REVIEW: “The Weight of It All” by Jennifer Hudak

Review of Jennifer Hudak, “The Weight of It All,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 10-18 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Disordered eating.

Maybe this is a ghost story; I don’t know. Maybe it’s a story about someone who only wants to be other than they are — I don’t know that either. But there was something peculiarly longing in this story that caught hold of me right in the initial lines, and kept me wanting more.

[And considering that I’d left this story towards the end of the issue to read and review because of its length, getting close on to 5k when I’ve been struggling, struggling to read fiction lately, this really is a testament to the power and quality of this story.]

This story is an absolute triumph.

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REVIEW: “How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk, or Other Ways of Knowing” by K. S. Walker

Review of K. S. Walker, “How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk, or Other Ways of Knowing,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 21-25 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Sometimes I read a story and it just isn’t for me. That’s what Walker’s story — of waiting for lost love to return from the sea, of seeking a route to the sea to find them — was, unfortunately. This was, I think, primarily because the structural and narrative choices made prevented me, rather than helped me, connect to the characters. So it felt more like a chore to read than a story.

Others who don’t share my structural and narrative preferences may enjoy this more.

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REVIEW: “This Blue World” by Samantha Murray

Review of Samantha Murray, “This Blue World,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 19-20 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Ghost stories aren’t usually my thing; stories told in 2nd person POV aren’t usually my thing. Yet Murray’s 2nd-person-POV-ghost-story was EXACTLY my thing, one of those wonderful surprises that shows you just how the flexibility of language can result in something so enjoyable.

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REVIEW: “The Probability of One” by Jen Brown

Review of Jen Brown, “The Probability of One,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 6-8 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was quite a complex story for how short it was; I started it, got lost, had to start it again, got distracted, started again before I really go stuck into it. It feels like it skirts the barrier between very clever and unreasonably opaque. I’d rather not decide for myself, but encourage everyone to give it a go. At the very least, it’s short, and if you reach the end still confused, it’s okay — it’s short. And even at the end there’s something that leaves me thinking “I wish I understood more.”

The author bio says that Jen Brown writes “otherworldly tales about Black, queer folks righteously wielding power.” For that reason alone, I’d read this story.

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REVIEW: “The Hole is the Beginning” by Angel Leal

Review of Angel Leal, “The Hole is the Beginning,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 27-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This lovely poem touched me, particularly some of the lines towards the end:

These children may not feel connected,
but it’s their otherness that connects them.

It’s about motherhood and otherness and how in the best of worlds the children we love, we love whoever they are.

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