It’s time for another round of short story recommendations. I’m doing thing a bit differently this time, or rather, more like I used to back when I started doing these reviews way back. I’ll be recommending both old and new stories, and I’ll be including stories from a wider array of magazines rather than just my usual favorites.
Also, while I don’t usually read much horror, this list definitely seems to have been more or less involuntarily affected by the November darkness and the spirit of Halloween.
Right. Here goes.
The Garden by Emma Törzs (Uncanny):
This story takes place in a city plagued with drought. It has not rained in three years, and water is being heavily rationed. Only the extremely wealthy can afford to break the rules and use water illegally.
Our MC lives with her artist friend in a posh neighborhood. The friend’s parents own the entire building, but even she dares not break the rationing law. The elderly lady across the road, though, waters her small garden every evening, paying not only the fine but bribing the law enforcers at her door as well to allow her to continue.
For a brief while, this is all we get, but then the canals are introduced. Oddly narrow canals surrounding the city. They have been built ages ago and seemingly have no practical purpose. Only, the MC knows what they are for, and that is when it becomes clear that the MC is probably not entirely human.
Gradually, we learn more about the MC and what sort of being she might be, without really getting a clear answer. And there is something strange about that rich, old lady living next door as well.
This was one of those rare occasions where I actually wished the story had been longer. I wished there had been more of a resolution and that we would learn more about the relationship between the MC, the elderly neighbor, and the ancient city they live in.
That said, while the ending left me wanting more details, it was a story that drew me in and kept me thinking about it for days afterwards. There was something strange and beautiful about it, about the mystery relating to what exactly the MC is and what will happen if the canals dry up fully.
Darner by Jonathan Laidlow (Strange Horizons):
This is one of the older stories on the list, being published back in 2017.
Part of me keep thinking that I probably shouldn’t try to review this story as I keep trying and failing to phrase exactly what I liked so much about it. In many ways, that often seems to be my experience with Strange Horizons stories, and this story definitely was what I would consider a typical SH story (if there is such a thing). It was strange, original, haunting, and some part of it always seemed to be just beyond my capacity of understanding.
It left me with a feeling that if I just read it one more time or thought about it a bit more, then I would finally get it. It has now been weeks since I read it, though, and I’m still left with that feeling. Yet, this is a big part of what made the story so appealing, that dangling carrot half-obscured somewhere ahead, this strangeness.
The story centers around a grad student who is meeting up with her new potential thesis supervisor, a professor who has been recommended to her because he is as excentric as she is. This quickly turns out to be an understatement, though.
As they walk the city together, the professor tells stories about the buildings, neighborhoods, and people which clearly can’t be true. And as their tour progresses, our MC is sucked deeper and deeper into these illusions, until reality itself seems to change.
Again, the story remains, at least partly, a mystery to me, but I really enjoyed reading it, and I enjoyed thinking about it afterwards even more. I hope you will too.
A Touch of the Wild by Anne Wilkins (FFO):
I’m not much of a horror fan, but there was something eerily exciting about this piece.
We follow Kathy and her family, living in the middle of nowhere. Kathy has always wanted a grandparent, but now that her grandfather has come along, he is anything but what she hoped for.
“The Wild” comes into him, turning him into a monster. And Kathy’s father has had to chain up the old man in the woods until the condition passes. But the family is still haunted by his screaming and howling.
We never learn the nature of the grandfather’s affliction, whether it’s a mutation, a curse, or something else. But there is no doubt it is hurting both the grandfather and the family in more ways than one. And how it all turns out, you’ll have to read the story yourself to find out.
The Tanuki Kettle by Eugie Foster (Podcastle / Cricket Magazine):
This was a heartwarming tale about taking life in good stride and finding love where you least expect it.
The story follows the woman, Hisa. In the beginning of the story, it is implied that her mother had the means to secure her a good position in life, but based on the advice of an ill-tempered seer, Hisa’s mother bought a teahouse and made sure her daughter grew up to be a simple tea girl.
Hisa, though, never seems to mind. She is content and takes heart in following the principles of the Buddha. Her life changes, though, as a new landowner moves in, raising the rent for everyone in town and disturbing everyone by galloping through town at all hours of the day to go hunting. And then a magical tea kettle shows up on Hisa’s doorstep, which is quickly revealed to be a shapeshifting racoon dog, a Tanuki.
Naturally, this complicates Hisa’s life in strange ways, but her ability to take life as it comes and never expect too much, along with the Tanuki’s magical abilities, means that she has a chance to make something good out of all these changes.
This was it for me this time around. I hope to see you all in December.
Toby Backman 