Josh SutphinStephen M.A.'s "The Owl", in this month's Apex Magazine, started out as a story about kids growing up mistreated in the Bible Belt, and by the end it had turned into a story that somehow put succinct words to every bit of rage and despair and disappointment I've felt about the pandemic, politics, and culture for the last four years. It's marvelous stuff, with an arresting and cathartic final image.
KieraLesleyGutted by the ending of this slow build Tamsyn Muir story from 2017 on my commute this morning.
https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/the-woman-in-the-hill/
#cosmichorror #lovecraftianHorror #shortfictionrecs #Bradbury1000
The Woman in the Hill - Nightmare Magazine
This is the last time I intend ever to write to you. Though you may take this letter as a freak or crank, I ask that you reconsider how likely it is that I would write such madness—that is, unless I knew it were the truth. In my need to convince you I will lay out the events using only fact—what I saw with my own eyes and have subsequently acted upon based on rational belief—and at the last, pray to God you believe me. I know you heard the gossip and the insinuation surrounding my young friend Elizabeth W—.
A fun self-aware subversion of romance tropes for today’s short fiction read rec:
An older but brilliantly bittersweet story I read for the first time recently for today’s short read rec.
Mr. Death - Apex Magazine
I’ve ferried two hundred and twenty-one souls across the river of death, and I can already tell my two-hundred-and-twenty-second is going to be a real shitkicker. I know by the lightness of the manila folder in my hand, the preemptive pity in the courier’s face as she gives it to…
Todays short fiction read rec is an urban ghost story novelette by the legendary Mary Robinette Kowal in the latest bumper issue of Uncanny:
Cold Relations - Uncanny Magazine
Claudette lowered her infrared goggles over her eyes and waited for the ghost. By the cash register, webs of energy, tinted green by the goggles, swirled in a loose spiral. Spectral lines tightened in time with a throbbing hum of energy. As she walked closer, Claudette’s hair stood on end along her neck, and the […]
Loved this short surreal piece. The concept, the voice/tone of a museum item description - all so great!
https://www.bafflingmag.com/issue-seven/four-glass-cubes-item-description
Wickedly fun and original flash piece for today’s short fiction read rec:
https://thearcanist.io/grannys-spider-d9a61614b933
#Bradbury1000 #ShortFiction #ShortStories #ShortFictionRecs #flashfiction
I’m currently reading Invisible Planets, a collection of Chinese short science fiction edited and translated by Ken Liu. Today’s short read rec is this fab and unsettling piece by Chen Qiufan:
https://writingchinese.leeds.ac.uk/book-club/november-2019-chen-qiufan-陈楸帆/the-year-of-the-rat/
A madness-tinged fantasy ghost story for today’s short fiction read rec:
Today’s short read rec is a tricksy take on female safety, cultural and societal expectations and narratives about women, and foxes. CW: sexual assault
https://www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/the-tails-that-make-you/
The Tails That Make You - Fantasy Magazine
Ninth - It is a few days before your suspicions are confirmed. Perhaps it is the baggy trousers your daughter has started to wear, or that she picks at her food. She will lie if you ask her outright, this you know. You throw her bedroom door open without warning, the damp towel clutched around her chest after the shower the only barrier between you. Her mouth hangs open, shrieking like brakes in protest.