Literary fantastic, magical realist and weird fiction books
Review by J. S. Loveard “Now I live inside a story and fret about its outcome.” So says the often arch narrator of Ian McEwan’s latest novel Nutshell. The story? Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In twenty first century London, the narrator discovers that his mother, Trudy, and his uncle, Claude, are not only lovers, but are plotting to murder his father, […] Read more »
Review by William Grabowski [A] very large yellow butterfly with black spots like microchips on its wings; flying toward her: It had a scrunched-up, old man’s brown face, with wrinkles, sort of pruney, she thought. Jane Yolen has been referred to as “the Hans Christian Anderson of children’s literature,” a claim I’m not […] Read more »
Review by Paul StJohn Mackintosh A Howling Good Time I reviewed Stephen Graham Jones’s Mapping the Interior here recently, and I’m glad to report that Mongrels: A Novel is very different. It also deserves every accolade it’s received. Mongrels won a slew of best novel nominations, including for the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award and Bram […] Read more »
* Iphigenia had been Agamemnon’s daughter, sacrificed to and, some said, rescued by the goddess, taken to Greece and set to preside over the rituals there. Iphigenia, the name Kate had chosen. THE MAGLEV TRAIN accelerated away eastward, following the route that had once been State Highway 20. Caleb stood on the platform and let the […] Read more »
Review by William Grabowski She was not a ship at all; she was the ocean, deep and vast, with a form forever changing in waves of green and blue. I’ve been fortunate these past weeks to receive books by authors mostly new to me—including Caroline M. Yoachim‘s debut collection. As much as Weird Fiction […] Read more »
* “Sure, back in England Tom would be the wonder of the age and we’d—he’d—be rich and meeting royalty and such like. But what’s a man with a donkey head in a place where wishes come true?” SPELLMAN MATHERS’ TRAVELING Show & Zoo of Ordinary Creatures was shut up for the night. Tasks completed, Spellman kicked […] Read more »
Review by Paul StJohn Mackintosh Destroying Your Certainty Nadia Bulkin’s debut collection comes roaring out of the gate with one of the strongest titles of the year. As far as I know, the title is nothing to do with Marguerite Duras’s Destroy, She Said. Nor, fortunately, is it anything to do with the song by […] Read more »
We are pleased to introduce the winner of the 2016 New Voices Contest, Benjamin C. Jenkins. What follows is a short essay by Ben, about writing about his winning story, “Headdressing,” and his perspective as a Native American writer. I didn’t set out to write “Headdressing” with any Native American elements in mind, but somehow they […] Read more »
* See the Elephant, Issue 3: Slipping Through the Cracks explores what it means to slip through a crack, intentionally or not, into oblivion or freedom; how it feels to be threatened by some terrible, broken thing, or to break ourselves. These stories range from the darkest impulses of human (and inhuman) nature, to […] Read more »
Missed the last chapter? Go to 58: Green Warrant) AS I DROVE TO Rolfe’s office, I worked on a plan. My first idea was to walk in, kick him in the nuts, and tell him John could shove the trust fund up his ass. I spent a few happy moments contemplating that scenario, but there […] Read more »
Review by Paul StJohn Mackintosh Inescapable Origins I already had the pleasure of reviewing Stephen Graham Jones’s superb short story collection After the People Lights Have Gone Off, so it’s an equal pleasure to renew acquaintance with his often very domestic focus. But that’s domestic in an entirely different sense than you might think. Here, […] Read more »
(Missed the last chapter? Go to 57: Paranoia Will Destroya) THE LOBBY looked like it had been decorated in the 1980s—none of the ostentatious perfection that I was beginning to associate with them. I never thought I’d be this happy to see acoustic ceiling tiles and puffy pastel couches. The receptionist, a hipster with horned […] Read more »
Review by William Grabowski By the time Aiko leaves, her footsteps echoing down the hallway, I’ve dug deep gouges in the door’s paint with my nails and teeth, my mouth full of her intoxicating scent. The key word in this anthology’s title is new, and if that doesn’t quicken your heart, a sampling of […] Read more »
I NEARED RICHMOND at five in the morning. I took the long way around to the Southside to check on Dad and Dorothy’s houses. I didn’t really expect to find them there, but I needed to see for myself. I couldn’t fully trust my own memories. Too many of them had been tampered with by […] Read more »
Review by William Grabowski Now he began spinning in circles—like a deranged dancer, or a whirling dervish, or a man inhabited by devils…. James Morrow explores ideas with visionary audacity and a satirical (yet nonetheless disturbing) bent perhaps unequaled since Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld series—as if directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. I like to imagine […] Read more »