It is about as late as it can get, the very last evening in the month, but here are my short story recommendations for the October.
I have kept postponing doing this one, hoping I would find another story or two to recommend, but it turns out this will be rather short post. Not because there are not a lot of great stories out there; I just have not been reading as much short fiction as usual.
Anwyay, here we go.
Wait for Night by Stephen Graham Jones (Reactor (Tor.com) / The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 2):
This story did not blow me away to begin with, but gradually, it started a build-up to something ominous, and there were plenty of twists along the way to keep it interesting.
The story follows a group of day laborers, working to clear a riverbed in some barren wasteland. As everyone leaves to go spend the night wherever, our protagonist’s car will not start. And sure enough, he gets a surprise when one of the other guys turns out to not have left after all. And, of course, there is something strange about that other guy.
So far, we are still in the “it is okay, but it seems like any other horror story.” But things get weirder. Stranger. Spookier.
First a cop shows up, who is anything but understanding when the MC and the other day laborer tries to explain that they are not stealing a battery from one of the construction machines but are only borrowing it to jumpstart the MC’s car. Also, the MC has uncovered a skeleton during the day’s work and imagines he might get some money for the skull at least. But then things start to go really wrong, because the skeleton comes alive.
The cop panics, and the MC does not know what to do either. Luckily, the strange day laborer seems to know more about this thing that he initially let on.
This is a story for everyone who loves twists to familiar monster tropes and just twisty, turning plots in general.
Where the Old Neighbors Go by Thomas Ha (Metamorphis / Podcastle / The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 2):
Yet another Thomas Ha story to make the list. Along with Isabel J. Kim and Claire Jia-Wen, Ha has consistently written some of my favorite short stories the last couple of years, and this one is no different.
The story centers on an elderly lady. She comes off as a bit eccentric, the kind of person who is a bit too nosy and cares maybe too much about parking permits. As a result, she has alienated pretty much everyone else in the neighborhood.
There is more to her, of course, and when one of the old neighbors seemingly moves out and sells his house overnight to some strange young man, she is the only who sees through the newcomer and stands up to defend the neighborhood.
This has the slow buildup and eerie atmosphere I have come to like in Ha’s stories. We learn right from the start that something is not right with the newcomer, but we do not know exactly what, only that the MC is the only who sees it. And that really ups the tension. Because who will believe her? Who will support her against the sinister being? No one, of course.
On top up this, there is also some cool elements of folk magic to the story, which I am quite a sucker for.
Purple Flowers Marks Latest Volley in Borough of Cairneswick’s ‘Covert War Against the Unshrined’ by A.J. Rocca (BFS Horizons #20):
This piece tells the story of local government that is gradually making life imposible for the fae creatures living near town through all sorts of small, covert changes: certain flowers being strategically planted in the town parks, iron grids being introduced in the sewers.
It is told in the style of a newspaper article, which threw me off a bit at first, but as I finished the story, it gave it a bit of an edge. It made it easier to relate to, and seemed to make a connection to how certain governments, officials, and whatnot try to make life harder for certain groups of people they deem unwanted in their town or country.
It was a short piece, but one that had a lot to say.
