REVIEW: “Gristle” by Jay Knioum

Review of Jay Knioum, “Gristle”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 258-259. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Warning: If you don’t want to read about mutilated children and/or cannibalism, then this is not the story for you.

Ordinarily, those two things would mean that this wouldn’t be the story for me, either, but the way Knioum takes an unusual perspective on a relatively usual horror genre was both intriguing and well done — and in this particular case, the quite short length of the story was a plus rather than a minus. At two pages, it was exactly the right length.

Sara L. Uckelman2 Comments

REVIEW: “Cunning” by Laurel Lanthrop

Review of “Cunning”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #36 Early Autumn pp. 32-37. Purchase here. Review by Ben Serna-Grey.

This story is a fairy tale about a man who has lost his wife, and the witch he meets after saving her from drowning. The witch offers him a single wish and in his grief he wishes either for his wife to come back from the dead, or a woman who would be such a good wife to him that he would no longer remember his sorrow. Of course the witch offers to become his wife, beautifying herself with magic and going home with the man to meet his daughter and housekeeper, taking her place as the new woman of the house.

Like any fairy tale worth its salt, it has a moral or two to teach. Also like any fairy tale worth its salt, it isn’t dumbed down in order to be “kid-friendly.” “Cunning” keeps up the level of quality present throughout this entire magazine, though it was slightly harder for me to latch onto partly due to the dialogue in the story being peppered with thees and thous, seeming just a tad off. Don’t let that keep you from reading this story, though, because it’s great, and I’m very interested to see what other work Laurel comes out with.

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REVIEW: “Running Straight” by E. K. Wagner

Review of E. K. Wagner, “Running Straight”, Luna Station Quarterly 32 (2017): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This is a story of dreams, of strength, and of slavery, told in beautiful colors. The story draws you in and draws you along at each moment becoming more and more fraught. Brilliantly written, and a brilliant story. The ending that happens is the ending you want to happen, and yet it is still quite a kicker when it comes.

One thing I really enjoyed about the story is how little details can have such a big impact. Sometimes, all that is needed to set a story in a foreign and unfamiliar place is to change one simple thing that is familiar, one thing you would never expect to change. That one thing in this story is the length of the years. Some years are longer than others, some shorter, and because Cinti’s culture, like ours, revolves around the length of a year, this one small difference has a dramatic effect on how strange and foreign the story setting feels.

This one was a good one — best in the issue in my opinion.

Sara L. UckelmanLeave a comment

REVIEW: “For the Love of Snow White” by Delilah Night

Review of Delilah Night, “For the Love of Snow White”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 36-68 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

It takes a lot of guts to start off a story “Once upon a time”, but Night should have every confidence in herself: This is one of the most satisfying fairy tale retellings I’ve read.

Fairy tales are rife with shadowy evil step-mothers whose sole purpose in the story seems to be to provide a bad guy. We never find out why they are evil, or what happened to the hero/heroine’s first mother. We do in this story; the narrator here is Snow White’s step mother, and we learn about how she came to the kingdom, ensnared the king, and, ultimately, cast Snow White into a sleep like death.

But the story isn’t just “Snow White told from another perspective”. It is a story of the clash between pagan druidic religion and the coming of a new god, a mix of classic myth/fairy tale with Christian religion and druidic rituals. It is a story of love and familial bonds. There is a very happy and cheerfully ordinary F/F romance.

Only two things slightly detracted from the story. There was some slightly overt erotica, which doesn’t in principle bother me but which felt rather out of place in this story particular story, and there is also one count of attempted incest, which, eugh, but in this case it did work in the story.

Part of what makes the story so successful is its length, one of the longest in the volume. I’ll be very curious to see if any other story can oust this one from its current spot as my favorite.

Sara L. Uckelman2 Comments

REVIEW: “Pension Plan” by Dusty Wallace

Review of Dusty Wallace, “Pension Plan”, Broadswords and Blasters 1 (2017): 30-36 — Purchase Here. Reviewed by Yana Shepard.

I liked the characters and their descriptions. They were fun for the short amount of time you got to spend with them. The story was a blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ending.

I will give a brief spoiler warning below.

If you don’t like the mention of genitalia and/or dismemberment of said genitalia, then this story is not for you. It’s only for the last few paragraphs but it’s there, nonetheless. I personally don’t mind such descriptions, but I know many people aren’t okay with it.

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REVIEW: “Waffles” by Ariel Ptak

Review of Ariel Ptak, “Waffles”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 29-34 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I love ambiguous titles, and this one makes you wonder whether it’s about indecision or tasty tasty breakfast food. (Or perhaps even both!)

The story alternates between narration and snippets of emails. There is a specific shift in the voice in the narrative sections which I think was done particularly well — subtle enough that you don’t notice it at first, clever enough to be very satisfying when you do.

Ultimately, though, I felt like the story was trying to be funny rather than actually being funny, leaving the reader wondering just a bit, “why this story?”

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Raw Material” by Brandon Nolta

Review of Brandon Nolta, “Raw Material”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 22-27 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I found the opening few paragraphs of the story confusing because it wasn’t clear what the referent of all the pronouns were. A few paragraphs in, though, I diagnosed the cause of the confusion — none of the direct speech uses any quotation marks. So when the story opens:

It was near the end of LC’s fourteenth summer when her Aunt Chrys went to the family about her magic. My power should have manifested by now, Chrys told her assorted aunts and uncles…

both the “her” in the first sentence and the “my” in the second is Chrys herself, not LC.

I’m not sure why quotation marks weren’t use; there didn’t appear to be any narrative need for such a technique.

Despite this, the story is told in a confident, distinctive voice, and despite being relatively short managed to ease its way through quite a long period of time. The ending comes as a twist out of nowhere, though, because we haven’t been given any hints about Chrys that would make her final actions in keeping with her character.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: Fall Flash Contest+Halloween

Review of H.L. Fullerton, “What You Ate Eats At You”, Syntax and Salt Fall Flash Contest, October 2017: Read Online. Reviewed by Tiffany Crystal

As much as I like Syntax and Salt, I’ve learned that I don’t like all of the work they feature. This one, in particular wasn’t to my taste. Maybe because I was expecting something more….Halloween-y? I guess? It was an entry for a Fall Flash Contest, so the mistake is all mine, but still. And it was fixated on food. I found myself skimming it, just to get through the story. I couldn’t get into it. At all. If there was a redeeming point to the story, it was that it ended.

Honestly, if this was the third place winner, I’m scared to think of what didn’t make it.

Review of Wendy Wimmer, “Feðgin”, Syntax and Salt Fall Flash Contest, October 2017: Read Online. Reviewed by Tiffany Crystal

This story confused me at first. The character’s father is a villain? There were explosions? Death ray, what? Then I got further into it, and…well, if you’re a Republican in the United States, you might want to skip this story completely. I’m not, so I enjoyed it immensely. I wasn’t quite filled with evil glee, but close.

Okay, back on track: the story is very short and simple. There are some questions left unanswered, which, as I’ve stated before, I hate, but it doesn’t really detract from the story, so I can bear it. And I have learned a new word, so bonus! Maybe just for me, but eh. You can’t win them all.

This story was the second place winner in Syntax and Salt’s fall flash contest.

(FYI: “Feðgin” means “Father and Daughter” apparently. Yay for learning!)

Review of Jennifer R. Donohue, “Aground, Upon the Sand”, Syntax and Salt Fall Flash Contest, October 2017: Read Online. Reviewed by Tiffany Crystal

As soon as I saw the author’s name, I knew this was going to be good, and I was right. I’m not entirely sure it deserved first place in Syntax and Salt’s fall flash contest, but it was still a good read. Another short and simple work, this one is best enjoyed with some background knowledge of selkie mythology.

Review of Mariel Tishma, “Wax and Wane”, Syntax and Salt Halloween Special, October 2017: Read Online. Reviewed by Tiffany Crystal

Well. Huh. Um, not sure what to say. Mariel Tishma has a very interesting way with words, and I certainly wish her the best of luck convincing her editor that she’s not just a pile of squirrels, but I’m a little thrown by this piece.

The character is a witch or a sorcerer, it appears, and so is their love(?) interest. If I read/understood the story correctly, the main character is in a love/hate relationship with the other witch. Or maybe the love interest isn’t a witch at all, and is just portrayed as one because of the “spell” she cast on the character? It’s hard to tell, honestly, but it is a well wrote piece and worth a read.

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REVIEW: “Company for Tea” by Kimber Camacho

Review of Kimber Camacho, “Company for Tea”, in Myths, Monsters, and Mutations, edited by Jessica Augustsson (JayHenge Publications, 2017): 1-11. — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This, the opening story of the anthology, kicks things off with a classic speculative story, set in Lovecraft’s universe as is made clear by references to Miskatonic University.

I found the speech cadences of the opening section a bit awkward until I read them as if they were intended to be read aloud, and then suddenly everything sounded a lot better. The opening section is clearly intended to provide a framing for the rest of the story, but unfortunately I found it raised more questions than it answered. What woke the monster? What words are it speaking that are identifiable as words, given that they have not been spoken for untold ages? It is also not clear, from the ordering of the sections, whether the monster in section 1 is the same one as the one in section 2, or not.

The rest is a story I found pleasantly enjoyable, but I suspect it is probably better aimed at people who already know Lovecraft’s universe. For them, though, this should be right to their taste!

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “The Executioner’s Daughter” by R.A. Goli

Review of R.A. Goli, “The Executioner’s Daughter”, Broadswords and Blasters 1 (2017): 20-29 — Purchase Here. Reviewed by Yana Shepard.

I liked The Executioner’s Daughter, but I’ll be honest, I felt my anxiety spike during a semi intense scene. I realize for other readers this probably wouldn’t be such a problem, maybe none at all, but for someone like me who struggles with crowds and extreme anxiety, this made me take a break for a few minutes. After that scene, I found I could read it without much trouble.

It wasn’t a bad story. I smiled in knowing what was coming next. If you read it you might think me macabre for that, but that’s okay by me. I tend to have an appreciation for darker things.

If you don’t mind a tad bit of gore, this might be for you.

Yana ShepardLeave a comment