The Drive to the Crematorium
On the drive to the crematorium, I think I make peace with your death.
Three YA Novels that Got Mental Health Right
This is in no way a comprehensive list—however, I specifically chose works that not only avoid traditional YA standards, but gripped me enough to compel a second read.
Coarsely, Shockingly Real: A Review of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Unlikeable main characters abound in modern fiction, and this novel does not break that mold.
Announcements
Past Announcements
Issue 41 Pre-Order Open
Our 41st issue is now available for pre-order online.
2021 Sudden Fiction Contest Winners!
We’re thrilled to announce the winners and honorary mention of our 2021 Sudden Fiction Contest! Read more to find out who won!
Book Reviews
Feminism and Witchcraft: A Review of Circe by Madeline Miller
What if Circe could tell her own version of the story? Madeline Miller explores this possibility within her novel Circe: a story that transcends just a simple rewriting of The Odyssey.
Emotional Thrills: Review of The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
Jewell has crafted a compelling mystery full of twists and turns, making sure you won’t know who to believe.
A Literary Quilt Woven of Golden Thread: Review of How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a novel that looks readers in the eye, never flinching from its own intensity.
More Reviews
“Unapologetically Brown and Unapologetically South Asian”: A Review of The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
In Adiba Jaigirdar’s The Henna Wars, Bengali teenager Nishat decides to come out as a lesbian to her traditional parents against the backdrop of her family friend’s wedding.
Mystery Meets Sci-Fi & Fantasy: A Review of The Detective is Already Dead by Nigozyu
With our blind trust in the characters and text, Nigozyu sneakily surprises us with curve balls that prevents us from ever jumping to conclusions.
Flaws and Romance: Review of Normal People by Sally Rooney
At the heart of Rooney’s novel is the message that people can change each other for the better.
The Secluded Purgatory of a Tea Shop: Review of Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
He has no friends, and his employees wish he were dead. Unfortunately for Wallace, they get their wish.
A Love Letter to Slasher Cinema: A Review of My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
A horror novel should hold my attention sooner than eighty percent of the way through the book.
Commentaries
Bookstores of the Bay: A Curated List
If you’re looking to find some new shops to explore, or just simply hear about one person’s experiences with bookstores, keep on reading!
Squid Game: What’s the Big Deal? and Other Existential Questions
If I’m no longer assessing the media by its emotional resonance, where does that leave me?
From Pages to Premiers: The Case for Book To Movie Adaptations
If turning books into movies makes these stories more accessible, leading more people to love the tales being told, what’s the harm?
Bilingual Literature and the Acceptance of Not Understanding
Bilingual literature that embodies a lack of understanding offers a clear benefit to immigrant writers. They are able to express the feelings of alienation and incomprehension that come with relocating to a new country to people who have never had the experience, while simultaneously writing for their community.
More Readings
Best Spooky Books to Read This Fall
It’s fall, which means it’s time to curl up by the fire with some spooky music and read a scary book!
Surfing the Time Wave: Prescience in Frank Herbert’s Dune
Ever since H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, the topic of time and our ability to interact with it has been at the forefront of science fiction.
Hypertext Fiction: The Literary Genre That Was Theorized Before It Was Written
Think if Wikipedia was a novel, or a Choose Your Own Adventure book existed online.
Fiction
His Scaly Self
Gradually, he grew accustomed to his alternate form, to the point that he could forget about it for hours at a time.
More Stories
Pizza Talk
This is probably why I want him to impregnate me, so my kid won’t have to suffer, and, in turn, I won’t have to suffer.
Auteur Theory
Dripping in the color, she was sci-fi sanctified, alien and clean.
Remainder
After our first week, I begin to lose things during the walks along the creek.
Haunted Home
The ship features a recreation of a slave ship’s hold. The cruise prides itself on it. It is not a good recreation, if the metric is realism.
Pillow Practice
Promise me you won’t write a poem about me.
I, Iris
I am Iris, I thought. Iris is me, and Iris is in the wrong lane.
Haiyang
Don’t worry, I said, you’re the sea, and it’s impossible for the sea to drown. There’s nothing big enough for you.
Penis Candles
The hall closet candles are white, ten inches long, and shaped like penises.
Interviews
Breaking the Canon: Interview with K-Ming Chang, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge & Author of Bestiary
Something about flash fiction and short fiction is just so ripe with experimentation and with breaking boundaries and for kind of completely turning on its head what a story can look like.
A Flash of Lightning and Heartbreak: Interview with Ashley Hutson, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge & Author of One’s Company
I feel like when you write flash, you’re giving something to the reader, like an electric shock.
A Case for “the surreal and the strange”: Interview with Anna Vangala Jones, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge and Author of Turmeric & Sugar
When I picture a flash fiction story done well, a story that’s getting so much across in this tiny space, I imagine a little snow globe or something that’s bursting with how much is going on inside it.
More Interviews
An Element of Sacrifice: Interview with Emily Dezurick-Badran, author of Issue 41 story “Remainder”
Sacrifice can be this totally joyful choice that people make, which is something that I’ve come to terms with more, recently.
Echoed Traumas and The Inheritance of a Nation: Interview with Conrad Loyer, author of Issue 41 story “Haunted Home”
This explanation of my relationship with racial memory and inherited trauma, I think, started coming in.
Text and Images: Interview of Charlotte Bunney, artist for Issue 41 story “Pillow Practice”
The difficult thing with illustrating is trying to find an image that complements the piece without giving it away.
Personal Essays
Escaping Into Reality: The Importance of Fictional Truth
There’s a common misconception that escapist fiction is far removed from reality, but I would argue that it is simply a different kind of truth about another aspect of reality.
Regarding the Pain of Women: Disabled Childhoods and Intellectual Insanity
Growing up as a disabled child, I learned to live in a world that was my own.
Lucia’s Lessons on Leaving
Berlin’s writing captured a sort of reckless joy I recalled from my time in Paris: living on that rugged edge between foolish risk-taking and worthwhile adventure.
More Readings
Blue Pills as Always
Across this textured face, I count all the bleeding and irritated spots, hooking onto them with my eyes and making sure that each and every unwanted citizen of a pimple on the once-clear expanse of my face is ingrained in my mind.
My Unseen World
The Unseen World grapples with this abstract notion: if memories are the fundamental building blocks to a coherent identity, when one loses these memories or memories are distorted —who does this person become? Who are they in relation to you?
How Reading Has Helped Me in the Age of COVID-19
“I….have been able to use reading as both a reprieve from reality, as well as an educational tool to become a more productive version of my isolated self.”
Visuals
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