Late but not too late, it is time for my short story recommendations for the month of September.
A good deal of my short story reading this month has been The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 2, edited by Paula Guran, which is definitely reflected in the recommendations.
Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots / The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 2)
This is your classical haunted house story, only… the haunted house might not actually be such a terrible place after all. Maybe it is just lonely. Maybe it really just needs a family to settle in. I have no idea what this story was doing in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror anthology, because despite its setting, it is a heartwarming and often humorous story, about family trying to start over and a lonely house seeking company.
As the title says, there is an open house in the haunted house on the hill, but few people come to actually see the house, and the slick but not very bright real estate agent manages to scare away the few people who do arrive. But as a haunted house, our protagonist has a few tricks up their sleeve. Like secret rooms that do not exists on the blueprints. And that broken family that really needs a new place to start over might just, maybe, eventually realize that this house is the right one for them.
This is a story for readers who enjoy original takes on old tropes, humorous fantasy stories, and found family pieces.
Swanskin by Alison Littlewood (After Sundown / The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 2) (No free-to-read link for this story)
Numerous myths exists around the world about shapeshifting creatures where stealing their skin at night may trap them in their human form. In many of these myths, the strange creatures are often beautiful women, and men seek to take them as wives. In that regard, there is really nothing especially groundbreaking in Swanskin, in which the mythical creatures are swans. However, what the story does so well is showing the horror of the concept, showing humans as being the true monsters.
The MC is a newcomer to the fishing town where the story takes place, and he gradually learns about the swans and their transformation, about what the women of the town really is. And as we learn with him, a growing sense of unease starts to surface. Because if the woman a truly swans trapped against their will, what does that make of the men keeping them trapped? And will the MC become one of them?
This is a story for those look like bleak, eerie tales showcasing the dark depths of humanity.
The Thickening by Brian Evenson (Conjunctions:74 / The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 2) (No free-to-read link for this story)
To begin with, this felt like a pretty weird and not very scary take on a common horror trope. A boy cannot sleep at night, because he has nightmares about a monster in his bedroom, and of course we already know the monster is real. The monster seems to disappear, though, if the MC is near other people.
As a kid, that means sleeping in his parents’ room even when he os probably too old for it. Then there is college, where dorm rooms saves the MC. And this is where the story does something different with the trope, because the monster never goes away. And the MC’s solution is to find a girlfriend and get married quickly. Which works… Until it does not.
Halfway through, The Thickening went from being a somewhat strange tale to being one of the most creepy stories I have read in years. If you want to know why, though, you have to read it yourself.
Bitten by Tiffany Farr (Manawaker’s Flash Fiction Podcast) (The story is also available on spotify)
This is a rare case of a story that is not speculative fiction making the recomendation list.
This is a sweet little tale of love/friendship between two outcasts. And for a while, it could actually have been a fantasy story, as the potential friend/love interest is described as being a zombie. However, she only pretends, something that leads to conflict with the other girls in the school.
Things are no better for her at home where she lives with an angry, anxious mother who seems to punish her for no reason at all. For the MC, this outsider is a chance of the friendship they desperately need.
It is a well written and heartwarming story.
