Out of all people in the world, I’m most attached to my mother. Yet it can sometimes be hard to find stories where mothers and daughters are on good terms. Fairy tales often do away with parents altogether or make them—especially mothers—evil. When both mother and daughter do come together, there’s generally something wrong, or some distance between them. But recently, to my delight, I’m seeing writers portraying healthier, more wholesome interactions between mothers and daughters. Conflicts still take place, but not everything is doomed. Here are some of my favorites…
“The Staircase to the Moon” by M.K. Hutchins
Earth goddesses are destined to die so that their daughters can take their place and serve their people, until their daughters can take up the role. Their death is a form of service too, for their bodies turn to clay and stray, which the priests make into bricks to build walls, roads, and aqueducts. It is a daughter’s responsibility to make good use of her mother’s sacrifice, and in turn sacrifice herself when the time comes. But what if there are other ways of serving? What if one can break this cycle and still be useful?
“Benni and Shiya Are Leaving” by Jerri Jerreat
The school where Shiya’s been working as a teacher no longer requires a big staff, so Shiya has to look for work elsewhere, away from the family-like community where she’s been building a life as a single mother with her child Benni. How will the two navigate another community, located not in a city but in a small town, where things work quite differently and everyone already knows everyone else?
“Only Kings and Doves” by M.S. Dean
When our narrator was savagely bitten by a dog and her refugee mother went to the apothecarist, the latter refused to help, instead trying to sell her medicines at an inflated price. So the mother, who had been a surgeon-scholar in Oxos, their homeland, took matters into her own hands. It took her several days, but by the end of it, our narrator could walk again. When they went to the apothecarist for medicines to help rebuild her strength, he wasn’t pleased to see that the refugee had performed a surgery, disgusted by the “filth” and “barbarity” of the people of Oxos and their ways.
Eventually, the knights come for the mother, taking her to the King’s Turrets. The king had destroyed Oxos to find the knowledge that would make him godlike, just like past rulers. He could make use of our narrator’s mother, who sends her daughter a letter, giving her instructions. Except that the letter is written in the language of the Oxos, which she never taught her daughter. How will she make sense of the message and do what is asked, especially now that the surgery’s after-effects are transforming the narrator into something strange and dangerous and out of her control?
“Eat Cosmic Jello” by Emily C. Skaftun
A shapeshifter experiments with several forms. When she becomes human, she adopts a daughter and tells her all about her home planet. On her deathbed, too, she insists that her daughter remember an old jingle about jello. The daughter is curious to know why the mother kept telling her the “lie” that she was a shapeshifter and what the truth really is. Skaftun presents a wonderful story about finally believing, understanding, and acceptance.
“The World Away From the Rain” by Ella Menzies
Where Keza lives, the world has already ended. The planet heated up, taking many lives with it. The rain fell, full of acid, scarring people like her mother, who still fears the littlest showers. And so Keza hasn’t been near the sea or out in the rain because her mother doesn’t want her to put herself at risk. But there are other people out in the rain. The turtles are out looking for plastic to eat because there’s none of it left in the ocean. Things are better than they were back when the rain scarred and the heat killed. Can Keza help her mother understand that? Can they both finally venture out into the natural world again, enjoying its rain and its beaches once again?
