REVIEW: “Accidents Are Not Possible” by Sarah Van Goethem

Review of Sarah Van Goethem, “Accidents Are Not Possible” in Rhonda Parrish, ed., Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline: Dieselpunk and Decopunk Fairy Tales, (World Weaver Press, 2019): 160-183 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content warning: Nazis. Like, actual Nazis. And eugenics.

It takes a certain sort of hubris to write a story in which Eva Braun is a central character and Hitler a minor character. It takes another sort to write such a story where Eva, at least, is presented sympathetically. I had a lot of ambivalent feelings reading the story, but also quite a bit of marvel, at the delicacy with which Van Goethem walked the line of credible and incredible. The ambivalence I felt reading the story was reflected in the moral ambivalence of the characters. In the end, I wasn’t entirely comfortable reading this story, but I thought it was one of the better written stories in the anthology.