Strange Horizons, March 11, 2019

“The Wind Whispers Secrets To The Sea” by Jordan Kurella

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

Less than one thousand words long, “The Wind Whispers Secrets To The Sea” by Jordan Kurella is more of a prose poem than a story, with subtle fantasy content. On the surface, it concerns a woman who lives with a firefighter for a while, leaves him, and eventually walks into the sea. On a deeper level, the narrator (who always calls herself “we”) is apparently some kind of supernatural being, possibly an incarnation of wind. The sea is also a living creature, it seems, addressed as “they.” Whether read as fantasy, or as a metaphoric portrait of the narrator’s psychological state, this brief story offers more style than clarity.

Victoria Silverwolf thinks this might be the shortest story she has ever reviewed.