khōréō: Short Fiction Reviews by A.C. Wise
Due to an error in my logging stories for review, I accidentally left three stories out of my initial review of khōréō 3.4. The stories are reviewed here with apologies to the authors, editors, and publisher of the magazine.
“The Maiden Voyage of the Piranha Belle” by L.M. Guay is a diamond of a story, with beautiful glittering surfaces and a sharp, cutting point. The Piranha Belle of the title is a riverboat catering to a rich and callous clientele. The setting is gorgeously described, and the underlying exploration of entitlement and the mentality of colonizers who feel that the world should be theirs for the taking is perfectly done, all in just a few thousand words. “The Ancestors Tell You What to Do When Your Teenage Daughter Is Given a Cursed Wolf Skin from God and Becomes a Mardagayl” by Jolie Toomajan is a similarly brief story with beautiful writing and a strong underlying message. In this case, the advice offered from the ancestors to a parent regarding their recently transformed daughter is about shaking free of the expectations of society, seeing, and accepting others for who they are, practicing self-love, and not letting anyone else define you. Flash can be a tricky length to pull off, but this one nails it. “Trees Can Have My Soul; in Return, Let Me Have My Grief” by Rukman Ragas is a bittersweet exploration of complicated family relationships, coming home, and the feeling of not fully fitting in any one world. Mhyrsa returns home for her grandmother’s funeral where she must sing as the chief mourner. Her first language no longer feels natural to her, and she’s afraid she’s been away too long to honor her grandmother properly, even though her grandmother was the one who insisted she study in order to go away to university so she could have a life beyond being “just a Kanna picker.” The writing is lovely, perfectly capturing complex and conflicted emotions and relationships to both family and place.
Recommended Stories
“The Maiden Voyage of the Piranha Belle”, L.M. Guay (khōréō 3.4)
“The Ancestors Tell You What to Do When Your Teenage Daughter Is Given a Cursed Wolf Skin from God and Becomes a Mardagayl”, Jolie Toomajan (khōréō 3.4)
“Trees Can Have My Soul; in Return, Let Me Have My Grief”, Rukman Ragas (khōréō 3.4)
This review and more like it in the August 2024 issue of Locus.
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