[On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]
Strange Horizons, August 2, 2021
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
The narrator of “Cocoon” by H. Pueyo witnesses a grandmother transform into the object mentioned in the title. Slowly, the grandmother becomes less and less human, and the narrator waits for her to emerge from the cocoon in some new form.
This brief fable of aging and loss is written in a clear, poetic style. The metaphor of the cocoon is an effective one, and the story’s ending touches the reader’s emotions while avoiding sentimentality.
Victoria Silverwolf likes the illustration for this story.