Paula Guran Reviews Nightmare, The Deadlands, and The Dark

Nightmare 2/24, 3/24, 4/24
The Deadlands Winter ’24
The Dark 1/24, 2/24, 3/24

Of the three originals in Nightmare #137, a flash piece satisfied me the most. Jessica Luke García notes in her introduction to “First Girl” that we “live in a Final Girl world” then proceeds to give the girl who dies first in any slasher movie her telling and sometimes risible due.

Two of the new stories in Nightmare #138 struck me as being imperfect, but worthwhile. A new way of getting high and easing the pains the world inflicts – dubbed “wire” – is pivotal to “Second Deaths” by Keith Rosson. Addict Charles has no choice but to let dealer Jerome stow his not exactly dead cousin, Michael, in his barn. Soon, Jerome’s partner Peach is in the barn too. They both need to die a second time. The depth of characteriza­tion is commendable, but unfortunately the tale ended too abruptly for me. “A Guide to Camping in the Forest” by Oyedotun Damilola Muees also shows promise. The story of a haunted Nigerian forest and its eerie denizens almost reads like a travelogue. Personally, I would have liked for it to have gone all the way in that direction. In the third tale, Muniza, the wife in Fatima Taqvi’s “Our Very Best Selves!”, is literally falling to pieces. Ever since an accident, she’s been doing her best to keep sewing herself back together. Her abusive husband, Nadeem, is not satisfied. Muniza decides to take on the “ultimate self-improvement project.” The idea of “fixing” a relationship and oneself is taken to another level.

As with #137, I enjoyed the flash fiction piece in Nightmare #139 the most. In “There are three children jumping over a can outside a bodega” by Mark Galarrita, a TikToker seeking authenticity (and followers) in Queens encounters more than he expected when he videos three boys whose mothers have taught them ancient ways that can protect them from the dangers of a domineering society. A viciously gratifying little piece.

With The Deadlands #33, the inaugural issue of 2024, the monthly periodical switched to quarterly publication. Six works of short fiction concerned with death are now offered in a single issue. I’ll focus on three. For the first time in the long years since she found her calling, the wails of the pro­fessional mourner in “Threnody in Dark Wood” by Avra Margariti fail to find a response from the deceased. The outcome is predictable, but the author still delivers a good tale. People in Diana Dima’s “Auspicium” each have a bird inside them that must eventually escape and fly away. Despite the inevitability of the premise, Dima captures both the fear of death and the release it can bring. “Totality” by Brandi Sperry is the only fiction I’ve read (so far?) based on the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse. After the eclipse, people who are reincarnated awaken with memories of all their past lives. (I liked the point that Earth’s growth in population means most folks are new souls with no past lives.) Hannah, whose brilliant twin Noah died as a child, finds her lost brother reincarnated in a living man. But he isn’t just her brother; he is a “thousand other people, too.” Sperry posits some interesting possibilities about humankind’s existence and our collective future.

Periodical The Dark publishes two original short stories and two reprints each month. The Dark #104 started 2024 well with “The Grit Born” by Frances Ogamba. Egoabia, desiring a child, purchases “Rebirth powder” online. Blending it with love and clay she molds a son, Ude. He is not human, of course, and has quirks, but for five years she is mostly satisfied. It helps that she can receive advice from fellow parents of clay children via the Rebirth website. Things grow stranger after Ude starts acting more independently and molds himself a brother. Readers will ponder the nature of parenting. Neither of the new stories of issue #105 passed muster for me, but Matthew Cheney’s “Rare Bindings” in The Dark #106 was a rewarding tale of the darkly magical institutional traditions of a college library. “Marshman” by Sara Omer – a cryptozoologist who is called upon to help examine various cryptid corpses found in a peat bog – also hit the mark.

Recommended Stories

“First Girl”, Jessica Luke García (Nightmare 2/24)

This review and more like it in the May 2024 issue of Locus.

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