A review by wanderlustlover
Uncanny Magazine Issue 25: November/December 2018 by Ursula Vernon, Sofia Samatar, Steven H. Silver, Isabel Yap, T. Kingfisher, Monica Valentinelli, Hal Y. Zhang, Sharon Hsu, Caroline M. Yoachim, Beth Cato, Leah Bobet, Diana M. Pho, Sarah Goslee, Cassandra Khaw, Nilah Magruder, Michael Damian Thomas, Naomi Kritzer, Lynne M. Thomas
5.0
Summer 2019 (Hugo Award Nominee 2019 - Best Short Story);
“Are we pining?” asked the green-eyed fae suddenly.
“Is this what it’s like when they pine away after us?”
This was a short, sweet delight and it has my vote for this category so far, having soared above my other pieces in it's slots. This is the tale of Rose MacGregor and her 'Lost Sheep,' but even more it a scandalously lovely look at the feminist reclaiming inversion of the whole 'Fairies Seducing Humans' mythos.
I love that Rose McGregor is never chided for her gall, her appetites, or her actions by the ring regaling themselves with her. I love how easily they talk about her, about human falling love with fairies and wasting away to death, or women chasing down selkie skins, or pookas trying to kill them after they've gotten. But that through all of this Rose MacGregor was the one who was in control, all ease and no force, easy amusement and confident poise.
I laughed entirely when they got to the quote at the top, when they all recognized and denied, that they had been done to by Rose as they had done to hundreds or thousands before her, and that was why they gathered each year to remember her.
Merged review:
Summer 2019 (Hugo Award Nominee 2019 - Best Novelette);
I was so, so, so pleased to see Naomi Kritzer's name in the list of nominees this year and was looking forward to making it through my list and getting to her story. I have a love-hate relationship with horror of most kinds, because I have an all too overhelpful mind even when it is being sedate, and so I usually give anything in that realm a wide berth.
This story was incredibly well laid out, with slow reveals and detailed examples. Our main character is two things most importantly a) a ghost stories folklorist and b) the daughter of a mother with Alzheimer's. I love the number of different examples of ghost stories we see through the novelette in those places where she goes for interviews, and I love that it's balanced by several places where we see her breaking it down with logic, with research, with culture.
There's a chilling and comforting realism to this whole story.
“Is this what it’s like when they pine away after us?”
This was a short, sweet delight and it has my vote for this category so far, having soared above my other pieces in it's slots. This is the tale of Rose MacGregor and her 'Lost Sheep,' but even more it a scandalously lovely look at the feminist reclaiming inversion of the whole 'Fairies Seducing Humans' mythos.
I love that Rose McGregor is never chided for her gall, her appetites, or her actions by the ring regaling themselves with her. I love how easily they talk about her, about human falling love with fairies and wasting away to death, or women chasing down selkie skins, or pookas trying to kill them after they've gotten. But that through all of this Rose MacGregor was the one who was in control, all ease and no force, easy amusement and confident poise.
I laughed entirely when they got to the quote at the top, when they all recognized and denied, that they had been done to by Rose as they had done to hundreds or thousands before her, and that was why they gathered each year to remember her.
Merged review:
Summer 2019 (Hugo Award Nominee 2019 - Best Novelette);
I was so, so, so pleased to see Naomi Kritzer's name in the list of nominees this year and was looking forward to making it through my list and getting to her story. I have a love-hate relationship with horror of most kinds, because I have an all too overhelpful mind even when it is being sedate, and so I usually give anything in that realm a wide berth.
This story was incredibly well laid out, with slow reveals and detailed examples. Our main character is two things most importantly a) a ghost stories folklorist and b) the daughter of a mother with Alzheimer's. I love the number of different examples of ghost stories we see through the novelette in those places where she goes for interviews, and I love that it's balanced by several places where we see her breaking it down with logic, with research, with culture.
There's a chilling and comforting realism to this whole story.