Short Stories I Read in May

It’s June twenty-ninth. So it’s time to write about the short stories, miscellaneous posts, and podcast episodes I read or listened to in May.

And the Dreams That You Dare to Dream by Marissa Lingen (Lightspeed Magazine; May 2024; Issue 168)

The first story I checked out in May was Marissa Lingen’s And the Dreams That You Dare to Dream. Pretty standard portal fantasy/fantasy land setting, which reminded me of Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children’s series. Where this story shines is in the character, Gemma’s, POV. She wants to go to a fantasy land, and she doesn’t want to come back—and she’s very logical/deadpan about her approach. It's one of the aspects I liked best about her characterization. Besides that, the story has a very frank style to the way it was written, which suited it perfectly. All-in-all, I liked this one.

Done Deal by Rory Harper (Lightspeed Magazine; May 2024; Issue 168)

While I was still on Lightspeed Magazine’s website, I read two other stories. The first was: Done Deal by Rory Harper. In speculative fiction, deals with the devil—Faustian bargains, errant wishes—those can be pretty common. However, they are among my favorite kind of story conventions, because the possibilities are endless. In Done Deal, a famous, at the top of the world musician named Jack Malagan, is suspected to have made a deal. Much of the story has a blasé feel to it, as it recounted Jack’s meteoric rise, and a pivotal conversation that revealed his backstory and the consequences of the titular “Done Deal.” As the story progressed, however, the tension increased, which gradually built toward the final twist at the end. Done Deal was a great story!

Exit Interview by Ben Peek (Lightspeed Magazine; May 2024; Issue 168)

And the second was Ben Peek’s Exit Interview. It’s the exact kind of story I like: magic hidden right alongside the normal every day, a sense (and atmosphere) of danger and darkness, and a secretive organization with questionable recruitment tactics. All of that was great. At the heart of Exit Interview, though, was a mother whose life fell apart after the disappearance of her daughter, the places her work for “The Ministry of Saturn” took her to, the people she met, the answers she found, and the actions she took. Sprinkled throughout was the titular exit interview, which added another layer of detail to the story. This was a truly engrossing read.

From around the web…

• I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle is a Moving Tale from a Fantasy Master [Vanessa Armstrong; Reactor Magazine; May 22, 2024]
• Scalzi on Film: The Aesthetics of Spectacle: A Look at Dune in 1984 and 2024 [John Scalzi; Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-Eight]
• Read an Excerpt From Caitlin Rozakis’s Dreadful [Reactor Magazine; May 23, 2024]
• Writing Inside a Box [Amy Berg; Uncanny Magazine Issue Fifty-Eight]

Music Monday (290): Tems, Asake, Beyoncé, Walter Williams of The O'Jays

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I'm currently listening to and enjoying Tems' recent release, Born in the Wild. I love the whole album, which made it hard to pick one song for today. Checkout one of my favorites: Get it Right featuring Asake!

Andrea: Hi all! This week I'm listening to He Still Loves Me by Beyoncé and Walter Williams of The O'Jays. Have an amazing week!

What are you listening to this week?

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

Title: The Familiar
Series: n/a
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Source/Format: Purchased; Hardcover
More Details: Fantasy; Historical Fiction
Publisher/Publication Date: Flatiorn Books; April 9, 2024

Synopsis from Goodreads...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position. What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor. Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

It’s no secret: I love a good standalone. And one of my most highly anticipated book releases of the year was Leigh Bargugo’s new historical fantasy novel, The Familiar. Set in Madrid during the “Spanish Golden Age,” this was a story of curses, magic, and ambition; part tragedy and part romance. And I loved every second of it.

Luzia Cotado was ambitious and hungry and wanted more than her life as a scullion: the ability to freely express her intelligence, and most of all comforts and ease unlike what her life had been to that point. While Luzia would admit that her position made her a good actress—able to hide her true self behind a façade—she was kind of resentful toward it. The family she worked for, the Ordõnos, didn’t help with her pessimism, particularly (and especially in the beginning of the novel) Doña Valentina’s habit of taking out her discontent—with her married life and with her social prospects—on the people who worked for her. As the first sentence of chapter one states: “If the bread hadn’t burned, this would be a very different story.” But I’m so glad it wasn’t, because without the circumstances, there would’ve been no story. And without (even the tragic aspects later on) there would’ve been no romance and none of the the interpersonal dramas happening alongside the high stakes schemes. And those were among the most notable highlights of The Familiar.

If you can’t tell, I adored the characters.

Luzia could be witty, but she was also in a situation involving political machinations, which left her as a fish-out-of-water, if not right out trapped and (again) subservient. Some of what occurred was due to her ambition, though. She wanted to win to change her life, regardless of the consequences. Her “little miracles” were dangerous to perform; she lived in a time of strong adherence to religion as well as under the threat of attracting the notice of the Inquisition.

Guillén Santángel was brooding, enigmatic, and dangerous. He was the familiar the title referred to and was compelled to do the bidding of an ambitious, cunning, arrogant, and cruel man. He and Luzia were a little alike, in that they desired freedom from their circumstances.

The question was what had to be given up to achieve those aims.

Valentina was the most surprising for me. I didn’t expect to like her character as much as I did. She was an instigator, but she was also sympathetic. She, like Luzia and Santángel, hungered for more. And a pivotal part of her story was discovering if what she always insisted she wanted would still hold true by the end of The Familiar.

The tournament was fairly standard and involved some intrigue, particularly between the competitors and their patrons. There was genuine talent and fraud mixed together, and alliances were murky and never what they first appeared to be. And with the large personalities of the characters, it made it interesting.  

All in all, The Familiar was everything I was hoping it would be, and it’s easily one of my favorite books of 2024 so far.

Music Monday (289): Billie Eilish, Avant, & Angela Bofill, Lion Babe

Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I'm still listening to Hit Me Hard and Soft, and another one of my favorite songs is: The Diner.

Adri: Lion Babe has been releasing so many house songs and I'm thrilled. This week I'm listening to Better Late Than Never.

Andrea: Hi all! This week I'm listening to You & I by Avant featuring Ke Ke Wyatt and Too Tough by Angela Bofill. Have an amazing week!

What are you listening to this week?

The Manicurist's Daughter by Susan Lieu

Title: The Manicurist's Daughter

Series: n/a
Author: Susan Lieu
Source/Format: Celadon; Paperback ARC

More Details: Memoire

Publisher/ Publication Date: Celadon; March 12 2024

Goodreads    Celadon (Book Page)

Synopsis From Celadon

An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery.

Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers. About her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success—until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened.

For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone—why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother’s life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother’s death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon’s family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty.

The Manicurist’s Daughter is much more than a memoir about grief, trauma, and body image. It is a story of fierce determination, strength in shared culture, and finding your place in the world.

I tend to like memoirs anyway, but I really liked The Manicurists Daughter by Susan Lieu. From the prologue (which I later realized was an excellent summary), to the writing that drew me in, I found this memoir to be an enjoyable read.

It's essentially Lieu's journey to get answers about her mother. And I want emphasize journey. For every vague lead, there seemed to be even more questions that needed to be addressed. Intertwined with this was also her process of eventually creating performances inspired by her quest. When she finally did get some answers, and things began falling in place, I could see how and where each chapter's contents connected. This not only led up to her performance of 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother, but also the memoir's end. Which I might add, ends on a confident, understanding, and hopeful note.  There's probably a lot more I could mention but I think the synopsis does a well enough job showing what The Manicurist's Daughter is all about.

As for the writing, I found myself on the typical rollercoaster of emotions. There were times that were heart wrenching and sad, to happy and joyful. Along with the inclusion of Vietnamese, the descriptions were lively and vivid. Overall, it was a rather nice pace. 

Like I said, I found my read enjoyable and I really liked it. I don't have much to say unfortunately. But that's only because, for me, The Manicurist's Daughter is of those memoirs that you just have to start reading, get into it, and see for yourself.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy of this book from Celadon for this review. Thanks for reading!

**Note: this review first appeared on Toile, Think, Go!**