It’s a new year! One last blog post about the one we just left. Out of all the stories I read in December 2022 here are the three best.
STARS, YOUR LIGHT BELONGS TO US by Jen Julian. Published in Bourbon Penn. This unique story follows a narrator whose family distills astrological signs and sells them as drinks. Aries tastes of “cinnamon,” Aquarius of “sage and smoke,” Pisces of “brine and sea air.” Surprisingly funny and deeply personal (You put your whole self into the distillery, your sweat, the whole span of your young, lonely life, and then bits of you get sorted onto pallets and shipped on trucks into town, where it’s consumed by others.), Jen Julian’s story gives us something entirely different with the speculative genre.
GHOSTS by Amy Stuber. Published in Craft. This tale contains two story-lines. One follows a woman who just got away with a (astoundingly easy) bank robbery and the other follows two boys who feel like ghosts in their own hometown. The story is suspenseful in that every time we leave one thread we are left wondering what will happen in the other. The characters are unique and the perceptions memorable, including a surprisingly insightful take on Pac Man.
WHAT WOULD YOU PAY FOR A SECOND CHANCE? by Chris Kulp. Published in Galaxy’s Edge. This science-fiction story is a brutal satire on the modern healthcare system and how it often neglects the underprivileged. When Susan learns that she is dying she allows her consciousness to be uploaded into a bottom-of-the-line mechanical body. Her free will is stripped from her and she is forced to fight in the government’s war. There is so much to say about this story, but I’ll just let its brutal plot and sympathetic characters speak for themselves.
Here are the stories I enjoyed the most back in:
