

First, Sideways Pike was a loner lesbian with a sharp tongue and a bitter disposition. Then Sideways was a lost queer, missing their specter but surrounded by girls—Jing, Daisy, and Yates—who would kill for them. Now Sideways is the leader of a badass coven of ultra-cool high school seniors who hex bad dudes and party hard. The events of the previous two books come to a head here as all the local covens descend on the Delacroix House to sort out what to do with Madeline Kline and the recovered specter stones. Also piling into town are every witchfinder in the region, coming to bid farewell to a dead Chantry and get some witch hunting in for good measure. 

Sideways collides with one of the witchfinders, then collides with another. To save the girl they love, and protect their coven and the other witches, Sideways will have to take on the witchfinders one final time. The coven book devil, Mr. Scratch, is all too willing to help. The meaning behind the title sneaks up on you. It’s not what you think and it is so much worse, and I mean that in the best way possible. 

I could say a million things about how great this series is. Of The Scapegracers, I wrote that it “thrums with frenetic energy. Plots and subplots careen into each other like bumper cars at a carnival. Reading it felt like watching a primetime drama on The CW, all wild intensity and sizzling desire.” And of The Scratch Daughters I wrote that the “series has always been queer, but in this book queerness becomes a critical part of the plot. The ways these teens move through the branching paths of queerness directly impacts and is impacted by the main plot. Being queer isn’t a plot device—it is the plot.” The first point is less true in The Feast Makers, but the second Clarke doubles down on with a feverish intensity. 

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The Feast Makers

H.A. Clarke

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The Feast Makers

H.A. Clarke

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Like the sequel, the third book meanders a bit in terms of plot. The main action is sparse. We don’t meet the secondary antagonist until a good chunk of the way in, then they vanish and don’t reappear until the mad dash to the finish line; the main antagonist we’ve met before but they only show up at the end and don’t stick around very long. Most of the book is dedicated to Sideways and their coven figuring out their romantic and sexual feelings for each other and what they each want to do after high school, the coven convention at the Delacroix house, and the drama that is What To Do About Madeline Kline. I’m not complaining—I love spending time with these chaotic bundles of hormones—but it also means that the baddies are barely more than cartoon villains, two-dimensional monsters cackling and twirling their mustaches. 

On the other hand, Clarke continues the trend of each book getting ever more queer. There are no new identity announcements here, but the coven meet a variety of queer elders that help shape and confound their ideas of what queerness can be. There are no neat and tidy labels here. No one cares about appeasing the cisallohets’ delicate sensibilities. People find the spaces they feel most comfortable in and occupy them without shame or apology. Sideways can be a masc-leaning they/them and a lesbian and whatever other labels they want to attach to themself. Who cares. Queerness isn’t about fitting into a box but about freeing yourself of the very idea of boxes at all. 

This series also pushes back against the idea of “good” representation. Back in ye olden days when us marginalized folks had almost no rep at all and what we had was usually written by majority people parachuting in as tourists or saviors, “good” and “bad” rep was a big concern. Mostly because most of the rep we had was offensive caricatures. We were sidekicks, tokens, and stereotypes. We needed “good” rep. Nowadays, we are still pretty underrepresented when it comes to the publishing world, but we’re not rarities either. Queer YA horror is practically its own subgenre at this point. We’ve moved past the need for “good” representation; now what we need is representation in all its glorious, messy, complicated variety. We need shitty queers doing horrible things to each other as much as we need caring, compassionate queers saving the world. Clarke’s series doesn’t bother with “good” or “bad” representation but instead shows us queer people being people, warts and all. Shiloh and Madeline have hurt a lot of people and have been hurt in turn by a lot of people, and they both process their traumas in different yet destructive ways. Elder queer witches made for bad role models but offer glimpses into futures Sideways never even dreamed of. 

Like its predecessors, The Feast Makers is vicious. Sharp as a knife, brutal as a bomb, and lyrical as a song. It crawls under your skin and burrows into your brain. This is the kind of series I want to literally throw at teenagers like that GIF of Melissa McCarthy. It’s the kind of series I wish I’d had when I was 16 because I would have made it my entire personality. I would have been utterly insufferable about Sideways Pike. I would have tattoos of the cover art and too many piercings and pretend to like heavy metal just to get a taste of Clarke’s coven. Everyone (including me) compares this series to The Craft, but that movie wishes it was this cool and queer. Wherever August Clarke takes readers next, I’ll be first in line for the ride. [end-mark]

The Feast Makers is published by Erewhon Books.

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Movies & TV The American Society of Magical Negroes

The American Society of Magical Negroes Fails Its Satirical Premise

An ungainly romance and a failure to commit to its concept makes this film an unfortunate dud.

By Alex Brown

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Published on March 18, 2024

Image: Focus Features / Universal Pictures

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Image: Focus Features / Universal Pictures

The best thing I can say about The American Society of Magical Negroes is that it has an intriguing premise. A satire about the Magical Negro trope with a bit of magic and romance thrown in sounded fun. Then came the trailer. The function of a trailer is to get butts in seats, but all this one did was make me want to run away. If I hadn’t already agreed to review it, I would’ve skipped it. Hopefully you will make better choices than I did.

Aren (Justice Smith) is afraid of upsetting white people. He’s passive and apologetic with enough self-loathing that he should probably see a therapist. That makes him a prime candidate for The American Society of Magical Negroes, a historic, secret group of Black Americans who have dedicated their lives to making white people feel better. (A group founded by enslaved Africans at Monticello, in case you needed a reason to scream.) An angry white person is a risk to Black lives, so, the thinking goes, let’s make sure white people are always comfortable. “We’re showing the client the parts of ourselves that make them feel good, and nothing more.” The Magical Negro is a trope where a Black person, often a man, exists solely to offer support and comfort, often of a mystical nature, to a white person. It’s on the same spectrum as the Sassy/Token Black Friend and the Mammy. The Magical Negro is a counter to the post-Reconstruction era trope of the Black Buck, an aggressive, violent, large Black man usually found threatening the virtue of innocent white women (see Birth of a Nation, or, better yet, don’t waste your time) and the Tragic Mulatto (or quadroon or octoroon) where a Black woman with a white father cannot fit into either Black or white society and dies as a result.

Aren is brought into the fold by Roger (David Alan Grier), an old hand at the white fragility game. Aren thrives in his new role. His first client, Jason (Drew Tarver), is a mediocre white man careening through his career at a Facebook-esque tech company with unearned confidence. As the story progresses, Jason’s entitlement shifts from annoying to suffocating, especially as both men pursue Lizzie (An-Li Bogan), their biracial white and Asian coworker. Eventually, Aren is forced to choose between his job and his love life. All this culminates in a confrontation hampered by confounding editing choices and a speech that undermines and misunderstands everything that came before.

The only things we know about Aren’s background is that he has a white mother and that he went to the Rhode Island School of Design (a school that as far as I can tell has few Black students and a lot of white ones). He’s financially well off enough to afford a spacious studio apartment in downtown Los Angeles despite being a failed yarn artist. Aren is a blank space where a person should be. Every other character is just as poorly developed. It’s hard to care about any of these people if we know hardly anything about them. What does Lizzie like about Aren? What does he like about her? Writer and director Kobi Libii doesn’t seem to care. Smith and Bogan have chemistry, but it has nowhere to go in the script. Even Los Angeles barely exists as a place. They shot multiple scenes on location, but they might as well have been on a sound stage for all the impact the city had on the characters. The magic makes no sense and feels more like the script had the note “INSERT SOMETHING ABOUT MAGIC HERE” instead of actual worldbuilding.

Proximity to whiteness is a real problem with this movie. I spent the entire hour and forty-four minutes alternately cringing and desperately wanting Aren to speak to another Black person outside the Society. Any Black person. Literally any. Los Angeles is only 8.6% Black (and 48% Latinx) but Aren exclusively spends time in spaces predominately white spaces. Truly a feat in a region as racially diverse as Southern California. As someone who has spent most of my life living and working in predominately white spaces, I’m well acquainted with having to balance my sanity with white fragility. But I also know the first thing you do when you get a job like that is find the other BIPOC and form a community. You need someone to talk to when white people and Pick Mes get out of hand. There are two Black people at his job, and Aren never even acknowledges them. The movie isn’t invested enough in its premise to bother exploring it that deeply.

The movie’s worst crime, however, is its reliance on individual solutions to systemic problems. Bear with me here because we have to go back to Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Washington and Du Bois are often seen as two sides of the same coin: very basically, assimilation and economic independence on the Washington side, education and civil rights on the other. Both wanted the same thing, equality, but one believed we could earn it by being productive members of society and following the rules set forth by whiteness while the other believed the Talented Tenth was the key to freedom.

The movie intentionally signals these outdated approaches to civil rights. The clothing and accouterments of the Society are all late 19th and early 20th century, when both men were active. Society members all seem to believe they can respectability politics their way into safety. They believe they are saving the world and their own lives by making white people happy. They believe that if Black folks can manage enough white feelings, Black people will be safe. How you hold onto that in the face of Jim Crow and the pushback against the Civil Rights Movement and BLM is beyond me, and the film never brings it up. Nor does it bring up the fact that the Society was founded during the height of the resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan (here comes Birth of a Nation again). During this era, a lot of white people found happiness in violence against Black folks. They held picnics at lynchings, posed for photos with their children smiling ear to ear with a body hanging in the middle, and sold off pieces of their victims as souveniers. Keeping white folks happy didn’t keep Black folks alive back then and doesn’t now because the problem isn’t individual white people but the entire damn system.

That disconnect is ripe for exploration. However, that requires the script to be willing to dive head first into satire, and it either can’t or won’t. It is an unsuccessful satire that veers too often into sincerity. It pulls its punches and seems to fundamentally misunderstand the trope it’s trying to deconstruct and what good critique looks like. It wants to be insightful without having any real insight into the Black experience. There are kernels of truth here and there, but every time it comes close to addressing one it instead sails right past. Sometimes it tries to be an intracommunity conversation about identity and navigating whiteness, but it wanders away from that conversation every time Lizzie shows up.

Ultimately, it’s better than the trailer let on to be, but that’s a low bar to cross. It is neither a good satire nor a good romcom. It has nothing to say and nothing to show.[end-mark]

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Book Recommendations Short Fiction Spotlight

Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: February 2024

Dystopian drones, skeleton boyfriends, rundown tourist attractions and more in this month’s short fiction spotlight.

By Alex Brown

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Published on March 14, 2024

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February has come and gone, but it left behind some excellent short stories. This month is a random assortment with no unifying themes. I’ve got dystopian drones, skeleton boyfriends, gift-giving birds, rundown tourist attractions, living dead girls, ghosts, gods, and philosophical debates on morality and ethics.

“BUDDY RAYMOND’S NO-BULLSHIT GUIDE TO DRONE HUNTING” by Gillian Secord

Set in the years after USians conquered the Canucks, this story is written in the style of a brochure. It contains tips for how to find and disable a variety of drones, from ones used by rich assholes for hunting for sport, surveillance drones, and military hunting drones not-so-affectionately called OH SHIT drones. On behalf of all Americans, I want to apologize in advance for our impending invasion and takeover of Canada. (Diabolical Plots, February 2, 2024; #108A)

“The Color of Wings” by Riley Tao

“Momma says there’s no girl in the barn, that feathers ain’t fingers and caws aren’t words, but the girl gives me gifts and I know that she’s real.” Although short, Riley Tao’s story got its hooks in me. A young boy talks to what he believes is a girl who lives in a barn but who everyone else says is a bird. A sad little story about loneliness and loss. (Cast of Wonders, February 29, 2024; #576)

“Evan: A Remainder” by Jordan Kurella

Evan is a trans man who starts hormones during covid lockdown in 2020. He also starts coughing up bones. His husband leaves him, his new boyfriend dumps him, his neighbor friend stops coming over. Evan’s collection of bones grows. I’m trans and genderqueer and sometimes I also feel like I’m coughing up the bones of the person I wanted to become. I loved that this story felt both true and like a metaphor all at once. (Reactor, January 31, 2024)

“First Girls” by Jessica Luke García

“We’re only the beginning. The motion picture reel, unreeling. Our heads will roll before the credits do. We won’t make it to the end.” A lot of to-do is made over the Final Girl—Stephen Graham Jones has a whole book series about her—but the First Girl is often ignored or derided. She deserves what she gets or she’s cannon fodder. She’s not clever or tough enough to survive. The rest of the cast learns from her mistakes. Jessica Luke García gives her a voice here in a twist on a classic horror trope. (Nightmare Magazine, February 2024; issue 137)

“The Ghost on the Server” by Gregory Neil Harris

A couple, Ori and Illy, are trying to scrape enough resources and creds together to get off their space station. Instead, Ori makes a trade for an implant that turns out to be connected to ancient alien tech. I’m always a fan of dystopian space stations and the ragamuffin underdogs making bad choices who live on them. This was a well thought out world. (IZ Digital, February 2024)

“Lost in the Central Stacks” by Laurence Raphael Brothers

I’m a librarian by day, so of course I was going to pick this library-centered story. Our narrator works with the booktrains in the main branch of the New York Public Library. The tracks run through the abandoned central stacks, which is where books keep going missing. Our narrator investigates and finds something a little frightening and a whole lot curious. In each issue, Translunar Travelers Lounge groups several stories together under food categories. This one fits perfectly under Basque cake. It’s got a crunchy outside that belies the sweet softness inside. (Translunar Travelers Lounge, February 2024; issue 10)

“Of Flowing Stone, of Liquid Gold, of Justice, Ash, and Battle” by Malda Marlys

“You are a young god.” Malda Marlys recounts the very long life of a god with eir thoughtful story. The god grows more powerful and beloved during times of war but never forgets the consequences of that violence on their people. Corruption, devotion, rage, forgiveness, all are experienced by the god and its people. What made this piece work so well for me was the use of second person POV. Something about it made the whole thing click into place. (Strange Horizons, February 5, 2024)

“Patience Is the Virtue” by Aimee Ogden

Caroline is alive but she does not live. After an illness, her husband, Howard, did some creepy Frankenstein surgery on her and transferred her brain into a human-sized, lifelike doll. Her life is now narrowed down to whatever her unblinking eyes can see. He calls what he did—without her knowledge or consent—the gift of immortality; if she was allowed to speak, she’d call it a living nightmare. A chilling slice of patriarchal horror. (Weird Horror, Spring 2024; issue 8)

“Welcome aboard the Silva family historic spaceside attraction tour” by Carol Scheina

Inspired by Earth-bound roadside attractions, Carol Scheina’s story is set among the stars. Our tour guide takes a group around to several attractions set on a disused travel route between stations. Teleportation killed the spaceside attraction industry and with it the Silva family business. It’s a light story that gives you the kind of nostalgia-tinged sadness you get when you remember all the little inconsequential things we lost to the churn of modernization and efficiency, like the time lady and moviefone, that satisfying click you hear when you turn a dial on an old television, those brightly colored clear plastic covers on computers, and of course mid-century roadside attractions. (Nature: Futures, February 14, 2024)

“Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim

Putting my reputation on the line by admitting that I’ve never read “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” or anything by Ursula K. Le Guin (not for any particular reason, I just don’t especially care). I am also not up on the trend of people reimagining or “fixing” Le Guin’s take on the trolley problem. Given all that, it may be a surprise to find Isabel J. Kim’s Omelas twist on my spotlight, but here we are. The premise is exactly what it says on the tin: while most citizens of Omelas are satisfied with the ethical conundrum of leaving a child to suffer alone so the rest of society can live consequence-free, and while some feel so aggrieved they leave town, a few decide to take matters into their own hands by killing the child. No one knows where the children come from—and no one ever suggests just rescuing the kid and taking them out of Omelas—but with each murder a new one is produced and dropped into the pit of despair. The internet got into a huff about this story, but I enjoyed it. What it asks of its audience and what it doesn’t makes for a compelling read. (Clarkesworld, February 2024; issue 209)

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Book Recommendations Backlist Bonanza

Backlist Bonanaza: 5 Underrated Books About Leaving Home

Five books about people uprooted from the place they’ve always known and thrust into the great unknown.

By Alex Brown

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Published on March 19, 2024

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It’s time to pack your bags, friendos; we’re leaving home. These five books are all about people uprooted—sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly—from the place they’ve always known and thrust into the great unknown. Will they ever return home? If they do, they won’t be the same as who they were when they left.

A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy

Margaret Killjoy always writes speculative fiction that screams radical and anarchic, and this one is no different. A Country of Ghosts is written like the protagonist, muckracking journalist Dimos Horacki, is writing an accounting of his travels. He is sent by his newspaper employer to the frontlines of a colonial war led by the Imperial Army. What he sees and who he meets alter his perspective on the war and his nation. This was rereleased in 2022 by AK Press, and I love the new cover. (Combustion Books, 2014)

Nyxia by Scott Reintgen (The Nyxia Triad #1)

Babel Communications offers ten teens the chance to see the galaxy. Emmett, a Black kid from Detroit, secures a spot on the ship headed for the planet Eden to extract nyxia, a mysterious, powerful, pricey substance. On the way, the teens must battle it out in dangerous competitions. Emmett just wants to earn enough money to get back home, but Babel has other plans. An action-packed young adult science fiction novel perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and Squid Games. (Ember, 2017)

For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig (Shadow Players Trilogy #1)

Never underestimate Heidi Heilig’s ability to make your heart ache. This riveting trilogy is a young adult fantasy take on French (Aquitan) occupation and colonization of South Asia (Chakrana). Jetta, who deals with bipolar disorder, can summon spirits, a talent that puts her in the crosshairs of scheming Chakrans  and cruel Aquitans alike. Jetta, her family, and her new friends and enemies are forced from their home in a grueling journey. There’s nothing quite like this series, and it’s a shame more people haven’t read it. (Greenwillow Books, 2018)

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden (Escaping Exodus #1)

Centuries ago, human-kind fled earth. Now the remnants of humanity survive inside a space leviathan, carving out neighborhoods from living flesh until there’s nothing left and they’re forced to move again. Seske and Adalla want to be together but are kept apart by social castes. Of course, there are secrets upon secrets and conspiracies upon conspiracies. (Harper Voyager, 2019)

The Map and the Territory by A.M. Tuomala (Spell and Sextant #1)

The city of Sharis is destroyed in an earthquake. Rukha was in town as part of her work as a cartographer charting the region, but now she only wants to go home. Eshu, a wizard, agrees to travel with her, but he’s not easy to get along with. The pair wander through a fantastical realm, witnessing devastation and wonders. If you like how Martha Wells does her fantasy worldbuilding, this is a must-read. (Candlemark & Gleam, 2022)

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Book Recommendations book review

A Young Man Perched at the Edge of Fate: The Truth of the Aleke

A review of Moses Ose Utomi’s new fantasy novella.

By Alex Brown

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Published on March 13, 2024

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With The Truth of the Aleke, Moses Ose Utomi jumps ahead half a millennium after the events of the first novella, The Lies of the Ajungo. Once more we see a young man perched at the edge of fate, a corrupt empire lying to its people, and friends turned enemies in a striking betrayal. Once more, the truth is a lie and lies become truth.

In the City of Truth, Osi is a Junior Peacekeeper. He dreams of becoming a Truthseeker and a hero to his people. For generations, they have battled the Cult of Tutu and their cruel leader the Aleke. Peacekeepers defend the city while Truthkeepers battle the enemy. During an attack on his city, Osi makes a dangerous choice he will eventually regret. He and the other Truthseekers are sent into the Forever Desert to retrieve the God’s Eyes—magical stones that give people immense powers—stolen by the Aleke. If the heroes succeed, they will be able to finally destroy the cultists. If they fail, the Aleke will sack their city and slaughter everyone. What Osi finds out, there in the desert made of powdered bone, will call into question everything he was taught about the world and his place in it.

The experience of reading The Truth of the Aleke mirrors Osi’s journey to the truth. I thought I knew what to expect, after the first novella. I knew to be suspicious and to expect a twist. I waited for the surprise to jump out of the shadows. Instead, the truth snuck up on me. Nothing was what it seemed, not even Osi. 

Buy the Book

The Truth of the Aleke

Moses Ose Utomi

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The Truth of the Aleke

Moses Ose Utomi

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

The Truth of the Aleke is a story about violent empires, the weaponization of hope, and the manipulation of truth into propaganda and lies. When Osi fights the cultists, he sees them as closer to animals or monsters than people. As he first enters the city of the cultists, he pities them. It’s a squalid, fetid city of dying children and starving adults. How can anyone choose to live like that? The longer he stays in their city, the more he asks himself what the cost is of dehumanizing your enemy. Osi sees but he does not understand; he thinks but does not critique. He is told he is a hero but he is nothing more than a pawn, a thing to be used and sacrificed at the whim of the person in charge. Osi is told that “History is only a story, told by those with power to justify why they have it.” This is a truth he will learn over and over again, each time the hard way. 

As much as the story is about power, it is also about hope. But not in the way you might think. Hope can be used to motivate and inspire or to invoke and enrage. Rebellions are built on hope that things can be better, but that same hope can fester in the hearts of the oppressors into the belief that they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Osi, Obasa, the Truthseekers, the Speaker, and the denizens of the City of Truth and the city of cultists are all hopeful, but their goals and desires could not be more different. Some use hope to throw bricks at their oppressors, some use hope to carry on in the face of overwhelming and impossible odds, some use hope as a temptation to string along the vulnerable, and some use it as a weapon to obliterate challengers and enforce their version of peace. Hope can be misplaced; it can be given to the undeserving. We must understand the price for achieving what we hope for and acknowledge who will be forced to pay for it.

While the ending of The Truth of the Aleke is bleaker than The Lies of the Ajungo, Moses Ose Utomi still threads in some seeds of hope. The story is not over; the history is not set. The truth waits to be told. One boy cannot take down an empire anymore than one boy can save it. All we can do is hope that Tutu and Osi’s stories will light a spark for someone else down the line. [end-mark]

The Truth of the Aleke is available from Tordotcom Publishing.

The post A Young Man Perched at the Edge of Fate: <i>The Truth of the Aleke</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Book Recommendations Young Adult

Most Anticipated Young Adult SFF/H for March & April 2024

The days are getting longer, the weather is warming up, and a new crop of spring releases are arriving!

By Alex Brown

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Published on March 8, 2024

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Spring is so close, I can almost taste it. The days are getting longer, the weather is warming up, and a new crop of spring releases are arriving. I’ve got for you 20 of my most anticipated young adult science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels for March and April.

Thrills & Chills

Dead Girls Walking by Sami Ellis

Temple Baker’s father is a notorious serial killer. When he claims to have killed her mother, Temple sets out to find her body. She joins a queer horror summer camp as a way to sneak onto her family’s old property and is shocked to find new corpses. Is there a new killer in town or is something else taking out the campers? (Amulet Books; March 26, 2024)

The Black Girl Survives in This One: Horror Stories edited by Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell

Fifteen spine-tingling stories putting a new twist on classic horror tropes. Haunted cornfields? Check. Space terror? Check. Werewolves? Check. Demon deals? Check. Authors: Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L.L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maika and Maritza Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado. (Flatiron Books; April 2, 2024)

The Future Sucks

Fall of the Iron Gods by Olivia Chadha (The Mechanists #2)

In the long-awaited conclusion to The Mechanists duology, we join Ashiva after successfully destroying the black site run by the South Asian Province. But she can’t take her victory lap yet. The Red Hand, the rebels who she helped take down the prison, are declared enemies of the state by the Planetary Alliance Commission. Now Ashiva, Synch, and Taru are tasked with finding the source of a strange beacon and stopping the Planetary Alliance Commission from getting ahold of a new, rare resource. (Erewhon; April 23, 2024)

Magic with a Twist

The Feast Makers by H. A. Clarke (Scapegracers #3)

Sideways Pike just wants to graduate high school already. Before that, however, they have to get through the trial of Madeline Kline. After everything Madeline put Sideways through, they should want her punished, shouldn’t they? And then there are those wretched witchfinders they have to deal with. They can’t pass up the opportunity of a bunch of powerful witches all gathered in one place, but the witches aren’t about to let them get away with murder. (Erewhon Books; March 26, 2024)

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste

Venus lives in an alternate, fantasy version of our world, cooking up moonshine love potions. After her mother’s murder, Venus is pressganged into brewing potions that will compel DC politicians into doing things they don’t want to do. Venus wants revenge on her mother’s killer, but getting it might mean unleashing the dark force, the It, that lurks in the shadows of her mind. (Sourcebooks Fire; March 26, 2024)

Call Forth a Fox by Markelle Grabo

In the isolated village of Sugar Maple lives Ro. She loves spending time in the forest and ignores the warnings to stay clear of the western wood. When she saves a fox from being attacked by a bear, she doesn’t expect that bear to turn into a boy who knows nothing except Ro’s name and that he must kill the fox. Ro and her sister Eirwyn must navigate fairy magic, deadly curses, and dangerous deals. A retelling of “Snow White and Red Rose.” (Page Street YA; April 2, 2024)

Blood Justice by Terry J. Benton-Walker (Blood Debts #2)

Clem and Cris fought hard to get their family justice. Now their family is back in power and the Savants are banished from power forever. Valentina will do anything to take back her family’s power and take the crown for herself. Also hunting the Trudeaus are a crooked cop who hates magic and a hungry god tethered to Clem. Cris and Clem’s fight is not yet over. (Tor Teen; April 23, 2024)

Gods & Monsters

Darker by Four by June C. L. Tan (Darker by Four #1)

“A vengeful girl. A hollow boy. A missing god.” Color me intrigued! Combat expert Rui desires nothing but to punish the creature that killed her mother. After a monster attacks Yiran, Rui’s magic is transferred into him, leaving her normal and him with unstable powers. They’re pulled into a larger conspiracy when Nikai, a Reaper, sets out to find the missing Fourth King of Hell. (Harperteen; April 2, 2024)

Merciless Saviors by H. E. Edgmon (The Ouroboros #2)

Betrayed and forced to kill, Gem has a new power and a growing anger. The pantheon is increasingly fractured and unstable. Gem, the Magician, is supposed to keep things balanced, not make things more chaotic. They, Rory, and Enzo will do anything to restore balance to the pantheon, no matter how much blood it takes. (Wednesday Books; April 16, 2024)

Past Is Present

Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger (Elatsoe #2)

It’s the 1970s and Shane and her mother use their ability to summon ghosts to track down missing people. When her mother vanishes while tracking two lost siblings, Shane pulls on her friends and family to get her through and help her out. Themes touching on the loss of culture due to colonization and the importance of community run throughout. Shane will attempt something few have done before in order to save her mom, but she won’t do it alone. Although this story is about Elatsoe’s grandmother, you don’t need to have read Elatsoe in order to understand Sheine Lende. (Levine Querido; April 16, 2024)

Saint-Seducing Gold by Brittany N. Williams (Forge & Fracture Saga #2)

Let’s travel back to Shakespearean London with siblings Joan and James Sands, a fight choreographer and actor, respectively, for the King’s Men acting company. They’re also able to channel the powers of the Orisha. The siblings are facing battles on multiple fronts, from the sinister spymaster Robert Cecil to the duplicitous Fae queen Titanea. To rescue their godfather, Joan and James will have to risk it all. (Amulet Books; April 23, 2024)

Court Intrigue

The Encanto’s Daughter by Melissa de la Cruz (The Encanto’s Daughter #1)

King Vivencio Basilio of the Sirena Court is dead, and now it’s Southern California teen MJ’s problem. MJ is half-human and half-encanto, but despite living her life in the human world, she’s now the heir to the throne. She’ll have to win over snobby members of the council, learn the complicated traditions of the court, and stop the same dangerous magic that killed her father from taking her, too. The realm of Biringan is a parallel fairy world near the Philippines, and Filipino mythology permeates this story. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; March 5, 2024)

The Smoke That Thunders by Erhu Kome

The last thing ​​Naborhi wants is her fate. On the cusp of going through the rites of passage that will mark her a woman—and sentence her to a life of childbearing and tending to a man’s house—a new path opens up. Naborhi encounters a magical animal and the son of an Oracle, and they decide to head out on a great adventure to find the mysterious boy she keeps dreaming of. That boy, a missing prince, heralds a war looming on the horizon. (Norton Young Readers; April 9, 2024)

Love Is in the Air

The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le (The Last Bloodcarver Duology #1)

Called a bloodcarver by those who fear and hate her, Nhika can change the human body with her touch. A criminal gang captures her and sells her off to a wealthy family. There, she must heal the dying person who is the only witness to a terrible death. She also meets Kochin, a boy who claims to be a physician’s aide but is something much more. Corruption runs deep in the city of Theumas. (Roaring Brook Press; March 19, 2024)

Otherworldly by F. T. Lukens

Ellery doesn’t believe in magic. Not when the goddess their family prays to has forsaken their crops and left them in a frozen winter the last five years. Knox, an immortal familiar, is delaying returning to the Other World where he’s doomed to have his memories erased…assuming his queen and homeland even still exist. The two teens decide to help each other—Ellery will contract with Knox to keep him in the human world and Knox will help them break the winter curse. (Margaret K. McElderry Books; April 2, 2024)

Set Sail

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

It’s been a while since we’ve been blessed with a Makiia Lucier fantasy romance. Hanalei’s father commits a terrible sin: stealing a seadragon egg intended for a dying princess. While in exile, she spends her time learning everything she can about seadragons. A chance encounter with Samahtitamahenele, the prince and brother of the princess who caused Hanalei’s exile, leads the two teens on a quest to find a new dragonfruit. (Clarion Books; April 9, 2024)

The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray by Christine Calella

Sisters Ophelia and Betsy couldn’t be more different. After their mother, a notorious pirate, is executed, Ophelia runs away from home to join the navy using her sister’s identity. Betsy learns of Ophelia’s scheme and ventures out to save her before she’s found out and given the same fate as their mother. (Page Street YA; April 9, 2024)

Outcasts, Outlaws, & Rebels

King of Dead Things by Nevin Holness

Eli has no memory of his past while Malcolm would love to forget his deadbeat dad. Eli uses his magic to help and heal while Malcolm uses his to raise the dead. In London’s underground magical scene, these two boys go after a magical totem while trying to steer clear of a duppy king and the daughter of Death. (Atheneum Books for Young Readers; April 16, 2024)

Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin

Xue, an apprentice qin player, loses the only family she has left when her poet uncle is killed by bandits. Now an indentured musician, she has no hope of a future, not until she meets Duke Meng. He whisks her away to his grand, distant estate and reveals he’s really the Duke of Dreams of the Celestial Realm. He offers her a deal she can’t refuse: if she helps him root out what is threatening the Six Realms, he’ll free her from her contract. (Feiwel & Friends; April 23, 2024)

To a Darker Shore by Leanne Schwartz

Alesta, a lowly shepherdess in Soladisa, tries to prove her worth to spare her from being sacrificed to the monster Teras, it backfires so spectacularly that her best friend is sentenced in her place. Alesta descends into Hell—in a clever take on Dante’s Inferno—only to discover Kyrian alive and well, if by “well” you mean turned into a monster. The friends realize there is a dark conspiracy surrounding the tithings. (Page Street YA; April 30, 2024)

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Book Recommendations book review

Friendship, Grief, and Truth: The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert

A review of Melissa Albert’s new supernatural horror novel.

By Alex Brown

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Published on March 12, 2024

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One winter’s night, Four people in the town of Palmetto disappear: a troubled freshman, a mopey senior, a drunk teacher, and Nora’s best friend Becca. Nora doesn’t believe Becca ran away, nor that she could be the reason why the other’s are missing. For one, Becca isn’t the kind of girl to skip town (or is she?). For two, Becca doesn’t know any of those other people (except maybe she does?). For three, Nora keeps finding clues Becca left behind (clues to what? And why?).

As Nora digs into the disappearances, she realizes they’re all connected to a schoolyard rhyme about a wish-granting goddess all the local kids grow up singing. And then there’s the more grown-up version that teenagers play where one kid puts their life into the hands of another in an attempt to appease the goddess with the threat of life or death. Is the goddess real or a figment of childhood imagination? What if Becca thought she was real enough to try and summon her? What if something else answered?

The Bad Ones begins with the disappearance of several people and moves chronologically forward from that night, with flashbacks from Becca and Nora’s childhoods and the months leading up to the disappearances. Although the main story is first person from Nora’s perspective, the flashbacks are third person from Becca’s perspective. It’s a clever way to give the readers insight into Becca’s mind without pulling the focus away from Nora.

Melissa Albert writes in that nebulous zone between dark fantasy and horror. Her stories leave you unsettled and uncomfortable. They feel like a fairytale retold by the Grimm brothers. People die terrible deaths, innocents suffer great trials, and monsters inflict unspeakable tragedies. But through all of it is a thread of hope, not that things will get better but that you’ll survive. You may leave a piece of yourself behind or may be an entirely different person on the other end, figuratively or literally, but you will get through it.

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The Bad Ones

Melissa Albert

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The Bad Ones

Melissa Albert

Buy this book from:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iBooks
• IndieBound
• Target

Nora holds onto that belief like a lifeline, even as it frays around her. Everything she thought she understood about Becca unspools with each loose thread she pulls. The Becca Nora knew was a quiet girl with a vengeful streak, a girl who was loyal to the point of pain and who turned to things she created as a way to control the chaos around her. The girl Becca becomes after losing both her parents is a creature Nora barely recognizes. She hardens and sharpens, becoming like the knife she gifts to Nora, becoming a thing to worry over and misunderstand. A girl like that doesn’t just disappear. So how to reckon that with the reality that Becca is gone? Which Becca was she? Was she both? Or was she a third version kept buried underneath the others? 

Nora, too, is different versions of herself. She changes and is changed by her relationship with Becca. I think most people socialized as a girl in childhood go through a friendship that is so intense it tumbles into toxic. You feed each other and feed on each other. You are each others’ entire worlds, so much so that when the cracks begin to show, your friendship shatters and everything falls apart. Both of you must decide which version of each other you like more. Maybe you rebuild your friendship with a healthier foundation and maybe you sever ties permanently. 

Albert offers teens a window into a collapsing friendship as well as the ways grief can compound into something twisted and dangerous if we don’t ask for help. This is also a story about adults who fail their charges, from teachers who cross boundaries to parents who relinquish parenting duties. It can feel so isolating as a teen with no adults willing to listen and a best friend who doesn’t see you for who you are (ask me how I know). I turned to daydreams, pouring my whole self into fantasies of other, better lives and other, better friends. If my town had a legend of a goddess who could grant you wishes and exact revenge, I probably would’ve worshiped her just like Nora and Becca did. When you’re young and desperate and full of feelings you don’t understand and don’t know what to do with, you make choices your adult self would scoff at. 

The Bad Ones is another win for Melissa Albert. It’s a dark, beautiful story about friendship, grief, and truth. The monsters aren’t under your bed; they’re walking the streets and leaving damage in their wake. [end-mark]

The Bad Ones is published by Flatiron Books.
Read an interview with Melissa Albert.

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Book Recommendations Backlist Bonanza

Backlist Bonanaza: 5 Underrated Romantasy Books

Five books with all the magic and swooning you could want.

By Alex Brown

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Published on February 26, 2024

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What is romantasy exactly? Is it romantic fantasy? Fantasy romance? A new name for paranormal romance? A whole new subgenre or just another marketing term? I’ve seen all kinds of books given the label “romantasy”, from romance novels with fantasy elements to fantasy books with romantic themes to fantasy books where there just happens to be a romance subplot. Right now I think romantasy is more vibes than anything, so that’s what I’m bringing you this month. Here are five books with all the magic and swooning you could want.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Starting off strong with a classic. This is one of those novels that every reader obsessed with vampires gets around to at some point. A young baker, Sunshine, gets kidnapped by vampires and is set up as bait for Constantine, who is sentenced to death. She uses her sun powers to help them both escape. He needs her for her ability to let him move about in daylight, she needs him for his strength and protection. Cue romance. It’s been nearly 14 years since McKinley teased a second book set in the same world and even longer since she announced she would be open to writing a direct sequel, which probably means we’re never getting more Rae “Sunshine” Seddon. At least what we got is literary perfection. (Berkley Publishing Group, 2003)

Spectred Isle by K.J. Charles (Green Men #1)

Disgraced archaeologist Saul Lazenby tries to keep it together as magic and hearts collide in this historical romance by one of the reigning queens of the Romance genre. Saul gets tangled up with Randolph, an arcanist whose life is dedicated to protecting his country and his people from those who use magic for ill. Charles has a ton of historical romantic fantasies—The Charm of Magpies series is the big one that always makes the rec lists—but this is my personal favorite. If you want more in the way of Emily Tesh’s Greenhollow duology, here you go. (KJC Books, 2017)

Isle of Blood and Stone by Makiia Lucier (Tower of Winds #1)

Makiia Lucier is so good at writing YA fantasy romance novels. The fantasy is always creative and compelling, and the romance is sweet without being sugary. Her stories are complex and have a sharper edge than you expect, but the emotional beats are grounded in honesty. Mapmaker Elias and Mercedes the spy team up to untangle the mystery of what really happened the day King Ulises’ brothers were murdered. Their journey takes them across fantastical realms and through hard truths before the pair find their way to each other’s hearts. (Clarion Books, 2018)

Best Laid Plaids by Ella Stainton (Kilty Pleasures #1)

It took me a while to check out this series, mostly because I can’t stand puns and the series title is like nails on a chalkboard to me. But Cornell Collins is one of my favorite audiobook narrators so I decided to try it anyway. I’m so glad I did! Set in Scotland in 1928, the story is about Dr. Ainsley Graham, an academic who trashed his promising career by revealing that he could see ghosts, and WWI vet turned psychology student Joachim Cockburn who is using Ainsley as a bit of a test case. Supernatural occurrences and romantic scenarios ensue. (Carina Press, 2020)

Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues by H.S. Valley

Never going to not yell about this book to people. Sorry not sorry. I just love it so much! Tim is a Māori teen attending a secret magical boarding school in New Zealand. He’s assigned to raise an egg with his nemesis, Elliott. Romance tropes blend with teen fantasy drama in enchanting ways, but the real heart is Tim dealing with his anxiety and issues with his father. It’s often comped as Red, White, and Royal Blue crossed with The Magicians, but I’d put it closer to Carry On meets In Other Lands. (Hardie Grant Books, 2023)

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Book Recommendations Short Fiction Spotlight

Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: January 2024

Alex Brown highlights ten recent short speculative fiction stories.

By Alex Brown

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Published on February 16, 2024

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Already starting the new year running behind. I may be a bit late getting this spotlight column out to y’all, but it was worth it because I used all that extra time to read some truly awesome stories. Here are my ten of my favorite short speculative fiction stories from January. 

“D.E.I. (Death, Eternity, and Inclusion)” by N. Romaine White

Carolyn, a Black woman freshly turned into a vampire by her girlfriend, is brought before the white Grand Sire of Baltimore. She doesn’t expect to be offered a job as the head of their new DEI department. As someone who works in a predominantly white institution and spends most of their time pushing back against oppressive policies, this had me cackling. This may be a fantasy story, but it felt so familiar and true. N. Romaine White doesn’t let PWIs off the hook while also acknowledging the limits of DEI as a tool for structural change. (FIYAH, Winter 2024; issue 29)

“Eight Vases of Njideka” by Kasimma

The first issue of Gamut Magazine has a bunch of stories I really enjoyed, and it was hard to choose just one. This story is broken into 8 sections, 6 of which begin with the sentence “Njideka is my mother’s name, but its meaning is what I say like prayer: what I have is more.” It is a poetic piece of prose about life, our connection to our ancestors, spirituality, and truth, and all of the stories that make you you. The title refers, I think, to the shattered vase metaphor in psychology that looks at different responses to trauma. Do you give up and throw the broken pieces away? Do you glue it back together and bemoan that it doesn’t look the same? Or do you build something entirely new? (Gamut Magazine, January 2024; issue 1)

“Escape Choice” by Emma Burnett

On a spaceship lives a neurodivergent boy, Max. His world was not built for him, nor are many people willing to accommodate his needs. As he grows, he learns to better articulate his boundaries even as others try to make him feel bad about not wanting or trying to fit in. Lockdown was the first time in my life where I was able to stop masking for a long period of time. If nothing else that period inspired me to apologize for my behaviors less and be myself more, even when it makes neurotypicals uncomfortable. Max and I have a lot in common. This story makes a great pairing with “The Imperfect Blue Marble” further down the list. (The Future Fire, January 2024; issue 2024.68)

“Just You and Me, Now” by KT Bryski

“The campsite looks like it wants to eat them. A fire pit yawns in the middle, an ashy-grey mouth ringed by rocks like rotting teeth. The trees crowd in, sizing them up, knifing the daylight.” Little Henry had no idea how right he was. A terrifying stranger invades their campsite, and one by one Henry’s family vanishes. KT Bryski is so good at looming dread.  (Apex Magazine, January 2024; issue 142)

“Monologue” by Kengo Nelson

Well, I wasn’t expecting to end this story on the verge of tears. Two partners, Gale and Will run a tourist hub called Taurus Crossing. Visitors pass time at the station watching the stage show: a decaying white dwarf. I won’t tell you why this story made me so emotional, only that Kengo Nelson gradually leads the reader to the truth in such a way that you can feel it coming before it hits but it still stings. You don’t want it but at the same time you know that it can’t end any other way. Lovely all around. (Baffling Magazine, January 2024; issue 14)

“The Doomsday Book of Labyrinths” by LM Zaerr

Crispin is a tax assessor of shops that sell labyrinths. When he arrives at Flat Rainbows, he finds his greatest challenge yet. A young boy, left to fend for himself, occupies the shop. Crispin is sucked into the boy’s orbit, and the terrible crime he uncovers will force him to choose between doing what’s right and doing what’s just. LM Zaerr did a great job writing an 8 year old stubborn enough to be annoying but earnest enough to be endearing. (Uncharted, January 11, 2024)

“The Feast of Baku & the Yume no Seirei” by Cheri Kamei

The old man and the monstrous creature “were neither allies nor enemies, but, come sunset, both were absolutely famished, and so their goal was the same. Their means, however, were somewhat at odds.” Baku and the seirei devour nightmares and dreams on the island of Dejima. While there’s not much of a plot, this feels like old folklore retold. Spirits walk the land of the living, devouring everything in their path, and all we can do is keep getting up every morning. (Uncanny, January 2024; issue 56)

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“The Imperfect Blue Marble” by  Rae Mariz

This online anthology, put together by the nonprofit media organization Grist, collects 12 stories of climate fiction looking ahead 180 years. All of the stories are worth reading, but Rae Mariz’s is probably my favorite. Our snarky storyteller recounts a tale of a nonverbal child who learns to communicate in his own way. His world doesn’t just tolerate him but accommodates him. The boy, Ben, visits a glassblower, and every day the artist is challenged to make a marble that satisfies Ben. Ben isn’t treated as picky or incompetent but as someone with particular interests that the world should appreciate. A warm, welcoming story about a future where people are loved for who they are, not shamed for who they aren’t.

(Imagine 2200, January 2024)

“The Invariant Speed of Destiny” by Phoebe Barton

Some flash fiction for you! “I think we were destined for each other,” you said as we disentangled limbs under the star-speckled sky, a year after we first met.” A couple are separated by time and space when one of them sets off on a tragic journey to Alpha Centauri. The narrator mulls over whether it was their lover’s destiny to board that spaceship and whether it even matters when the result is the same. Beautiful and sad yet hopeful. The takeaway isn’t that loving someone is too hard but that it’s worth it no matter what.

(Analog, January/February 2024)

“Totality” by Brandi Sperry

A total eclipse awakens some people to the memories of their past lives. Hannah, who lost her brother, Noah, discovers him years later as someone else. Noah’s personality peeks through, but so do the thousand other lives. New memories build on top of old ones. The afflicted are both themselves and not themselves, themselves but also everyone else they have ever been. A bittersweet story about change.

(The Deadlands, Winter 2024; issue 33)[end-mark]

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Book Recommendations book review

The Past and the Future Collide in The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older

Malka Older’s new Mossa and Pleiti novel is “like a warm cup of tea,” writes Alex Brown.

By Alex Brown

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Published on February 14, 2024

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Our favorite Jupiter-based sapphic investigators are back with The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles. Malka Older drops another murder mystery into the laps of Mossa and Pleiti, this time involving the moon Io, ancient class hierarchies, and a fracturing future. Seventeen students and staff at Valdegeld University, where Pleiti researches Classical literature, have vanished. Mossa is hired to investigate, and she pulls her lover in to help. Once again, the problems of the past have trickled down to their present (our future). Our heroes traverse Jupiter and the outer limits of human civilization in search of answers. What they find out there is a secret big enough to kill for.

At first, I found the story a bit slow. Mossa is at the heart of the mystery, actively investigating big secrets and chasing down far-flung tips. I wanted to be off with Mossa, not staying home with Pleiti. But then not only did Pleiti get dragged into Mossa’s hunt for the truth but I also began to appreciate how her own adventures, while less active, were still exciting. It didn’t hurt that she also had to escape a murder attempt. 

The title, The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, doesn’t just refer to the mystery but also to Pleiti’s relationship with Mossa. Throughout the whole story, she is constantly second-guessing what she is to Mossa, and second-guessing her second-guessing. Everything Mossa says, Pleiti interprets and reinterprets it so much that she tangles her emotions up to the point where she misses the heart of what Mossa actually means. She keeps creating internal obstacles that lead to external confusions. Pleiti has something very good with Mossa that could become great one day if she could just get out of her own way. 

The act of reading this book is, in and of itself, a joy. There are Easter eggs for other works of media (including Older’s own Centenal Cycle). And the way Older drops in words from other languages is brilliant. It demonstrates the diversity of this future—one where a majority of people are BIPOC, to the point where that designation no longer matters. This future is not beholden to the rules, castes, and social hierarchies of the Classical, Earth-bound world, and in fact intentionally chose to leave many of our old problems and problematic solutions behind. Queerness is also not a thing in this world, although that doesn’t mean anti-queer rhetoric doesn’t exist. There are those who see pairings like Mossa and Pleiti as an obstacle to population growth, a tactic we hear in our own time. Fortunately, the two women don’t waste time humoring bigots or trying to defend their right to exist. They have bigger fish to fry.

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The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles

Malka Older

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Malka Older

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Expanding the available vocabulary also allows Older the opportunity to really play with language in a fun, creative way. One of the things I love about English is how much of a Frankenstein language it is. It’s built out of so many parts of other languages, to an extent I think most English-as-a-first-language speakers don’t even realize. When we need a new word for something, we often borrow it from another language, Anglicize it with our regional accents, and then act like was ours to begin with. One of my favorite examples of this is the avocado. Americans heard the Spanish pronunciation of the original Nahuatl word “ahuacatl” like “abogado”, then mispronounced it like “avogado.” This sounded a lot like “alligator,” so we attached “pear” to it to reference the shape and it became “alligator pear”; eventually we settled on the simpler “avocado.” 

In Imposition we get Mossa referring to Pleiti as her copine (French for girlfriend), Pleiti has an “unsatisfying grignoter” (French for snack), a respected professor is described as an erai dueña (combining the Japanese term for great or superior and the Spanish term for a female patron or proprietor), and so on. I loved looking up every term I didn’t know, like I was prepping for the SATs or something. Older’s textual style gives the story a vibrant, exciting feel. It’s as compelling as our two charming protagonists themselves.

Malka Older’s The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is like a warm cup of tea. It’s like sitting in a patch of sunshine after a week of rain. It’s a picnic at the park in the summer and a stroll through fallen leaves in the fall. I recommend this series to literally everyone, but especially readers looking for cozy sci-fi, cozy mysteries, or Johnlock vibes.  

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles is published by Tordotcom Publishing.

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Column Don’t Touch That Dial

Don’t Touch That Dial: Can’t-Miss TV For Your Watchlist

The Brothers Sun, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and the new Mr. and Mrs. Smith are among this season’s best new series.

By Alex Brown

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Published on February 7, 2024

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Several years ago, I used to run a column here called Don’t Touch That Dial, where I’d talk about new or returning shows. Mostly it ran over the fall and spring premiere seasons and covered speculative broadcast and cable TV shows. And then came the tidal wave of streaming shows. I tapped out of the column in 2016, mostly because I couldn’t keep up with all the new shows. That year alone, more than 450 scripted shows aired in the US. Trying to cover even just the speculative ones became an impossible task. 

It’s now 2024 and peak streaming has crashed. With the rapid cancellations and killing off shows before they get the chance to premiere, I decided to (temporarily) resurrect my old column. There are plenty of speculative and adjacent gems out there but finding out about them before they end up on the chopping block is another matter. To help you out, I’ve pulled together one returning and six new shows that premiered either at the end of last year or the beginning of this one. Clear your schedule.

The Brothers Sun

After his father is gravely injured in a violent attack, Charles Sun leaves Taipei for Los Angeles to protect his mother, Eileen, and little brother, Bruce. Years ago she fled with her youngest son, a goofy, placid child, to the San Gabriel Valley for reasons unknown, but never let her espionage and subterfuge skills go to waste. Did the killers follow Charles to the states or did he walk right into their trap? All Bruce knows is that his brother and father’s crime business is getting in the way of his faltering attempts at medical school and his improv classes. Bruce likes being soft, Charles likes being tough, and they both learn a lesson about being a little more like the other.

The Brothers Sun is a great mix of tight fight choreography and crackling dark humor. The show is all over the place in terms of tone but somehow it all blends together. However, the action and black comedy elements are way more developed than the mystery portion. Most of the time the mystery of who is at the top of the masked assassin gang feels like an afterthought. It’s fun, frothy entertainment. Don’t look too closely or the plot holes will seem like black holes. We’re aiming for broadcast TV with slightly more violence rather than plausibility and realism. Justin Chien and Sam Song Li bounce well off each other as the titular brothers, Jon Xue Zhang is my new favorite actor, and Michelle Yeoh is a goddess divine. If I had one wish, it would be no more fat jokes. There are several every episode and each time I hear one, my soul dies a little.

TL;DR: Michelle. Yeoh. Enough said.

Where to watch: Netflix; series premiere Thursday January 4, 2024—8 episode season, full season release.

Criminal Record

Yeah, I know, copaganda is bad. But also, look, few types of media make me feel more cozy than a good old fashioned cop show. Procedurals are, for whatever reason, soothing, especially when it’s a loner loose cannon versus a wave of bad apples. Our hero is DS June Lenker, a London cop who stumbles into what seems like a corruption case a decade in the making that landed a possibly innocent man in jail for murder. She’s up against DCI Daniel Hegarty, a veteran officer several rungs up the ladder. Each time she digs deeper to get to the truth, he hurls another obstacle in her way, from red herrings to actively discrediting her as a professional. The twist is expected but does the job.

I appreciated the nuance brought to the topic of race, specifically of being a biracial Black and white person living and working in predominantly white spaces. June benefits from her proximity to whiteness while also experiencing anti-Blackness and racism, and Cush Jumbo walks that tightrope brilliantly. And as much as I liked him as the Twelfth Doctor, it’s nice to see Peter Capaldi being a dick again. He plays charming assholes so well. 

TL;DR: Procedural girlies, Doctor Who stans, and people who love watching other people do paperwork, this is the show for you. 

Where to watch: AppleTV+; series premiere Wednesday January 10, 2024—8 episode season, weekly release.

Death and Other Details

When her mother is murdered, Imogene is taken in by ultra-rich family friends. They hire “the world’s greatest detective,” Rufus Cotesworth, but even he fails to solve the case. Years later, Imogene and Rufus reunite over yet another murder. Her new family has rented out a gloriously extravagant cruise ship owned by banker-turned-boatmaker Sunil to win over potential investors in their failing company. A loudmouth is murdered, and Imogene is the prime suspect. She and Rufus must uncover the real killer—and figure out the connection to her mother’s murder—before Interpol arrests her.  

I adore any media about a crotchety old loner genius and their charming companion who everyone underestimates, so looking past this show’s myriad flaws is pretty easy for me. The CGI is rough at best, but the set design and costuming are soap opera lavish. Each episode is its own little mystery that feeds into the bigger one, a gimmick that succeeds as often as it fails. Keeping track of the ever-expanding cast gets complicated the further into the season you get, and the pacing of the episodes could use some work. It tries too hard to have Something To Say, and what it’s saying so far is neither new nor all that interesting. 

Regardless, this marks a nice dip back into the blue sky dramas era of television. Vibes-wise, it should scratch your Knives Out itch. Mandy Patinkin is as great as always, Violett Beane is intriguing, and somehow Rahul Kohli gets hotter every time I see him. The costume designer who decided to put him in a cable knit sweater deserves a Nobel Prize. Good lord. 

TL;DR: I cannot tell you how vital it is you hear Mandy Patinkin doing the world’s most ridiculous accent. It comes and goes like the tide. I want whoever develops the next virtual assistant to have it be him doing the Rufus voice. Absolutely incredible. A pure delight.

Where to watch: Hulu; series premiere Tuesday January 16, 2024—10 episode season, weekly release.

Echo

After Maya’s father is murdered by Kingpin and she, in turn, shoots Kingpin in the face (uh, spoilers for Hawkeye, I guess), Maya returns to her hometown of Tamaha, Oklahoma. She has one goal: take Fisk’s crime empire for herself. Along the way, she learns a lesson about listening to your ancestors and protecting your community. Also, super powers. She has them, she uses them, they’re pretty cool. In terms of tone and violence, this is closer to the more mature outings Netflix offered than the family-friendly ones from Disney+.

Echo gets that diversity is more than just dropping people with marginalized identities into a scene but actually thinking about how those identities impact the story and how the characters move through it. Having so much of the show revolve around Maya’s identities as being Deaf, Choctaw, and an amputee was what turned this from a middling superhero show into something wholly compelling. Alaqua Cox shines as Maya, and I’m excited to see her eventually step outside the limitations of a Marvel joint and stretch her acting skills. 

Structurally, what hampers this show is what hampers most streamers: its short runtime. Five episodes totalling under four hours is both too much and not enough. The whole first episode is mostly catching up viewers who didn’t watch Hawkeye or forgot that Clint spent the five years post-Snap murdering BIPOC instead of going to fucking therapy. Echo needed either a longer season where the side characters could have something substantial to do or it needed to be a much shorter made-for-tv movie. 

TL;DR: Is it Marvel’s best television show? Eh. But it’s about as unique and creative as you can get under the MCU’s strict guidelines. A solid start for the new Spotlight line of shows.

Where to watch: Disney+; series premiere Tuesday January 9, 2024—5 episode season, full season release.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

This show jumps between the mid 20th century and shortly after G-Day, when San Francisco was destroyed by Godzilla in 2014. One of the survivors of G-Day is Cate, the daughter of Hiro Randa, a secretive member of Monarch. After his apparent death, she returns to Japan to clear out his apartment, only to learn he had a secret second family. She, her half-brother, Kentaro, and his ex-girlfriend May, track down Lee, an American soldier who was like an uncle to Hiro. The more about Monarch they uncover, the more Monarch tries to silence them. Meanwhile in the flashbacks, we meet Hiro’s mother, stepfather, and a younger version of Lee as they encounter MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism).

I’m gonna watch anything in the Godzilla universe, and I’m gonna love it. Much like the recent Godzilla Minus One movie (which is incredible, by the way, and easily the best Godzilla movie I’ve ever seen), monsters take a backseat to human drama. Godzilla and his ilk drive the action, but the show is more concerned with the people who sacrificed everything for science and discovery only to be punished for their hubris and the loved ones left behind to pick up the pieces. I preferred the 1950s flashbacks to the present, mostly because those characters were more interesting and complicated than their contemporary counterparts. Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt play the same character at different stages in his life, an clever bit of casting. The Russell men are that particular breed of charming we used to see in action romance movies of yore, all-American tough guys who win over the reluctant woman with a wink, a lopsided smile, and a loaded gun.

Where things stalled out for me was how routine everything was. Instead of doing something new with the MonsterVerse or leaning into the television format, it runs through a checklist of stale tropes, shots, and scenarios. I didn’t entirely mind, mostly because I just plain enjoy being in this world, but it’s also frustrating to see the writers consistently choose the easiest option when it comes to the plot.

TL;DR: The show has monsters, mayhem, and folks fucking around and finding out. What more could you want from a monster movie prequel-slash-sequel?

Where to watch: AppleTV+; series premiere Friday November 17, 2023—10 episode season, weekly release.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

John and Jane Smith are two outcasts who stumble into jobs as spies. As part of their cover, they’re paired up as husband and wife, complete with an ostentatious brownstone and real marriage certificate. The couple quickly fall for each other, but the stress of the job wears on their relationship until they’re literally at each other’s throats. The connection back to the original movie is so light, I genuinely don’t understand what the point of buying the IP was in the first place. It’s not like millions of people were clamoring for a remake of a nearly decade-old movie, especially one known more for the surrounding relationship chaos involving its leads than the actual plot. 

The TV version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith is basically just Atlanta with some action and romance rather than a true action romcom. Meaning a show about people talking to each other in interesting locales. Two people in a destructive marriage emotionally (and physically) hurt each other, plus the occasional burst of gunfire, fight scenes, and kissing. Once I readjusted my expectations, I enjoyed myself more. On the other hand, I have already forgotten most of what happened. Each episode is more or less in the same format: lots of talking about whatever issue is bothering John and Jane that day, then a chunk of intense action, followed by a denouement of gallows humor or suspenseful cliffhanger. The show’s greatest crime is that Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, while fine actors, have absolutely no chemistry with each other. The second worst crime is skipping past the romance. The show jumps from the meet-cute to sex to declarations of love without building the relationship in front of the audience. I keep saying this, but streamers really need to start making longer seasons so the audience can get to know the characters and their world.

TL;DR: Come for the premise, stay for the great stunt guest actor casting. 

Where to watch: Prime; series premiere Friday February 2, 2024—8 episode season, full season release.

True Detective: Night Country

Ennis, Alaska, is a town that exists largely to provide workers for a massive mining company. A group of reclusive scientists at a research facility turn up dead, their bodies frozen in terror on the ice. Solving the case falls to lead detective Liz Danvers, a drunken misanthrope, and her ragtag department. When the scientists are tied to a cold case of a murdered Iñupiaq activist, agent Evangeline Navarro, Danvers’ former colleague, joins the team. Mystical, surreal events unfold around the women, compounded by traumas old and new. 

I’m meh on the first three seasons of True Detective. Seasons two and three felt like attempts to make up for some of the worst choices in the first, but I mostly kept watching because I liked the actors and the seasons were short. The fourth is the first without creator Nic Pizzolatto involved; Issa López takes the reins as showrunner, director, and writer. Not coincidentally, this is also the first season I’m excited to watch. This season is weirder in terms of pacing, tone, and content. Don’t come in expecting a procedural formula. López is more interested in pushing her characters to the breaking point and seeing what happens next. It’s meditative and melancholy, an entire town full of miserable people barely hanging on because there’s nothing else left. As nice as it is to have Jodie Foster and John Hawkes back on my television screen, Kali Reis is the real star here. As Navarro, she’s propulsive and riveting. She deserves a long and busy acting career.

What worries me is the potential for a bait-and-switch in terms of the speculative stuff. Right now, it feels like the characters are in a rural fantasy story, but don’t know it yet. However, the script keeps dropping hints that whatever is behind the mystery will be something mundane. If it turns out that the whole town is affected by a gas leak or something, I’ll be pissed. 

TL;DR: More! Indigenous! Stories! Also, this season reminds me a lot of Ramona Emerson’s supernatural thriller Shutter, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

Where to watch: Max; series premiere Sunday January 14, 2024—6 episode season, weekly release. [end-mark]

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Book Recommendations book review

Jumping From World to World: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire

Portals, danger, and a girl who can find both in the latest Wayward Children story.

By Alex Brown

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Published on February 5, 2024

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When we first met her and last left her, Antsy had tumbled out of the Shop Where Lost Things Go and stumbled into Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children. Now with Seanan McGuire’s Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, Antsy’s story comes full circle. When Seraphina, the girl so beautiful she can compel people to do things they don’t want to, plots to force Antsy to find the Door back to her own portal world, Antsy is rescued by Kade, Cora, Christopher, and Sumi. And then she rescues them in turn by opening a Door. 

Soon the quintet are jumping from world to world, new ones and old ones, on a quest to find lost friends. Antsy discovers that Vinetta has not kept her word and continues to exploit helpless children, but stopping her may force Antsy to cross a line she’s not ready to yet. The children are haunted by their pasts and their Doors. To save themselves, the Store, and the School, big choices must be made.

It was announced in 2020 that there would be at least ten books in the Wayward Children series. Mislaid in Parts Half-Known brings us to nine, with the tenth likely coming out early 2025. While there could (and should) be more books, this novella feels like it’s leading to something big and possibly final. In fact, I’d argue that the story’s biggest flaw is that it feels too much like place setting, like it’s designed to move the characters into position for the last act, rather than telling its own story.

Characters spend all their time moving around between worlds, not an unusual circumstance in this series, particularly the odd numbered books (even numbered tend to be prequels focused on a single character or pair). However, they don’t stay anywhere long enough to impact or be impacted by the portal world. Kade has spent years needing to reckon with what happened to him in Prism, but when he finally returns, all that reckoning happens in a conversation he’s neither a part of nor is even aware takes place. Antsy crashes into her own reckoning by accident, and again, much of the emotional charge is passed onto other characters. Likewise with Eleanor, Cora, and Stephanie. Sumi remains as she always is, an intense, warrior-like young woman eager for her fate but willing to wait for it to catch up to her. Christopher doesn’t have much to do, in terms of the plot and character development. He hovers in the background, does a couple of things, then he moves into the background again. Frustratingly, Seraphina remains a cartoon villain. She’s little more than a sketch of a person.

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Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

Seanan McGuire

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Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

Seanan McGuire

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Previous books have doled out facts about the portal worlds and how the Doors worked like they were rare treats, but this book is dense with information. McGuire tells us almost everything we didn’t know about the magic system. Some of it is recapping what we already knew, but much of it is brand new information or a new take on old, erroneous information. The joy of discovery for me as a reader isn’t just seeing the portal worlds but in trying to figure out how everything works. Here, McGuire reveals so much that it kind of sucked the fun out of the worldbuilding for me. The choice makes narrative sense in terms of the story—especially if we’re leading up to a big event in the series—but it wasn’t as much fun for me as a reader. 

The novella doesn’t work as a standalone, like many others in the series do. Readers new to the Wayward Children series should dip into the back catalogue before reading this one. I think I would’ve liked Mislaid in Parts Half-Known more if it had been merged with Lost in the Moment and Found as a novel instead of broken into two novellas. It is much more a conclusion of Antsy’s journey than its own story.

All that said, what I did appreciate about Mislaid in Parts Half-Known was spending more time with characters I already liked. I’m glad we finally got to Prism and were able to visit Stephanie’s Jurassic Park world, although I wish we had spent more time in both. Stephanie’s world is pictured on the cover, but sadly neither of the dinosaurs depicted actually appear in the book. I admit that I still haven’t read book 7, Where the Drowned Girls Go, which meant I had no clue about anyone or anything connected to the Whitethorn Institute. Stephanie is a compelling enough character that I now want to go back and catch up with her. 

With Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, McGuire offered satisfying resolutions to the arcs of several characters and left enough loose threads to keep the series going at least for a few more books. I am genuinely looking forward to the next installment. Although this is one of my least favorite of the Wayward Children series, overall I enjoyed reading it. The bar the series sets is so high that even the less compelling stories are still better than a lot of fantasy fiction. [end-mark]

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known is available from Tordotcom Publishing.

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Things take a turn for the worse when the wicked pirate Silva takes over their ship and Bhili vanishes. Silva wants that Treasure Island gold as much as Jin does, but will do whatever it takes to get it, including kill. Jin can resist and die trying to escape or join forces with Silva and maybe make it back to the surface alive. The only things standing in their way are greed, ego, and deadly sea monsters. In Into the Sunken City, debut author Dinesh Thiru turns Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island into something you’ve never seen before.

First off, this book is a whole lotta fun. Thiru keeps up a breakneck pace all the way through, never letting Jin catch her breath. Characters are double, triple, quadruple-crossed. Characters die painful deaths. Characters make big, bad decisions with terrible consequences. It’s everything you love about young adult action/adventure novels. The big traditional publishing houses don’t often give us science fiction or dystopias anymore, so it was nice to have both and with a diverse cast to boot.

If you’re a person who likes romance with your adventure, this should satisfy. Sparks fly between Jin and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Taim. You can’t help but root for those two cute kids. Outside our teenage lovebirds, the rest of the cast is equally as entertaining. Thara is wise beyond her years, Silva is as manipulative as he is cruel, and Bhili is as chaotic as a bag of angry cats. Watching them all collide was a riot.

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Into the Sunken City

Dinesh Thiru

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Into the Sunken City

Dinesh Thiru

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• Amazon
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• iBooks
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As well-developed as the world is when zoomed in to just what Jin interacts with, the further out you go the weaker the whole thing becomes. By the end of the book, I had a million questions about how the world functioned. Now, I don’t need to know everything about a fictional world, nor do I think authors owe readers answers to all of our questions. But we do need to have enough of an understanding for the story to make sense. All I know about Thiru’s world is that it’s a dystopia wracked by a man-made climate crisis. Clearly, things still function, but how much and in what ways I have no idea. The whole premise is that Jin needs to earn enough to escape conscription to the Navy, which will force her younger sister into an orphanage and then into the Navy herself. We know that the death rate is high in the Navy, but what the Navy actually does beyond encountering sea monsters and (poorly) running checkpoints is left largely unexplained.

On a personal note, I wish this book had been written from Thara’s perspective. Take out or reduce the romance and beef up the adventure and you’d have a crackling YA novel that is exactly what younger teens are desperate for. We need way more YA with 14 and 15 year old protagonists, and this felt like a missed opportunity. Similarly, it was an odd choice to me to frame Thara as the kiddie little sister even though she’s 14, i.e. the same age as many YA readers. Thara is treated by Jin as a fairly helpless character who needs her constant protection, treatment Thara vehemently disagrees with. However, Thiru reduces her to a secondary character who spends most of her time away from the action and being held hostage off screen. Jin, meanwhile, is out of school, running a business, and functionally, if not developmentally, an adult. Many younger teen readers are going to relate more to Thara than Jin, so this narrative choice effectively makes them outsiders to their own marketing category.

Dinesh Thiru’s Into the Sunken City is a little too predictable and the worldbuilding is surface-level, but at least it’s a wild ride. The original book, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, is a classic piece of children’s literature for a reason. Thiru does a good job reimagining it into something fresh. The 18th century-set story holds up surprisingly well by being ported 800 years into the future with the characters race- and genderbent. I love a good pirate adventure story, and if nothing else, I enjoyed the heck out of myself. [end-mark]

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“Bête Noire” by Lynette S. Hoag

What happens when an AI house becomes sentient and begins to resent its Maker? Lynette S. Hoag offers one possibility with this new story. “Maker”, what the smart house calls the man who built it, brings a socialite over to ride out her house arrest in style. The house doesn’t like this interloper or the man who abandoned it. Lots of parallels with Victor Frankenstein and his monster, except this AI isn’t just misunderstood but very, very angry.

Nightmare Magazine (December 2023; Issue 135)

“Ivy, Angelica, Bay” by C. L. Polk

A new C. L. Polk story? Yes please! I adored this lovely queer novelette. Miss l’Abielle faces a new threat to Hurston Hill. Will she let a dangerous shapeshifter destroy her neighborhood or sacrifice the child she loves to protect it? “Ivy, Angelica, Bay” is a sequel to “St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid,” but you can read it without having read the first (although it’s also a great story so you totally should).

tordotcom (December 8, 2023)

“Longevity” by Anya Ow

“On the morning of my 150th year as a working adult, I disposed of my fifth pet cat.” Ruhe is alive, but not living. Not until Ruhe meets 15 year old rabble rouser Kasey. Over the course of their long friendship, Kasey teaches our narrator that life can be more than work, more than functional, more than simply being. What’s the point if we wall ourselves off from the lows and the highs?

Fantasy & Science Fiction (November/December 2023)

“Mochi Through Space and Time” by Karen Aria Lin

“As I approached Sue-Ling’s Bakery, I had the curious feeling I was returning home.” Karen Aria Lin’s genre-bending story gave me the warm and fuzzies, even as it dealt with breakups and endings. Kitty starts working at Sue-Ling’s bakery and makes several surprising discoveries about not only Sue-Ling but about herself and interdimensional travel as well.

Haven Speculative (December 2023; Issue 12)

“New Trees” by e rathke

In a not-too-distant future version of Minneapolis live Lucille and Marguerite. The couple survive financially through Marguerite being a surrogate, but Lucille dreams of the day when they might have their own child. Like “Longevity,” this is a story about holding onto hope in the face of destruction and loss. It’s about doing what you can to make the world better even if you can’t stop everything terrible.

Hyphen Punk (Winter 2023; Issue 10)

“Our Lady of the Void” by Hesper Leveret

Structured like the transcripts of a conversation, this horror-leaning science fiction piece by Hesper Leveret has an ending that hit me hard. Lydia Ngo-Murray joins up with a cargo spaceship doing long distance hauling across a portion of space known as the Void, where there is no communication outside the ship and nothing but empty, lifeless space surrounding you. She intends to study the “folk religious myths and practices [of] the space-faring community” but gets more than she bargains for.

Interzone (November 2023; Issue 296)

“A Refugee from Fairyland” by Keyan Bowes

Something disastrous is happening in Fairyland, and the Borderlands Refuge collects the children being evicted in droves. Some, like young Munna, were taken centuries ago and have no home to return to. Refuge volunteer Latasha finds herself in the unexpected position of standing up to a powerful fairy queen. This story about found family and a child’s right to choose was just the right amount of sweet and charming.

Worlds of Possibility (December 2023)

“Saturation” by Eliane Boey

This piece by Eliane Boey really got me thinking. The residents of Zhi’s space colony, Tanjung, are running out of memory. Zhi, an artist, ponders how some of her neighbors want to “clear their memory caches” and start fresh, while others would rather keep the memories they have and not make new ones. This is the final issue of Dark Matter Magazine. I’m sad to see it go, but grateful we still have their small press Dark Matter INK.

Dark Matter Magazine (December 2023; Issue 18)

“The Fish’s Wife” by Jorja Osha

Every year, Ihmani’s village celebrates the River Harvest by offering several of their young, unmarried daughters to the god Yipp. Some of the girls come away from the divine encounter alive but not intact, while others vanish without a trace. When it’s Ihmani’s turn, she makes a choice that leaves chaos in her wake. A sharp little story that reminds us that just because something is a tradition doesn’t mean it’s worth keeping around.

The Dark Magazine (December 2023; Issue 103)

“There Are Only Two Chairs, and the Skin is Draped Over the Other” by Alexia Antoniou

Alexia Antoniou’s story is exactly what it says on the tin. Two girls find the complete skin of a human in a strange creek. One of the girls is unsettled by the experience, the other enthralled. Their lives are increasingly bound up in the skin. Antoniou offers far more questions than answers, just the way I like it.

Bourbon Penn (November 2023; Issue 31)

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: December 2023 appeared first on Reactor.

Mirage by Somaiya Daud (Mirage #1; Flatiron Books, 2018)

Somaiya Daud’s debut takes space opera and layers it with Amazigh and Moroccan cultural influences. Amani is forced to become the decoy for Maram vak Mathis, the imperial princess of the brutal colonizers known as the Vathek. The more time she spends in the palace—especially with Maram’s handsome fiance Idris—the more driven she becomes to help the rebellion. An epic, fiercely anti-colonial science fiction novel.

Early Departures by Justin A. Reynolds (Katherine Tegen, 2020)

Q and Jamal’s friendship ended two years ago after the death of Jamal’s parents, for which he blamed Q. After losing Q as well, Jamal is drowning in grief. Then a mysterious stranger offers him a second chance, to bring Q back to life, at least for a few weeks. This is a lovely story about forgiveness and love. There aren’t many young adult science fiction novels by Black authors that are also about Black boys, but this is one of my favorites.

We Light Up the Sky by Lilliam Rivera (Bloomsbury YA, 2021)

Pedro, Luna, and Rafa, go to the same school in Los Angeles, but aren’t friends. But when an alien lands in their neighborhood and takes the form of Luna’s cousin Tasha who died of covid, the three teens become a trio. It’s up to them to warn everyone of the oncoming danger, but who will listen to three Latinx kids? It reminds me a lot of the movie Attack the Block with its hard reality, caustic young people, and biting social commentary. It’s also one of a few young adult novels to deal explicitly with the pandemic.

Aetherbound by EK Johnston (Dutton BYR, 2021)

This is one of those novels I will never stop yelling about. I have thought about it at least once a week since it came out; it’s that moving. Pendt Harland escapes her abusive family and flees to a space station controlled by the Brannick twins. It’s on the quiet side for a space opera, but it’s full of heart and soul and it’s gloriously queer. (There aren’t many YA novels that feature a polyamorous relationship, and even fewer that are science fiction.) The story is sad yet hopeful. You have no idea how much I want a sequel.

Against the Stars by Christopher Hartland (Tiny Ghost Press, 2023)

If you loved They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, you should check this one out. In a not-too-distant future England live Seb and Elliot. Society is in upheaval over Glimpses, a new technology that allows a person to see 44 seconds of their future. Seb hates the technology and blames it for destroying his parents’ marriage. Elliot, meanwhile, tries it and sees himself in a romantic moment with Seb. Is it the tech that brings them together or can they choose their own fate?

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Backlist Bonanaza: 5 Underrated Young Adult Science Fiction Books appeared first on Reactor.

Magic with a Twist

No Time Like Now by Naz Kutub
Bloomsbury YA; February 6, 2024

Hazeem can do magic, but that doesn’t stop his father or grandmother from dying. When he uses his power to give some of his life to his Nana to bring her back to life, Time themself intervenes. This time he traded more life than he has to give, and the entire timeline is at risk of collapsing. Hazeem must go back in time and take back some of his life that he’s given to others.

Out of Body by Nia Davenport
Balzer & Bray; February 6, 2024

Body swap! Making friends with new girl LC was Megan’s first mistake. Trusting her was the second. After a wild night, Megan wakes up in the body of a girl named Jade while LC has stolen her body. The longer she stays in Jade’s body, the harder it is to remember who she was. She’ll have to find LC before she loses herself completely and before LC’s enemies catch up with them both.

Heists

Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru
Harperteen; January 23, 2024

It’s 2532 and it has rained for five centuries straight, leaving sunken cities across what is left of the US. A drifter presents Jin with an offer she can’t refuse: dive to sunken Vegas to find a literal treasure trove. To keep her and her little sister safe, Jin agrees. Along the way, she battles pirates, monsters, and traitors. Loosely inspired by Treasure Island but set in a post-climate disaster future Arizona.

The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton
Peachtree Teen; February 6, 2024

Best friends Sybil and Esme live in Severon, a city reminiscent of 1870s Paris. When the two girls are caught trying to steal posters to sell for rent money, they’re caught by a beautiful cabaret owner called Maeve. She hires them to infiltrate the Fae realm and steal the crown jewels from Queen Mab. If they succeed, they’ll be financially secure for life. If they fail…

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal (Blood and Tea #1)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; February 20, 2024

Vampires! Arthie may be a brown girl in a white supremacist society, but that hasn’t stopped her from building her own little empire in White Roaring. By day she runs a popular teahouse, and by night she serves blood to the local vampires. But she’s not satisfied with money, not when she has the chance to knock the colonizing nation of Ettenia down a peg or two. All she has to do is form a crew, infiltrate the vampires, steal a ledger, and make it out alive. Easy enough.

Outcasts, Outlaws, & Rebels

Sky’s End by Marc J Gregson (Above the Black #1)
Peachtree Teen; January 2, 2024

After his parents die and his uncle takes over his island, Conrad tumbles from being a High to a Low. His only way to move up in the hierarchy is by rising through the ranks of the Twelve Trades and winning the brutal competition called the Gauntlet. He’ll have to fight monsters like the one that killed his mother, as well as more human battles like betrayal, competition, and rebellion.

Somewhere in the Deep by Tanvi Berwah
Sourcebooks Fire; January 9, 2024

Sea monsters! Orphaned as a child, Kress fights monsters in underground matches to earn enough to one day pay off her parents’ debts and escape the island of Kar Atish. She’s offered the chance to make a lot of money for a seemingly easy job, and of course jumps at it. But the job, guarding a search-and-rescue mission for some lost divers. The crew isn’t who they say they are, the mission is riddled with corruption and Kress is caught in the middle of a life-or-death fight.

The Diablo’s Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa
Random House Books for Young Readers; February 20, 2024

No matter how much they try to pretend they’re human, Dami is still a demon. They hatch a plan to cancel all the deals they’ve struck so they can be free, but doing so would kill Silas, a very cute and very cursed young man. They team up with a shipwrecked teen, Marisol, and head up the New England coast in hot pursuit of Captain Kidd’s fabled treasure. Although a standalone, this takes place in the same world as The Wicked Bargain.

Snowglobe by Soyoung Park, translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort (Snowglobe #1)
Delacorte Press; February 27, 2024

In the future, the world is kept at a freezing -50 degrees Fahrenheit, all except within the Snowglobe. The lives of the wealthy people in the dome are projected into the televisions of those outside. After popular star Haeri dies, Chobahm is pulled from the snow into the globe as her replacement. But while the dome may seem like paradise on the surface, terrible secrets lurk in the shadows. This dystopian duology was first published in South Korea in 2020.

Thrills & Chills

The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert
Flatiron Books; February 20, 2024

Four people disappear in one night in Nora’s hometown, including her estranged friend Becca. She hadn’t heard from her in ages, until just before she vanished. Now she keeps finding clues seemingly left by Becca, and they all lead back to a game they used to play as children involving a forgotten goddess and a dangerous legend.

Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury
Margaret K. McElderry Books; February 27, 2024

After her mother’s death, Sunny tries to keep a brave face. But then her brother Dom is charged with the murder of his girlfriend. And then she finds him standing over the body of a high student, blood on his hands. Dom swears he’s innocent, but their dead mother’s secrets may doom them all. Something monstrous haunts their family’s legacy.

Crime Scenes

These Deadly Prophecies by Andrea Tang
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers; January 30, 2024

Tabatha Zeng is apprenticed to the notorious fortuneteller Sorcerer Solomon. When his prediction of his own murder comes to fruition, she and Solomon’s son Callum are the main suspects. Detective Chang is supposed to arrest the teens, but she reluctantly agrees to help them find the real killer.

Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender (Infinity Alchemist #1)
Tor Teen; February 6, 2024

After Ash is rejected from alchemy school at the prestigious Lancaster College, he trains in secret even though it’s technically a crime. When the haughty apprentice Ramsay Thorne catches him in the act, the boys make a deal. Ash agrees to help Ramsay find the Book of Source, which will grant its bearer untold power. They aren’t the only people searching for the book, and Ash soon learns their partnership is more tenuous than he anticipated.

Remixes

A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel
Rick Riordan Presents; January 16, 2024

Manisha lives in a temple where she keeps the secret that she’s naga, a being that can turn people into stone. Pratyush is the king’s best warrior who has spent his career slaying monsters. A chance meeting and the two fall in love…until Manisha is assaulted and tossed into a pit of vipers. She emerges full of fury and power. Is Pratyush’s love stronger than his loyalty? A retelling of the Medusa myth, influenced by Indian folklore.

Evergreen by Devin Greenlee
Entangled: Teen; January 16, 2024

Quill loves plants more than just about anything. Not unexpected for a dryad, even if he is the first ever male dryad. To keep his identity a secret, his mother keeps him hidden away. When he meets Liam, the boy next door, nothing can keep the boys apart, not even when a mysterious intruder breaks into Quill’s magical garden. Inspired by The Secret Garden.

The Cursed Rose by Leslie Vedder (The Bone Spindle #3)
Razorbill; February 6, 2024

In the first book, Fi, Briar, Shane, and Red were thrown together. In the second book, they were torn apart. In the third and final book, their fates are out of their control. The Lord of the Butterflies left a weapon that could defeat the Spindle Witch, but Shane has to find it first. If she doesn’t, Fi and Briar could be lost forever. Only Red, Shane’s lover and betrayer, stands in her way. The series is loosely inspired by the story of Sleeping Beauty.

Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories edited by Sandra Proudman
Inkyard Press; February 6, 2024

Sixteen authors reimagine classic stories through Latinx and speculative lenses. Everything from ancient mythology to space, android mermaids to shapeshifters, and everything in between. Authors include: Olivia Abtahi, David Bowles, Zoraida Córdova, Saraciea J. Fennell, Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, Torrey Maldonado, Jasminne Mendez, Anna Meriano, Amparo Ortiz, Laura Pohl, Sandra Proudman, NoNieqa Ramos, Monica Sanz, Eric Smith, Ari Tison, Alexandra Villasante.

Gods & Monsters

Beasts of War by Ayana Gray (Beasts of Prey #3)
Nancy Paulsen Books; January 16, 2024

Koffi may be free from Fedu, the god of death, but Fedu is not through with her. He plans to kill her during a rare celestial event known as the Bonding; however, if Koffi can get to the Kusonga Plains first, she’ll survive. She enlists the help of Ekon and other gods in her escape. The fate of the world rests on what comes next.

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole (The Divine Traitors #1)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; January 16, 2024

Faron is the human host for the gods of the island of San Irie. With her powers, she freed her people from the colonizers of the Langley Empire. With no wars left to fight, Faron is born and itching for trouble. Her older sister Elara forms an unbreakable bond with one of the imperial dragons, forcing Faron to choose between the stability of her nation and the life of her sister.

The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna (Deathless #3)
Delacorte Press; February 13, 2024

Sixteen-year-old Deka has been through a lot the past year. She began the series conscripted into an army of alaki, immortal-like beings of great power. Now she knows the truth about her powers, and she’ll use it to stop the gods who are stripping everything from the land of Otera. Her quest takes her to faraway realms that will once again change everything she thought she understood.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Most Anticipated Young Adult SFF/H for January & February 2024 appeared first on Reactor.

“A Review: The Reunion of the Survivors of Sigrún 7” by Lars Ahn

Years ago, a crew of astronauts disappeared during a voyage to Mars, and when they returned, they were short a captain. The survivors refused to explain what happened, until controversial filmmaker Manuela Riviera locked them in a room together. Written as a review of Riviera’s documentary, this short story is just as secretive and full of implications as the film’s subject. It offers few answers and a ton of questions.

Lightspeed Magazine (November 2023; Issue 162)

“Cherenkov Blue” by Charlene Brusso

Poppy and their client, an elderly Mentor called Valentin, take yet another tour of Chernobyl, one of the “Big Mistakes trifecta” along with Three Gorges Dam and the “Orbital Whiplash”. Most do the tour remotely, but Valentin insists on going in person, despite the risk to their health. I think what compelled me about this piece was about the joys of taking risks and how sometimes it can be more fulfilling to do or see something yourself instead of processed through a screen.

Nature: Futures (November 22, 2023)

“In Her Dreams, the River” by A. Y. Lu

When her family migrates to space for a better life, Mi, the teenage daughter, is left behind on Earth as the ghost bride to three dead men. It’s her job to tend to their graves and honor their spirits to help them move on or at least not cause harm while they haunt a place. Watching Mi find peace and satisfaction in the life she’s given, even though it’s not the one she wanted, was a good reminder for me about my own life. Maybe we can take what we have and make it our own. Maybe we can learn to want new things. Maybe we can use what we’re stuck with as a launching pad to something better.

Three-Lobed Burning Eye (November 2023; Issue 40)

“In the Shelter of Ghosts” by Risa Wolf

A strange fungus consumes structures, except those haunted and protected by the spirit of an ancestor. Our narrator works at the agency who assigns what housing is left—“a steel warehouse”, “a stone mill house”, a shipping container, a treehouse, a ditch, etc—but in their freetime they’re rebuilding their father’s house, plank by plank. A bittersweet story about grief and familial bonds, of learning the difference between being unwilling to let go and finding strength in your ancestors.

Diabolical Plots (November 1, 2023; #105)

“Stitch” by Kathleen Schaefer

A father “stitches” or is psychically connected to his newborn daughter. Doctors understandably don’t want infants bonding with their adult parents that deeply, as it could negatively impact their learning and development. But Aden struggles with keeping his boundaries. Given the note the story ends on, I’d put this down as a cautionary tale. Kathleen Schaefer reminds readers of why parents should be friendly with their children but not try to be their friend. Your job is to parent; let them be best friends with their peers.

PodCastle (November 14, 2023; #813)

“The Corruption of Malik the Unsmiling” by Naseem Jamnia

““JINN OF THE UN-GASOLINE,” booms the voice no denizen of Hell wants to hear. “REFILL MY VEHICLE.”” A jinn decides to open a gas station in Hell, and a frustrated angel unexpectedly becomes a regular. Naseem Jamnia is great at writing in general, but especially the details. For lesser writers, they might be just throwaway gags, but for Jamnia they are an integral yet subtle part of worldbuilding. A fun, clever story about an unlikely friendship.

The Sunday Morning Transport (November 12, 2023)

“The Curse of the Boto Boy” by Woody Dismukes

Botos are said to be shapeshifters that can turn into handsome men who seduce women along the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. They’re also an endangered species in a habitat being destroyed by dams and pollution. Woody Dismukes taps into folklore to tell a story about an outcast woman and her son, as well as the lengths a parent will go to to protect their child, even if the child doesn’t need it. A nice pairing with “Stitch”.

Nightmare Magazine (November 2023; Issue 134)

“The Last Science Fiction Writer: A Hallucination” by Fábio Fernandes

This intriguing story is a transcript of a 5000-year-old hallucination that “was recorded and coded into fungal patches…for use in ancient chemotelepathy systems.” The interview is complex and overlapping. Raymond, the person being interviewed, is a time traveler refugee of sorts, and their conversation is mostly about how the concept of science fiction has shifted over the centuries. This was just fun and textually satisfying to read, like tasting a new dish with a lot of interweaving and contradicting flavors.

IZ Digital (November 2023)

“The Meaning of the Key” by Sonia Sulaiman

“The woman leans out of her wheelchair and touches their dark hair fondly with a shaking hand, then gives them a large key carved from olive wood, saying, “Do not forget Palestine; promise me that.”” During a ceremony where honorary keys are handed out, antagonists try to diminish the existence of Palestine and the humanity of Palestinans. Then a miracle happens that challenges those oppressors. Sonia Sulaiman also made my October spotlight, but I couldn’t pass up this powerful story.

If There’s Anyone Left (November 22, 2023; Volume 4)

“Yaka Mein Lady” by Vivian Chou

““The door to Chinatown is always open for those who are willing to find it,” Mama says. “Just don’t let your brain cover it up.”” A woman can see the past, present, and future of an object. To treat her condition, her mother takes her to a Chinatown that no longer exists. This is such a lovely piece about ancestry and honoring your past by living the best possible present. The Chinatown in my hometown was also bulldozed about the same time as the one in New Orleans, its residents forced out and scattered to the winds even though they had been there since at least 1850, so this story stuck with me long after I finished it.

Heartlines (November 2023; Issue 3)

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: November 2023 appeared first on Reactor.

Anthologies

Magic Has No Borders edited by Samira Ahmed, Sona Charaipotra

Fourteen YA authors come together for an incredible anthology centered on South Asian folklore and cultural traditions. From fantasy to science fiction, warriors to gods, lovers to enemies, and everything in between, it has a little bit of everything. Naz Kutub’s “The Hawk’s Reason”, Preeti Chhibber’s “Unraveled”, and Nafiza Azad’s “Mirch, Masala, and Magic” were my personal favorites. Each story is accompanied by a piece of original, beautiful art.

Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror Delight edited by Shelly Page & Alex Brown

YA horror goes queer in this anthology from thirteen new and established authors. Set over the course of one night—Halloween, of course—BIPOC queer teens experience a wild night. I loved all the stories but especially “Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle” by Kosoko Jackson, “Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane” by Maya Gittelman, and “Knickknack” by Ryan Douglass.

Horror

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea

Laure will do whatever it takes to get to center stage in the Parisian ballet. Even if it means descending into the Catacombs to make a deal with a monster. She gets what she wants, but the cost is higher than she anticipated. Laure’s actions transform her in horrifying ways. If nothing else, this book is at the top for having one of the best titles of the year.

Infested: An MTV Fear Novel by Angel Luis Colón

Manny is dragged halfway across the country by his stepdad to renovate a rundown apartment building in the Bronx. The building is infested with cockroaches…and something worse…something malevolent and undead. This is a terrifying tale of ghosts, cockroaches, and gentrification.

She Is a Haunting by Trang Tranh Tran

Jade needs money from her father in order to be able to afford to go to college, so she strikes a bargain to go to Vietnam and help him renovate an abandoned French colonial mansion. The house is not what it seems, and death permeates the walls. Jade tries to keep her little sister safe, but the horrors of colonialism and imperialism ripple from past to present.

What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell

Never take the backroads and never enter a corn maze. High school seniors Sadie and Logan break those rules while on a road trip and immediately regret it. Once in the corn maze, they’re trapped, but they’re not alone. Seemingly infinite versions of themselves are also stuck in the maze, and so far none of them have made it out alive.

Fantasy

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker (Blood Debts #1)

Twins Clem and Cris Dupart are the youngest generation in an old, magical New Orleans family. Cris must come to terms with the consequences of her power while Clem must learn to channel his gifts from anger to action. After their mother is cursed nearly to death, they uncover a toxic conspiracy going all the way to the top of the region’s most politically connected magic families.

Of Light and Shadow by Tanaz Bhathena

Roshan, raised by a ruthless bandit, has taken over as leader of the Shadow Clan outlaws. They kidnap Prince Navin, the black sheep of the royal family, to blackmail the queen into stopping the oppression of the poor. Navin comes to terms with the system he benefits from and the harm it causes others, and as his mind changes, a romance blooms.

Spell Bound by F. T. Lukens

I’m a sucker for Lukens’ novels, and this may be the best one yet. Rook is desperate to become a magician, even though he has no talent for magic. He maneuvers his way into a job working for outcast magician Antonia and meets the fussy but adorable Sun, the assistant to Antonia’s rival Fable. Chaos and romance ensues, with some social commentary in there to keep everything grounded.

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

The only girl in the architecture department at Llyr University, Effy shocks everyone by earning a job to redesign the rundown Hiraeth Manor, owned by the family of a famous author, Myrddin. Also on premises is Preston, a literature student who wants to prove Myrddin was a liar. The author’s monstrous fairy tales may end up being more real than either of them expected.

Historical Fantasy

My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron

London, 1885. Gabriel is back in London after being run out of town over a queer scandal involving him and his friend Henry Jekyll. Gabriel meets Hyde, a boy who reminds him of Henry but with a darkness about him. Queerphobia and racism from the outside world push Hyde, Gabriel, and Henry into a twisted relationship.

That Self-Same Metal by Brittany N. Williams (Forge & Fracture Saga #1)

London, 1605. Siblings Joan and James work in William Shakespeare’s acting troupe, him on stage and her choreographing stage fighting. Secretly, they can channel the power of the Orisha, which she uses to manipulate metal. Fairies attack London, and Joan must protect her family and friends while pushing her power to its limits.

Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros

Lithuania, 1943. A daughter is killed by the Nazis, and in response her father creates Vera, a golem. With the dead girl’s memories and the help of the boy she loved, Vera is sent out into the world to get revenge on behalf of her maker. Vera was built for violence, but maybe there is more to life than wrath.

Gods & Demons

Damned If You Do by Alex Brown

Cordelia is already juggling a crush on her bestie Veronica, trying to pass her classes, and tech week for the latest school play, when demons crash the party. Two demons, one of whom is her school guidance counselor, are vying for her soul. They’ll do whatever it takes to convince her to do their bidding, even bringing her jerk of a dad back to life.

Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon (The Ouroboros #1)

Gem Echols, a nonbinary Indigenous teen living in rural Georgia, discovers they’re the reincarnation of an interdimensional god of magic and balance. The rest of the pantheon loathe Gem for not only killing several of them but dragging the survivors out of their homeworld and into ours. They must find their missing god-killing knife before the other gods do and use it to sentence Gem to a final, painful death.

A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow

Although officially a standalone, this book functions as the third in a series where alien colonizers conquer Earth and a bunch of queer Black teens, alien and human alike, fight back. In this, Zaira, the reincarnation of a god of creation, is on a collision course with the alien invaders. Helping her are a charming gremlin of a podcaster and social outcast spaceship pilot. Romance, drama, and space opera make for a thrilling adventure.

Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou

The gods abandoned Io’s world generations ago, but the power of the Moirae still runs through her blood. She and her two sisters have the ability to manipulate and sever the threads of fate. Now an investigator eking out a living in the drowning city of Alante, Io is thrust into a mystery where women are forcibly turned into murderous wraiths. What do her sisters have to do with it? Everything, as Io soon discovers.

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa

Mar, a nonbinary transmasc pirate, loses their family to a demon. Keeping their fire and ice magic a secret, they join a new crew dedicated to helping rebels defeat Spanish colonizers. When another demon, Demi, offers Mar the opportunity to save their father’s soul, the two of them and the cute son of the pirate captain, Bas, work together. Queerness and anti-colonial sentiment collide in the Caribbean in the 1820s.

Science Fiction

If I See You Again Tomorrow by Robbie Couch

It’s Palm Springs but teens in Chicago. Clark has spent the last 300 some odd days repeating the same Monday over and over again. Until he meets Beau, cute, fun, compelling Beau. The two set off on a grand adventure across the city. Will Clark be able to break out of his time loop and will Beau be the one to help him do it?

Monstersona by Chloe Spencer

On homecoming night, monsters attack. Riley isn’t too thrilled at being dragged from Portland to middle-of-nowhere Maine after her parents divorce, even less so when she has to make her way back to Oregon without being killed by the terrifying creations of mad scientists. Complicating matters is having to road trip through an apocalyptic wasteland with a very cute girl that Riley can’t help but fall for.

Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders (Unstoppable #3)

The final book in the Unstoppable series offers action and answers. Tina is lost to the person she was cloned from, Captain Thaoh Argentian. Elza, Tina’s girlfriend, and Rachel, Tina’s best friend, reluctantly team up with Thaoh to save the world one last time.

Ghost Stories

Funeral Songs for Dying Girls by Cherie Dimaline

Winifred’s father runs the crematory at a Toronto cemetery that’s about to go out of business. That sucks for a lot of reasons, not least of which she’d lose access to Phil, the ghost of a 15-year-old boy who died of a drug overdose. Winifred and Phil have a bond that not even death can tear asunder.

Harvest House by Cynthia Leititch Smith

This novel uses light gothic influences to explore Indigeneity and generational trauma. Here, Hughie tries to push back on his community hosting a haunted house full of racist iconography. Meanwhile, the spirit of a Native woman who died tragically is haunting locals and trying to tell someone what really happened to her that fateful night.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

Violet-eyed trans boy Silas lives in London in 1883. Mediums like him can communicate with spirits, and his mother demands he get married and become a dutiful Speaker wife. As punishment, he’s sent to Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School, but instead of learning how to become an obedient girl, he and the school ghosts try to find justice for all the school’s dead girls.

Series Openers & Sequels

The Everlasting Road by Wab Kinew (Walking in Two Worlds #2)

In this sequel, Anishinaabe teen Bugz is reeling from the grief of losing her brother, Waawaate, to cancer. That pain has pushed her away from her Uighur boyfriend, Feng, and deeper into the virtual reality Floraverse with a bot she created that is inspired by her brother. She loses control over the bot and it wreaks havoc on the Floraverse. Meanwhile Waawaate’s spirit journeys down the Gaagigewekinaa, the Everlasting Road, to the next stage of death.

Lion’s Legacy by L. C. Rosen (Tennessee Russo #1)

One of my favorite things about this book is the main character’s name: Tennessee Russo. It’s so deliciously off kilter. After a humiliating breakup, Tennessee takes a vacation with his archaeologist father, who he hasn’t seen in several years. The chance to discover the Rings of the Sacred Band of Thebes, an army of queer Greek warriors, is too tempting to pass up.

Painted Devils by Margaret Owen (Little Thieves #2)

Junior Prefect Emeric Conrad is surprised to find that former thief Vanja Schmidt has somehow become the leader of a cult. Although her followers believe she’s the Scarlet Maiden, another woman claiming to be the revered figure arrives and claims Emeric as her virgin sacrifice. It’s up to Emeric to figure out who this other Scarlet Maiden really is and to Vanja to find a replacement sacrifice just in case.

The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea #2)

The main characters of The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea take the backseat in the sequel. The vast cast of characters and POVs all tell the story of an empire, its colonies, and those resisting oppression. It’s a powerful story about colonization and decolonization and the high costs of both.

Under the Radar

Daughters of Oduma by Moses Ose Utomi

Dirt maybe sixteen, but that makes her practically an elder in her community. Now retired from fighting, she spends her days training the next generation of the sisters of the Mud Fam in the elite sport of Bowing. After a crisis, Dirt must once again step into the Bowing ring and compete to save her family.

Tim Te Maro and the Subterranean Heartsick Blues by H. S. Valley

I will never stop thinking about or recommending this book. Tim and Elliott have never gotten along, but a school project to take care of an egg pulls them together. It’s a lovely, warm, emotional story about a Māori teen attending a magical boarding school and reluctantly yet inexorably falling in love with his nemesis.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Notable Young Adult Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror of 2023 appeared first on Reactor.

The story is a little complicated, but the short version is this: Thousands of years ago in a parallel universe, Gem teamed up with a monster to kill a bunch of their godly siblings, then, in a moment of regret, dragged everyone out of the old world and into a new one—our Earth. Now, every few generations, the gods reincarnate and hunt each other down. Some want to return, some want to stay, and everyone wants Gem’s god-killing blade. Gem isn’t sure what they want other than Rory, that cute newcomer, and Enzo, their big city boyfriend, and that they’ll do anything to keep them alive, even if it means unaliveing everyone else.

This is a tricky novel to review. So much of what I want to talk about would fall under spoiler territory, and half the fun is watching the reveal unfold in spectacularly chaotic fashion. I read a metric ton of young adult fantasy, so not much takes me by surprise anymore. Nevertheless, even when I could spot the twist coming, Edgmon took me on a wild ride.

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Godly Heathens

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Gem is a tough nut to crack. I’m sure there are going to be a number of readers who will be frustrated with Gem as a character, but I love protagonists who are walking tornadoes of emotions and poor choices. Gem has never met a bad idea they didn’t try anyway, just because. Gem isn’t just a stereotypical YA novel reckless teen; they’re driven by need for attention and external validation. I can relate to that more than I’d like to admit. Like Gem, I made a lot of decisions as a teen I regret now as an adult, decisions that I didn’t realize at the time were largely because I didn’t understand who I was versus who everyone else wanted me to be. As they say over and over again, they aren’t only a god, they’re also Gem, a messed up, angry teenager from Nowheresville, Georgia.

The way Edgmon handles queerness and Indigeneity is really interesting as well. I was worried about the reincarnation aspect, because fantasy novels typically disregard race and gender. Characters change races, ethnicities, and genders as much as they do time periods and geographies. Instead of exploring the complexities and tensions in that sort of jumping around, it’s often used as a way to be colorblind when it comes to marginalized identities, to ignore systemic oppression and colonialism. Here, no matter when Gem and the other gods jump, certain traits carry through. While they aren’t always Native American—sometimes they’re Scottish, sometimes they’re Norse Vikings, etc—Gem and Rory are always a queer couple and Gem is always they/them. They’re typically part of an oppressed class while the other gods are often their oppressors. They’re rarely morally honorable heroes, but they’re always survivors.

Godly Heathens shares a lot of similarities with Edgmon’s other YA fantasy duology, The Witch King and The Fae Keeper. There’s a tough, angry trans teen with trauma issues who has more power than they realize and more responsibility than they want. Their parents are toxic, the people around them are slightly less toxic, their friends are quirky and queer, and their love interests are deadly and/or powerful. The protagonist’s people fled a portal world supposedly ruined in a great catastrophe and now may have to return or at least open the door between worlds. While the bones of the two series resemble each other, the stories are different enough to feel unique.

H.E. Edgmon’s Godly Heathens is an intense, passionate, frantic novel. It’s as sharp as a knife, as relentless as a runaway train, and as striking as a punch to the nose. It’s queer in both senses of the word: “queer” as in unconventional and eccentric and “queer” as in almost no one is cisallohet. In an interview, Edgmon described the book as “Terrible immortal children’s fight club,” which might be the most pithy yet accurate pitch since “lesbian necromancers in space” (i.e. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir). Vibes-wise, if you loved The Scapegracers by H.A. Clarke or Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, Godly Heathens should be at the top of your TBR.

Godly Heathens is published by Wednesday Books.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

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Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotun (The Unnamed Press, 2014)

This genre-bender is more thriller than science fiction, but it’s just surreal enough to count. It does such a good job of taking an SF premise—a Nigerian scientist steals a piece of the moon and witnesses a murder, then, years later, his son invents a new technology inspired by the moon—and using that as a launching pad (pun intended) to talk about colonialism, brain drain, and who has access to science and technology.

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Aliette de Bodard (JABberwocky Literary Agency, 2017)

Aliette de Bodard can do no wrong, as far as I’m concerned. This novella is the third in her Universe of Xuya series where Asia won the space race and the galaxy runs on Vietnamese and Chinese culture and traditions. You get a teleporting citadel, a time-traveling engineer, a mind-ship who longs for her mother’s love, and because it’s de Bodard, a queer romance at the heart of it all.

Space Unicorn Blues by T.J. Berry (Angry Robot, 2018)

The first book in a funny but bizarre duology blends fantasy and science fiction in an intriguing way. Faster-than-light travel is powered by unicorn horns, and Gary Cobalt, half-unicorn and half-human, wants to save what’s left of his. Technically the magical creatures are actually aliens, and the spaceship Gary plans to escape on is semi-sentient. And even better, just about everyone is queer.

A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna (Sky Pony, 2018)

Ready for a young adult retelling of the Mahābhārata set in space? An epic space opera with all the teen melodrama, messy romances, petty gods, and court intrigue you could want. Esmae enters a competition to win a sentient spaceship as a way to help her brother win back the crown of Kali after it was taken from him by their usurping uncle. Frankly, I’m surprised no streamer has adapted this into a TV show yet, it’s that wild.

Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor (Scholastic Press, 2019)

You cannot convince me that in the future, space will be populated by mostly cisallohets. You just can’t. So let’s add in one more YA for my fellow queers. Ana has a clockwork heart. Nathaniel has a chip on his shoulder. Ana, who calls herself the Technician, uses black market tech to help the oppressed. Nathaniel, whose father is the one doing the oppressing, needs to capture her to earn his trust. There’s so little YA SF nowadays, and even less YA space opera, so we must celebrate the few traditional publishing has allowed us to have.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Backlist Bonanza: 5 Underrated Books Set in Space appeared first on Reactor.

A decade ago, Athan’s parents died in a fire, taking with them a prosperous moving business, all their money, and his yiayia’s (Greek for grandmother) sanity. Now, Athan works to keep their meager basement apartment and tends to his yiayia as she spends her days whispering unintelligible words into her hand mirror. Because there’s something else about Athan he doesn’t dare tell anyone: He and his yiayia can use mirrors to turn back time. As long as an object has a reflection, they can gaze within it and see everything the reflection captured. But the farther back he goes, the harder it is to pull himself out. Heeding yiayia’s warnings, he looks away from all reflections.

Until one night he doesn’t. He’s at yet another New York City socialite party as the plus one of Uhler, an old family friend who took over Athan’s parents’ business and checks in on him from time to time. He peeks into a mirror and something looks back. A cute boy, Dom, appears out of nowhere and locks him in the bathroom. Then all hell breaks loose. When he finally emerges, every single guest is dead. Dom is gone. Athan flees. Yiayia goes missing.

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Beholder

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Beholder

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Dom offers some answers and even more secrets. Whatever is going on, it connects a series of high-profile deaths, one-of-a-kind wallpaper, and that awful thing in the mirror world. The two teens uncover a conspiracy greater and older than they realized. To stop it and rescue yiayia, they’ll have to sacrifice everything, possibly even their lives.

There are two present tense POVs in the narrative: Athan’s first person and a mysterious entity using second person. It’s not hard to figure out who the second narrator is or who they’re talking to, but it is an interesting stylistic choice. While I understand the authorial reasons to have the two perspectives—they provide additional context for some of Athan’s beliefs and behaviors, as well as giving the second narrator some crucial character development—those scenes didn’t totally work for me. Much of what the narrator reveals has already been revealed or strongly implied in Athan’s POV. Those scenes also end up lessening the impact of the second narrator, because in some of those scenes the narrator comes off a bit petulant and creepy in a not very interesting way.

The way La Sala blended together the two supernatural events didn’t quite work for me, either. It felt almost like ideas for two different books that were jammed together. On one hand you have the mind-altering wallpaper and the tormented artist whose work has left a trail of bodies across New York City. On the other you have Athan and his psychic mirror ability being hunted by an interdimensional monster. I liked both concepts a lot, I just didn’t like how they collided together. Both are big ideas with a lot of complexity but the execution leaves too much untouched potential.

La Sala has an imagination that weirds me out (in the best possible way). His first YA novel was about a queer kid who battles an evil drag queen in a pocket universe. His second was a cutesy YA romcom about a bedazzling cosplayer and his closeted soccer playing boyfriend. Then came The Honeys about a genderfluid teen who stumbles into bee magic at an evil, rich kid summer camp. And now Beholder, about mindfuckery wallpaper, psychic time traveling mirrors, and an interdimensional spider demon. If nothing else, La Sala is one of the most creatively off-kilter writers in YA speculative fiction. You never know what you’re going to get except that it’s going to be deeply weird, very queer, and more than a little disquieting.

Beholder is a fresh, frightening young adult horror novel. Whatever you think of the nightmare wallpaper and mirror magic, there is no doubt of La Sala’s imagination. He knows how to write tension in a way that keeps you hooked while also making you sit with your discomfort. If you love YA and horror, put this on your TBR immediately.

Beholder is published by PUSH.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Fresh and Frightening: Beholder by Ryan La Sala appeared first on Reactor.

“All the Things I Know About Ghosts” by Isabel Cañas

I enjoyed the heck out of Isabel Cañas’ most recent novel Vampires of El Norte, and this story has similar vibes. It’s a historical, horror-tinged piece that takes a familiar premise and twists it into something vibrant and new. Ofelia’s town of Padilla flooded one day and now everyone lives underwater. Life goes on even in the hardest of circumstances. But sometimes that determination can curdle into stubbornness until you can no longer find the joy in the life you have.

The Deadlands (October 2023; Issue 30)

“Collective Bargaining” by Jonathan Olfert

Jane, an arachnoid hive mind, attempts to access accommodations at an Earth-based university. Jonathan Olfert really got how dispiriting it is to have a disability and try to get an organization to do even the bare minimum. They make you feel like a thing, like you’re not normal, not human, like you’re the one making everything hard when they’re being completely reasonable and here are a hundred reasons why everyone else can do this thing and can’t you just suck it up. In case it isn’t obvious, this had a lot of personal resonance for me.

The Future Fire (October 2023; Issue 2023.67)

“Crabgrass in October” by Elena Sichrovsky

“You wake up in the middle of the night and your girlfriend isn’t there. Your first thought is that she’s dead. Again.” A few years after a woman’s girlfriend died, the girlfriend returns, inexplicably, from the dead. But it seems as though death is not ready to let go of her. The girlfriend longs for small, tight, dark spaces and dirt to sink into. I’ll let you read the story to pick up on the metaphors Elena Sichrovsky hints at, because part of what makes this story so striking is how she unfolds them in the story.

Apparition Literary Magazine (October 2023; Issue 24)

“Crystal Hexagons on Windowsills” by Prashanth Srivatsa

“I was the only one among my friends who did not get the letter. Which is a real shame, because I was the only one who could snap a finger to conjure a flame.” A woman who can do magic is disappointed and frustrated when her mediocre friends are chosen to attend a prestigious school of magic instead of her. The life she had planned for herself vanishes and she’s left trying to build something new out of what’s left. Perfectly captures the ennui of being young and unmoored.

Cast of Wonders (October 27, 2023; 560)

“Forte/Foible or At the Center of Percussion” by Ash Howell

Just the look of this short story was compelling enough to get me to read it. The text is formatted as two columns and the two sides line up and don’t line up in visually interesting ways. It’s ostensibly a conversation between a sword and its wielder, but it’s also a meditation on violence, on who we are versus who we could be, on what we allow ourselves to become versus living our truth.

Baffling (October 2023; Issue 13)

“A Girl Fights a Demon” by Ruth Joffre

Ruth Joffre’s flash fiction about a girl and a demon was exactly what I needed right now. I’ve been (slowly) rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer after being reminded how much I loved that show by Alex Brown’s (no, not me, a different one) fun YA fantasy debut Damned If You Do. This story has the same kind of off kilter humor from both those properties. A girl has an encounter with a demon and legend builds up around it until she has demons coming after her constantly.

Flash Point SF (October 20, 2023)

“Homewrecker” by E. Catherine Tobler

“Homewrecker” is a collection of transcripts from a few episodes of a reality TV show of the same name. Set during the early days of the pandemic, the host, Dean Murray, ventures into a rundown colonial mansion called the Cutter House. There is something not right with the house, but only fractions of the filming remains. As each day and episode ticks by, Dean’s grasp on reality fragments, or perhaps something is fragmenting it for him. A haunted house where neither the house nor the haunting are what they seem.

Apex Magazine (October 2023; Issue 141)

“I Attack the Queen!” by Sarah Ramdawar

At only 554 words, this might seem like an amuse-bouche, but I was immediately struck by two things: Sarah Ramdawar’s use of Trinidadian dialect and the physical layout of the text. The story is told by a narrator who saw Queen Elizabeth during a royal visit in 1966, but it has the feel of an old woman speaking this story to a friend or family member. It’s written out in one big paragraph, which immerses the reader in the experience of listening to an elder reminisce. And I’m so glad Ramdawar wrote it in dialect. This is a story story, a memory instead of something formally structured.

Strange Horizons (October 30, 2023)

“Negative Theology of the Child from ‘The King of Tars’” by Sonia Sulaiman

“I am, like any hero of legend, in search of a monster. To see it for myself, to know it, to save it.” Our narrator, called “Digenia” although “it is not my real name,” descends into the realm of myth and legend, led by muse. “The King of Tars” is a 14th century English chivalric romance about the daughter of a pagan king who is married to a Christian king, but because neither will convert, their child is born formless. After a miracle, the King of Tars converts to Christianity and joins his former enemy waging war against other pagans. I could write a whole essay on this story, but I’ll keep this succinct. Sonia Sulaiman sifts through the layers of colonialism, religious extremism, racism, and privilege in powerful language that shows the beauty of Palestinian resilience. And on a solemn note, this is the last ever issue of Fantasy Magazine.

Fantasy Magazine (October 2023; Issue 96)

“On the Fox Roads” by Nghi Vo

“On the Fox Roads” feels like it’s a part of the same world as Nghi Vo’s novels The Chosen and the Beautiful and Siren Queen. It’s historical, it’s fantasy, it’s queer in delightful ways, and disquieting in the things it asks you to consider. A young woman attaches herself to an Asian Bonnie and Clyde couple robbing banks. She wants the deed to her family’s farm they stole. In exchange they ask her to be their getaway driver on the mysterious and magical fox roads that can only be accessed when running away. As she runs across the country with them, she discovers some things about herself she both always knew but never realized. Is it a story about running away from home, running to it, or about finding a home in the running?

Tordotcom (October 31, 2023)

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: October 2023 appeared first on Reactor.

Complicating matters are the colonists themselves. They don’t trust Murderbot’s crew anymore than they do Barish-Estranza. Furthermore, decades ago another set of colonists vanished on the other side of the planet. Are they alive and hiding, contaminated by killer alien technology, or plain old dead? Murderbot, a pack of humans, and a piece of ART the spaceship’s AI head off to find out, with Barish-Estranza hot on their heels.

The only thing I found frustrating with System Collapse was how it felt less like its own novella and more like 240 pages cut from Network Effect. I spent the first half of the story having no idea what was going on or why until I finally put the book aside and went back and read reviews and plot summaries of Network Effect. Murderbot went through a pretty traumatic experience in book five that directly impacts its life and job in book seven. Because of that trauma, Murderbot doesn’t want to engage with those memories and interrupts its own narration with “[redacted]”. Eventually Murderbot reveals enough that the reader can piece together the parts that they’ve forgotten to get the gist. It’s a stylistic choice that makes total sense with a narrator like Murderbot and feeds into readers’ own forgetfulness in interesting ways.

However, it’s also somewhat annoying for readers who haven’t been in this story since spring 2020. I struggle enough with books coming out a year apart, but three years—especially these past three years—means I basically came into book seven as fresh as newly fallen snow. I think the book needed a more thorough recap and much earlier in the story. Anyone who hasn’t read Network Effect yet should wait on System Collapse until they’ve caught up. This really is a story for current fans rather than new readers. (Newbies, I suggest the first novella, All Systems Red, obviously, or Fugitive Telemetry, a fun standalone hardboiled detective noir set on a space station.)

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Really, if that’s the only complaint I could muster, you know it’s a good book. I enjoyed every moment of it, even the frustrating ones. Martha Wells has a way of writing that makes me want to crawl into the pages and live in the world she’s created. The world feels so tangible, its history bigger than the sliver we see and its cultures complex and colorful. So far I’ve only read her Murderbot series and Witch King (which I also adored immensely), but I found both to be rich, vivid worlds populated with realistic characters in riotously diverse cultures and societies.

She also does something with her fantasy and sci-fi work that I don’t see as often as I’d like: ignore the gender binary. There aren’t queer characters in the sense of queerness we have in our world. In Wells’ books, queerness isn’t a marginalization or something that exists outside the “normal” or the binary. There just isn’t a binary. Some people use he/him, some use she/her, and others use any of the countless other pronouns available across the galaxy. Pronouns and gender identities are as vast and personal as there are types of people. No one treats pronouns like anything special, no one speculates about what body parts they have under their suits or what bathrooms they use, no one challenges anyone else’s pronoun usage based on their own personal, social, religious, political, or cultural preferences. Her stories imagine worlds where queer people get to be people, in all the mess that entails, without having to justify, explain, or fight for our existence. In real life I can barely get cis people to remember to use they/them for me, so yeah, I get outsized joy at reading about a world where everyone gets to be who they are without anyone else barging in to try and make you feel bad about it.

Look, there’s not much to say about Martha Wells’ System Collapse that hasn’t already been said before about the rest of the Murderbot Diaries books. It’s wild fun, action-packed, and reflective in unexpected ways. The strong undercurrent of critique on capitalism and colonialism, the themes of trauma and mental health, and the unencumbered diversity take a relatively harmless science fiction series and turn it into something vital and urgent.

System Collapse is available from Tordotcom Publishing.
Read the first three chapters.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Vital and Urgent: System Collapse by Martha Wells appeared first on Reactor.

Outcasts, Outlaws, & Rebels

Wish of the Wicked by Danielle Paige (Wish of the Wicked #1)
Bloomsbury YA; November 7, 2023

Sixteen-year-old Farrow is the only Entente left after Queen Magrit had them and the Three Fates eliminated in a desperate bid to live forever. When luck lands Farrow with a job in the palace, she decides revenge is worth risking everything for. Cinderella’s fairy godmother is no jolly old white lady but a badass Black girl with a chip on her shoulder the size of Mount Everest.

Kingdom of Without by Andrea Tang
Simon & Schuster BYR; November 28, 2023

In this Beijing-set cyberpunk novel, Zhong Ning’er is a thief who steals more than she can handle. Ning’er works for the Red Yaksha, a Robin Hood figure, when she gets pulled into a conspiracy to launch a revolution. With cyborgs and climate crises plaguing her country, hope is not something Ning’er is used to, but maybe it’s time that changes.

Gods & Monsters

Vengeance of the Pirate Queen by Tricia Levenseller
Feiwel & Friends; November 7, 2023

Set in the world of Tricia Levenseller’s Daughter of the Pirate King duology, this standalone features Sorinda, a teenage assassin working for said daughter, Alosa. Sorinda is sent out to captain a ship on a rescue mission. Her journey doesn’t go as expected, what with being saddled with an annoying yet handsome helmsman, attracting the unwanted attention of the King of the Undersea, and dealing with shipwrecks and sea monsters.

Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon (The Ouroboros #1)
Wednesday Books; November 28, 2023

Gem, a nonbinary Seminole teenager, longs to escape their boring, restrictive life and be with Enzo, their trans Indigenous bestie in Brooklyn. With the arrival of Willa Mae, a trans girl and Alaska Native, Gem discovers they’re actually a reincarnated god. When the Goddess of Death tries to kill them, Gem must remember their old life or die trying.

Magic With a Twist

Our Cursed Love by Julie Abe
Wednesday Books; December 12, 2023

Remy is convinced she and Cam are destined to be together…if only he knew it too. During a trip to Japan, the two teens visit a mysterious apothecary where they buy magical potions to reveal their soulmates. But when Cam suddenly forgets who Remy is, Remy may lose him forever. She has until the clock strikes twelve on New Years’ Eve to help him remember her or they’ll both forget who each other are.

Lucero by Maya Motayne (A Forgery of Magic #3)
Balzer & Bray; December 26, 2023

The god Sombra has returned and in his wake chaos has spread across Castallan. Even at only partially powered up, Sombra is a terrifying force. Finn and Alfie must work together to stop the god from acquiring the stone relics of his body, which will grant him his full powers, and destroy them. But their magic is just as chaotic now as everything else. Nothing is as it should be, and if Sombra gets his way, it never will be again.

Court Intrigue

The Crimson Fortress by Akshaya Raman (The Ivory Key Duology #2)
Clarion Books; November 14, 2023

Royal siblings Vira, Ronak, Kaleb, and Riya were forced to unite to find the Ivory Key, but now that they have it things have gone from bad to worse. To untangle the key’s cypher, the siblings must split up once more. Everything each of them wants seems farther away than ever, and the fate of the country of Ashoka is at stake.

The Ruined by Renée Ahdieh (The Beautiful #4)
G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR; December 5, 2023

The Summer Court of the Sylvan Vale and the Winter Court of the Sylvan Wyld are on the brink of war. Celine may be under her mother’s protection in the Vale, but she doesn’t know who to trust or what path to take. Bastien, while working to reclaim his family’s Wyld throne, discovers some painful truths Celine may not be willing to hear. The intense conclusion to Renée Ahdieh’s quartet.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Most Anticipated Young Adult SFF/H for November & December 2023 appeared first on Reactor.

The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated by Sinan Antoon (Syracuse University Press, 2019)

In this haunting novel, Palestinian author Ibtisam Azem asks what would happen if all the Palestinians vanished from Israel. Although set in the 21st century, the story echoes the history of the city where it’s set—Jaffa, where thousands of Palestinians were driven from their homes in 1948. We see the Israeli perspective as they try to figure out what happened, but also that of the vanished Palestinians through the correspondence left behind. The journey Azem takes the reader on is literal, as we walk through a land devoid of many of the people that called it home, and metaphorical, as our Israeli protagonist begins to question everything they think they know.

Palestine +100 edited by Basma Ghalayini (Comma Press, 2019)

Twelve Palestinian authors tackle the question of what their homeland might look like in 2048, a century after the first Nakba, with a speculative angle. From drones to virtual reality, the Olympics to superheroes, the apocalypse to parallel universes, this anthology takes the reader on a journey across the speculative genre and through time. 2048 is not that far away, but only by reckoning with the past can we craft a new future.

Trees for the Absentees by Ahlam Bsharat, translated by Sue Copeland (Neem Tree Press, 2019)

Young adult novellas are a rare breed in publishing, despite the obvious need (if you don’t read YA you may not know how dominated the age range is with books that are 350+ pages, particularly in speculative genres). This is a lovely story about a college student living in occupied Palestine. Philistia splits her time between studying at Al-Quds Open University and working at an ancient hammam (a Turkish bath) in Nablus. Her father is imprisoned in an Israeli jail while her grandmother shares stories of how she used to prepare the bodies of the dead for burial. As she traverses between the “real” world and fantasy, Philistia confronts her life living in a colonized land.

Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands by Sonia Nimr, translated by Marcia Lynx Qualey (Interlink, 2020)

Twin sisters Shams and Qamar, are orphaned at a young age after their parents help destroy a curse plaguing their village in northern Palestine. While Shams chooses a quiet life at home, Qamar sets off on a vast, incredible journey from the Middle East to North Africa, from the Mediterranean to Asia. Along the way she not only experiences remarkable events but tells fantastical tales as well. A beautiful, feminist exploration of folklore.

Squire by Sara Alfageeh & Nadia Shammas (Quill Tree Books, 2022)

This is the first graphic novel I’ve featured in this column, and I’m starting off strong. Aiza desperately wants to be a Knight, an honor that would confer upon her fame, fortune, and—crucially for someone in a colonized country—citizenship. With the Bayt-Sajji Empire on the verge of war, Aiza has a chance at knighthood, but first she must become a Squire. This YA fantasy is a gorgeously illustrated story about the complications of navigating life in an empire as an oppressed person just trying to survive.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Backlist Bonanza: 5 Underrated Books About Journeys appeared first on Reactor.

This episode opens with a shot of something large swimming under the surface of the East River toward North Brother Island. Then a recap of everything that’s happened thus far. But the eighth episode really begins where the fourth left off: with William Wheeler going monstrous and Apollo freaking out about it. Apollo races back to the center of the island to warn Cal’s flock, but he’s too late. Whatever William summoned explodes several buildings, killing at least one person. Cal is herding survivors away and Apollo joins the escape. After a frightening ordeal, they manage to get everyone onto Cal’s “navy” and away from the island. Apollo sets off to find Emma while Cal stays behind to delay William and his monster enough to let everyone escape. More death comes to the island. We also check in on Emma from back when she first left the island for Forest Park. She enters the forest and encounters a strange carousel.

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On one hand, the recap shots had the vibes of following a trail of breadcrumbs, each shot and scene leading viewers down a dark and winding path. On the other hand, if you were hoping that trail would have a destination, you might have felt frustrated. Confusion is an intentional part of the reading and viewing experience of The Changeling, but I felt like this episode went too far down the path of all questions, no answers. I started writing a list of all the questions I had after just this episode and gave up when I got to two dozen.

Even as someone who has read the book and knows at the very least the outline of the story head writer Kelly Marcel is working with, I was confused. If I hadn’t had any prior knowledge, I’d have no idea what was going on. Again, I minded that confusion much less in other episodes of the season because there is an expectation that the finale will bring the story arc to a close or that everything is leading to a climactic scene. We got a big action sequence, but it was delivered by a creature we didn’t even know about before this episode. Threads from other plots will be left loose to set up season two, but the finale should, as far as I’m concerned, make the season feel like a complete story. Things get tricky when adapting a book, because it’s not designed for closure in the middle of the story. As far as the novel goes, this is a good spot for the season to pause, but for television it’s less satisfactory.

There were two misses for me. First was not developing William enough as a villain. I loved how Kinder Garten reminded me of Jack Nicholson from The Shining and his whole troll vibe (also the stake to the heart like he was a vampire). However, he shifts so quickly between man and monster and corpse that we learn too little about him as a person. In the end, he doesn’t make for much of a season-level Big Bad. I also would’ve liked the show to have done more with the parallels between Lillian’s immigration story and the 19th century Norwegians. Given what’s coming next season, I assume Marcel is saving that conversation. But especially on the heels of last week’s fantastic episode it’s disappointing that those connections weren’t made this season.

All of this is a long way of saying even though I’ve let this episode tumble around in my mind for almost a week and have watched it a couple of times, and I still haven’t made up my mind as to how I feel about it. I don’t think it worked on a structural level as an episode or really even a finale. Yet I also don’t think it was a bad episode of television. I was riveted the entire thirty minutes, but when it ended it felt unfinished or cut off too soon.

I think the episode’s downfall was set by the cliffhanger from the last episode featuring Apollo. While it was a great way to end episode four, it didn’t leave any room to maneuver in episode eight. The season clearly had to end before Apollo gets Little Norway and Emma to Forest Park, but between his realization of the depths of William’s monstrosity and the attack on the island, there isn’t much story happening. There wasn’t enough plot to stretch out into a full hour, and a chunk of the 30-minute runtime was recap. However, episode four wouldn’t have worked if it had ended sooner, either. I don’t know how to fix that problem, but coming off the high that was episode seven, this was a bit of a let down. I maintain that the root of the problem (with this show and many other streaming shows) was that it was limited to an 8-episode first season. It probably should have been a 12-14 episode miniseries instead of trying to hack it into two too-short seasons.

Although we haven’t yet gotten word of a renewal (and I’m guessing we won’t until after the SAG-AFTRA strike ends), I hope this isn’t the end of Apollo and Emma’s stories. Overall, the season was strong. A combination of talented actors, excellent visuals and behind-the-camera craft, and a killer original story delivered a show that was creatively compelling if at times uneven. Regardless of the flaws, I’m looking forward to season two.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post The Changeling’s Season Finale Leaves Too Many Loose Ends appeared first on Reactor.

“Big Dead Clown Things” by Adam Callaway

I do not like clowns. There’s something deeply, unpleasantly uncanny about them. So Adam Callaway’s piece about the rotting corpse of a clown with too many toes and an angler-fish tongue was a hard sell. But I’m glad I read it. Two kids find the body of what looks like a dead clown in the river and quickly realize it’s definitely not human. Funny, creepy, and very chilling.

The Dark (September 2023; Issue 100)

“Black Girl Liminal” by Maya Beck

It’s late and Miriam is exhausted when she unexpectedly encounters a god in the form of a “stone-sized rabbit as dark as midnight whose red eyes froze her in place.” The rabbit god offers her access to a place where she can be more than she is in the real world, where she can help people and defend the world against a toxic Rot. A thought-provoking story perfect for Millennials who miss Sailor Moon.

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet (September 2023; Issue 47)

“Black Tea, Cream Tea, Chocolate Tea, Blood” by Elou Carroll

This story reminded me so much of the legend of the man who found a selkie in the shape of a human and hid her skin to force her to become his wife. A “good wife” knows nothing but her husband. Her entire world revolves around keeping him happy. It’s a bit like a dark fairy tale crossed with The Stepford Wives but way more satisfying in its ending.

Kaleidotrope (Autumn 2023)

“The Cursing of Herman Willem Daendels” by A. W. Prihandita

A colonizer gets his comeuppance? What’s not to like? Ni Darti lives in Yogyakarta, Java, during the colonial rule of the Dutch. Her son, like many other men, died constructing a road to make it easier for the empire to transport its stolen resources. She seeks out a Rama for help cursing the man she believes is at the center of her pain: Herman Willem Daendels, the governor general of the Dutch East Indies before eventually turning his imperial sights on the coast of West Africa. I won’t spoil the story, but the nuanced themes A. W. Prihandita explores here are powerful.

khōréō (September 2023; Issue 3.3)

“Four Words Written on My Skin” by Jenn Reese

What a beautiful story! I love it when a speculative short fiction story feels as much like genre as it does a metaphor. The wife of our narrator is stolen by the Fae, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that the Fae offered her a new life and she took it. Did she leave totems of her memories behind her like a trail of breadcrumbs for her partner to follow to rescue her or as reminders of what they once had and that maybe they could have again? I especially loved the visual layout of the text, the way the wife’s items were described in italics and the way the paragraphs were broken up. Just great.

Uncanny Magazine (September/October 2023; Issue 54)

“Lips Like Sugar” by Cynthia Gómez

“The first thing Viviana noticed, on her first night as a vampire, was how much she wanted to fuck everyone.” What a way to start a story! Vampires have been done to, well, death, but Cynthia Gómez breathes fresh new life into them with “Lips Like Sugar” (okay, I’ll stop with the bad puns). Viviana is a newly turned vamp learning to survive without killing people. She feeds off hunger and desire and sneaking blood vials from a lab where she works. It’s barely enough, but she makes do…until she can’t. These vampires aren’t sexy, eternal teenagers with glittery skin but regular people being crushed by the same capitalism as everyone else.

Luna Station Quarterly (September 2023; Issue 55)

“Lost in Transcription” by Abigail Guerrero

Structured as a transcript of an interview, Abigail Guerrero’s story is a sharp and pointed piece on capitalism, colonization, and the ways international adoptions by Western white parents all too often veer into human trafficking and imperialism. An agent of an adoption agency goes over the contract with two white parents adopting a teenage Latino boy to literally replace him with their dead daughter. It’s the only way he can immigrate into the US, by having his identity stripped.

Radon Journal (September 2023; Issue 5)

“Resurrection Highway” by A. R. Capetta

I’ve been a fan of A. R. Capetta for a while now. I mostly know them for their young adult novels, so it was exciting to see them take on adult speculative fiction. Here, “You” are a bonetripper, a mage that uses ground up bones to power dead cars. It’s the post-apocalypse and there isn’t much left of the United States except city strongholds and roving packs of thieving mages. You and your friends head east in search of one of your group who went missing a while ago, and things go bad almost immediately. Full of vividly-realized action and with a unique magical system keeping the reader on their toes, this is a story that will stick with me for a long time to come.

Sunday Morning Transport (September 3, 2023)

“Secondhand Music” by Aleksandra Hill

This story has a title that you think is just quirky but turns out to be more deadly accurate than metaphorical. Ava is a musician who needs a new prosthetic arm. She gets one in the form of a donor from a dead musician. This new arm makes her popular, but Ava knows it’s the dead woman’s music drawing them in rather than her own. Aleksandra Hill asks what you would do when a blessing becomes a curse, and what happens to disability accommodations when capitalism gets in the way.

Analog (September/October 2023)

“Swimming Whole” by E. C. Barrett

E. C. Barrett’s story is such a great example of why I love reading Reckoning. It’s a small story, in scope but not in meaning. A local wants to save a public swimming hole from a greedy developer Richie Rich type, and feels guilty about it. Our narrator feels like they should be doing more to save the planet from greater human catastrophes, but learns that sometimes small, local action can have an outsized impact. It’s about helping your community be the best it can be for as many people as possible. It’s about saving the world one step at a time.

Reckoning (July 2023; Issue 7)

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: September 2023 appeared first on Reactor.

In a previous review, I talked about how fairy tales often push women out of their own stories to center men. Cinderella’s story about independence and self-discovery becomes about a prince’s obsession and the wake of amputated body parts he leaves behind him. Whatever Snow White’s dreams or desires are, we never learn them. Her entire story is about being chased by her evil stepmother and being rescued by men, including a prince who takes what he wants and makes all her decisions for her. Sleeping Beauty marries the prince who wakes her from a cursed sleep, but only after he forces himself on her and makes her bear his children. Lillian got her fairy tale when she fled her home from a terrible evil and found a new life with a handsome prince. However, she learned first hand that “happily ever after” is not real, not when the foundation of a relationship is built entirely upon red flags.

In the sixth episode, the last thing Emma said to Wheels was for him to put his mother out of her misery and let her know he’s still alive. In the seventh episode, we see that in action with Lillian. Her son has disappeared, an event that tosses her back to the time when she almost lost him for good as a child. Tormented by worry, she descends into her memories. The events of the late 1970s and early 1980s blend together with the present (the show is set in 2015) like overlapping ripples on the surface of a pond.

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Lillian was so desperate for the American dream—and so traumatized by her escape from her homeland and the subsequent slaughter of her entire family—that she raised her son without any connection to his Ugandan culture. “Apollo, I never made you mandazis. Why? Because I wanted you to like regular American kid food. I wanted you to fit in. Your mac and cheese diet, your hotdogs, your white bread PBJs. But I made them with love.” From what I can tell, Apollo moves through the world as an American, not a first generation child of an immigrant. He doesn’t seem to know his mother’s first language, her customs or traditions, and certainly not the food. She made choices she thought were right at the time, both about enmeshing him in her dream of “America” and the lies she told him about his father.

When you dig down into it, the American dream is about whiteness. A white picket fence in the suburbs… but the first suburbs were intentionally developed as whites-only enclaves. A nuclear family… but the criminal justice policies specifically target Black and brown people, intentionally destroying family units and pushing people toward crime. Work hard enough and you’ll succeed… but we punish poverty as a moral failing by cutting social services and pushing Black and brown children down the school-to-prison pipeline. Anyone can bootstrap their way up the social ladder… but this country was built on the notion that some (cisallohet white) people are entitled to more than their fair share and that some people (BIPOC, disabled, queer, women) even deserve to have their rights taken away or ignored. Lillian played into the American dream by marrying a white man. He offered her everything she wanted but instead gave her nothing but pain. The American dream is, as she discovered in an act of cold-blooded violence, a fallacy.

As with Emma’s episodes, none of this trip down Lillian Lane is in the novel. Author Victor LaValle gave readers the highlights such as how badly their marriage deteriorated, what Apollo’s dream of the blue faceless man represented, and how it connected to the choices Lillian made. Script writer Kelly Marcel took those bits and pieces and gave the character a fully fleshed out life. If this episode doesn’t earn actor Adina Porter an Emmy nomination, we might as well shut the whole award down.

This episode in particular makes me so glad I stuck with the show. The first three episodes left me a little frustrated in terms of how closely the show was adhering to the original novel, but gradually each subsequent hour had strayed farther and farther away by adding entirely new stories. Viewers who are frustrated by these tangents will continue to be, but the rest of us were given a gift by Marcel and Porter. If I were being cynical, I’d say Marcel is only doing these character expansion episodes because she committed to making an ongoing series rather than doing the whole book in a single 8 or 10 episode season. However, these extra episodes have given me as a viewer more than enough intrigue and thrill to justify their existence.

A small thing, but I don’t love how limited the queer and trans representation has been so far, especially on North Brother Island. The show is so heavily focused on cis women and cis men, to the point where I think some of the themes are diluted. The Western world bends toward the desires of cis men, cisallohet white men specifically, and they don’t wield that power just over cisallohet women. The rest of us—queer people, people elsewhere on or outside of the gender spectrum—are also subject to the whims of their entitlement, and oftentimes our intersectional marginalized identities can make us more vulnerable than cisallohet women. It feels like a missed opportunity more than intentional erasure, but I was expecting more from a show like this.

Two other stray thoughts before I wrap this up. First, Ane Crabtree’s costume design has been on fire this season, but especially in this episode. Lillian’s nightclub performer dress shifting the way it fit as she dips in and out of her past was so clever. Given what we know about Brian, we can see the parallels between him and Emma’s relationship with regard to their relationships with one of their parents. But Lillian and Emma also share similarities when it comes to what they’ll do to protect themselves and their children. Like Emma, Lillian is also dressed in white. As a young woman, she wears a skimpy white dress just as Emma did in Brazil. As an older woman she wears a dark coat over a bloodstained shirt and skirt, just as Emma does when she turns toward sorcery.

Second, I’m pretty sure that was William Wheeler in the Elk Hotel abusing the sex worker. This man is a different creature from the William Wheeler of the book. There he felt more like an incel with too much power while here he seems to be playing the part of the evil stepmother or wicked queen. He pops up everywhere and everywhen. Is it really William Wheeler? Is he possessed by something? I hope we’ll find out next week with the finale.

Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), bluesky (@bookjockeyalex), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).

The post The Changeling Contends With the Horrors of the American Dream in Episode 7 appeared first on Reactor.