ladybusiness | (Reply)

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I really enjoyed the one story you don't have here - That Game We Played - as well!

A Fist... was my favourite of the bunch - but I connected with it very personally, as I lost a sibling less than a year ago, and reading this was like a punch in the gut, but also very respectful and feeling inredibly authentic. The device - repeating attempts to take things back, to turn back to a world that doesn't contain the same loss - was, to me, an insightful depiction of the state of mind that can follow such loss, endless repetition of self-blame and regret and what-ifs; this is how thoughts circle in the middle of the night. The pain felt real.

My second favourite was probably Game We Played - it was thoughtful, contemplative and well-written.

I'd put Amal El-Mohtar in third place, because while I appreciated both the style and the plot (yay queer happy endings!) I felt like she didn't make it as special as some of her other writing has seemed to me. It stopped half-way for me, taking deep breath without quite plunging. But it was still very good.

Fourth place would go to Bolander, whose short short story was actually very fun for me - it was like a shot of spirits, like a pop song you shout along to, but still, a little too little for a higher place on the list.

I liked Jemisin's story least; though I love her writing in general, her shorts in general tend to leave me colder, and this one was, in addition, kept in an urban aesthetic that, along with worldbuilding, reminded me of Neil Gaiman's writing, and that's not a compliment here - because it's a little dated for me, I suppose, or just not as good as Jemisin can do.

(On a personal note - I confess I find reading longer forms online difficult, so I now convert the stories from websites to a format my e-reader will accept and read there; I get so much more shorts reading done this way.)