A review by nataliya_x
Uncanny Magazine Issue 32: January/February 2020 by Chimedum Ohaegbu, Elsa Sjunneson, Michael Damian Thomas, Lynne M. Thomas
4.0
This review is for three (!) award-nominated stories: “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse” (Hugo and Nebula), “My Country is a Ghost” (Nebula) and “Where You Linger” (Nebula). The rating is for “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse” — by far my favorite of the three.
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Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson - 4/5
Does exactly what it says on the tin. Badass moms in the zombie apocalypse. Giving birth is hard, especially when besieged by bloodthirsty horde of zombies. Featuring placental consumption that actually makes survival sense - a sentence I never thought I’d say.
“Eyes up, knives ready.”
4 stars.
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My Country Is a Ghost by Eugenia Triantafyllou - 2/5
When you emigrate to another country, you are made to leave your ghosts behind at the border. Literally. The new country doesn’t want to be burdened with immigrants’ ghosts and pasts.
Interesting beginning that quickly fizzles out into a heavy metaphor/melancholic message lesson. I could not bring myself to care, sadly.
2 stars.
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Where You Linger by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam - 1.5/5
Huh? A woman recounts all the men and women she had sex with, then gets to revisit her memories of them in some kind of science-fictional experience, accompanied by one of her past selves, and has more sex with them, and then some sort of lesson is learned.
Yeah, I was bored and baffled. It’s a trainwreck in slow motion, and I so don’t care.
1.5 stars.
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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299
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Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson - 4/5
Does exactly what it says on the tin. Badass moms in the zombie apocalypse. Giving birth is hard, especially when besieged by bloodthirsty horde of zombies. Featuring placental consumption that actually makes survival sense - a sentence I never thought I’d say.
“Eyes up, knives ready.”
4 stars.
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My Country Is a Ghost by Eugenia Triantafyllou - 2/5
When you emigrate to another country, you are made to leave your ghosts behind at the border. Literally. The new country doesn’t want to be burdened with immigrants’ ghosts and pasts.
“Foreign ghosts were considered unnecessary. The only things they had to offer were stories and memories.”
Interesting beginning that quickly fizzles out into a heavy metaphor/melancholic message lesson. I could not bring myself to care, sadly.
2 stars.
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Where You Linger by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam - 1.5/5
Huh? A woman recounts all the men and women she had sex with, then gets to revisit her memories of them in some kind of science-fictional experience, accompanied by one of her past selves, and has more sex with them, and then some sort of lesson is learned.
Yeah, I was bored and baffled. It’s a trainwreck in slow motion, and I so don’t care.
1.5 stars.
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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299