For this spotlight on ten of my favorite short science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories I read in April, I’ve got stories that will make you angry, stories that will make you anxious, stories that will empower you, stories that will rankle you, and stories that are just plain weird.
“The Burial Cave” by Wailana Kalama
“The Burial Cave” was the first story I read in this newish horror magazine, and what an introduction! Two kids explore a cave and only one comes back out. Something terrible happens down there in the dark, but it’s not quite what you expect. This was also the first time I’d read anything by Wailana Kalama, but it won’t be my last. A distressing story written so well you can almost hear the crunch of bones.
The Maul (April 2023; issue 2)
“The House, the Witch, and Sugarcane Stalks” by Amanda Helms
“The house wakes from its somnolence as the witch trudges up the path made of tarts…Pleased she’s safe, the house opens its front door and rolls out a rug of pie pastry. “Thank you, House,” the witch says, and walks in, letting the house close its door behind her.” Set in 19th century New Orleans, a Creole Witch is asked to assist on the Underground Railroad. The story begins all whimsical and cute and takes a hard turn to real history, but Amanda Helms keeps the content and the tone well-balanced. The Witch worked hard to build herself a life, and she’s not about to let a bunch of bigots drive her away from it.
Lightspeed (April 2023; issue 155)
“How to Stay Married to Baba Yaga” by S. M. Hallow
“1. Don’t ask if the pot roast is made from human meat. 2. Human meat is an acquired taste. Acquire it.” There are 35 steps to S. M. Hallow’s list; they start out brief and get longer and more complicated as the story progresses. At first you might think this is going to be a depressing story about a woman who demands too much from her partner and a partner who is willing to cut off pieces of herself to keep the woman she loves. But Hallow digs deeper than that. Compromise isn’t surrendering; sometimes it can be a coming together in mutual understanding.
Baffling Magazine (March 2023; issue 11)
“Live off the Land” by Toby MacNutt
“Sometimes people walk into my woods. Mostly they walk out again. I didn’t. This one has not either.” A spirit watches a human become increasingly lost in the first. The spirit is counting on them dying, but the human wants to live. So much so that the spirit can’t help but want to save them. You might think this is going to be a dark fantasy about a haunted wood, but there’s an undercurrent of connection, of how hard it can be to accept it when someone offers you their hand.
The Future Fire (April 2023; issue 2023.65)
“Loving Bone Girl” by Tehnuka
The April issue of Apex was dedicated to stories by Asian and Pacific Islander authors. There were so many great stories in this issue that it was hard to choose which one to feature. But out of all of them, Tehnuka’s is the one that kept stomping around in my brain. The story is more vibes than plot, but the vibes are as sharp as a knife. It’s about the pain and beauty of the diaspora, about death, about honoring your culture even as your connection to it grows faint.
Apex Magazine (April 2023; issue 137)
“Re: Your Stone” by Guan Un
In the February 2022 edition of my short fiction spotlight, I covered Guan Un’s “Rider Reviews for FerrymanCharon” which has a similar narrative structure to “Re: Your Stone”. Both filter Greek mythology through the banalities of modern technology. A work order is put in for Sisyphus to relocate a piece of art entitled “Higher, Faster, Boulder” from the ground floor to the second. But someone keeps moving it back down again. Poor Sisyphus tries to clear the work order, but it gets tangled up in the web of HR forms and technicalities.
Diabolical Plots (April 2023; #98A)
“Salt Water” by Eugenia Triantafyllou
Anissa’s people all have a bubble in their belly that carries a special kind of fish. As they age, the fish takes shape, preferably into a mermaid. Sometimes they become an octopus, a dreaded, feared, and derided creature, and the person is cast out of the community. No one is sure what Anissa’s fish is becoming, but because it doesn’t look “normal”, they send her to visit with the octopus woman on the outskirts of town. Eugenia Triantafyllou crafts a lovely story about learning that being different can be a kind of power. Anissa learns that our labels don’t define who we are forever but merely describe who we are in this moment.
Tor.com (April 12, 2023)
“Still Life With Slain God and Lemon” by Anne Leonard
I missed when the new issue of Translunar Travelers Lounge came out a couple months ago, but I’m so glad I went back and read it. This is a story of letting longing and grief consume you until there’s nothing left. Francisco endlessly paints a dead god with the face of his former lover Marco. He paints the god so much that his own body begins to change and take the shape of the painted figure. His obsession drives away his new love, and the more he changes the angrier he becomes.
Translunar Travelers Lounge (February 2023; issue 8)
“The True Name of the Sharp-Toothed God” by KT Bryski
Looking for something dark and sinister and ship-related? A sailor on a ship bound for a land of ice carries two passengers: “Pretty young man and harsh grey woman.” The sailor, the woman, and the young man (who has been sleeping with the sailor) arrive at their frigid destination searching for a nearly forgotten god. Typical with KT Bryski, this piece is laden with lush, chilling prose that is both evocative yet tense.
Cosmass Infinities (April 30, 2023)
“A Witch’s Transition In The City Of Ghosts” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe
A witch who is an outcast to her people falls in love with a forest spirit. The witch is a trans woman in a sapphic relationship with an entity the other women in her coven believe is dangerous. The witch has fought so hard to gain even the tiniest sliver of tolerance from her fellow witches. Will she give it all up and betray the only person who has ever accepted her as she is? I loved this so much I read it twice in a row.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies (April 20, 2023; issue 380)
Alex Brown is a Hugo-nominated and Ignyte award-winning critic who writes about speculative fiction, librarianship, and Black history. Find them on twitter (@QueenOfRats), instagram (@bookjockeyalex), and their blog (bookjockeyalex.com).
