It’s the twenty-ninth of April. So it’s time to talk about the short stories, miscellaneous posts, and podcast episodes I read or listened to in March!
Yingying—Shadow by Ai Jiang (Uncanny Magazine; Issue Fifty-One)
Yingying-Shadow by Ai Jiang is an evocative piece of flash fiction. At its focal point are family issues—between a child and a father—combined with a melancholic atmosphere in the face of a figurative and literal haunting.
The Gratitude of Mice by Yume Kitasei (Strange Horizons; Issue: 6 March 2023)
I didn’t know what to expect going into the Gratitude of Mice by Yume Kitasei, but, like Yingying—Shadow, this story was also short but with a tightly woven (and eerie) narrative. It largely reminded me of folklore Brownies—or tales about other kinds of household spirits—except with mice in the role instead (and a warning about greed). All-in-all, The Gratitude of Mice was a really good read!
Our Exquisite Delights by Megan Chee (Lightspeed Magazine; Mar. 2023 (Issue 154))
I like this story. It’s kind of like the Wayward Children’s series by Seanan McGuire, except the doors can appear to anyone instead of just children. And the portal fantasy aspect is limited to various rooms, which the story describes to the reader with an almost omnipresent narrator. It was an interesting mix of fantasy and horror-ish imagery, so I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more stories by Megan Chee.
From around the web…
- “The Greenery Around Me Held Secrets I Would Never Learn”: Plant Life In Contemporary Science Fiction [Samantha Hind; Clarkesworld Magazine; Issue 198—March 2023]
- Print Run Podcast Episode 159: All The Strange Silences
