A review by ruthsic
The Pigeon Summer, by Lee Mandelo, Brit Mandelo
4.0
Talking to ghosts has its dangers — and its rewards.
The Pigeon Summer, despite that cover or that blurb, is not actually horror. I would categorize it most as speculative fiction, in which the existence of the ghost is more or less a matter of perspective. J, the gender neutral protagonist (I am going with gender fluid/agender, since it mentions coming out), is mourning for a lost love/friend. The death was quite recent and in the aftermath, J has been living alone in a run-down apartment, trying to get to another day while not knowing what to do with life. At first, the gender neutral pronouns stumped me, though a bit of Googling banished my doubts as to whether it was a misspelling. The more you know, huh? Anyway, it was made apparent that J had considered this person, C, to be hir best friend, who might have committed suicide, but that is not made apparent. The apartment at which si is living now, seems to be haunted, and J starts writing letters to the ghost, as a way to evade loneliness, I guess. Si sees a kinship with the ghost, in the possibility that si hirself is in a bit of limbo, mourning over a death. Watching over the pigeons' nest in the window seems to be the only thing J feels like doing, a way in which finally J decides to embrace back the world. It is pretty short, this story, but packs a lot of subtleties in between lines and within that beautiful writing.
The Pigeon Summer, despite that cover or that blurb, is not actually horror. I would categorize it most as speculative fiction, in which the existence of the ghost is more or less a matter of perspective. J, the gender neutral protagonist (I am going with gender fluid/agender, since it mentions coming out), is mourning for a lost love/friend. The death was quite recent and in the aftermath, J has been living alone in a run-down apartment, trying to get to another day while not knowing what to do with life. At first, the gender neutral pronouns stumped me, though a bit of Googling banished my doubts as to whether it was a misspelling. The more you know, huh? Anyway, it was made apparent that J had considered this person, C, to be hir best friend, who might have committed suicide, but that is not made apparent. The apartment at which si is living now, seems to be haunted, and J starts writing letters to the ghost, as a way to evade loneliness, I guess. Si sees a kinship with the ghost, in the possibility that si hirself is in a bit of limbo, mourning over a death. Watching over the pigeons' nest in the window seems to be the only thing J feels like doing, a way in which finally J decides to embrace back the world. It is pretty short, this story, but packs a lot of subtleties in between lines and within that beautiful writing.