Apex #141, November/December 2023
“Hole World” by J.S. Breukelaar
“Nightglow Pizza” by A.M. Lomuscio
“Homewrecker” by E. Catherine Tobler
“All the Good You Did Not Do” by Jolie Toomajan
“Papas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Slug Monsters” by Erica Satifka
“Twenty Pieces of Documentation Presented to the Emergency Committee on the Study and Understanding of the M3D1154 Contagion” by Damien Angelica Walters
“Wet, Dry, Bitter” by Leah Ning
“Woman Embracing Woman, on Loan From Private Collection” by Liv Strom
Reviewed by Rick Cartwright
These eight stories don’t fall into any particular theme or genre other than, according to the Apex editor, “loud and weird and dare to take you to places you didn’t know existed, let alone that you wanted to go.” The editor and authors take chances with layout and style of delivery. Some work well, others not so much.
“Hole World” is a dark post-apocalyptic horror story. J.S. Breukelaar does a good job of describing the protagonist’s soul crushing existence. There is some hope at the end but you have to wade through a hellish world to get there. A good story if you like dark fiction.
A.M. Lomuscio’s debut story, “Nightglow Pizza,” is a tale about a food vendor with an adventurous streak regarding incorporating new ingredients and a flexible sense of morality regarding the consequences. Her goal is to get on the map with favorable food reviews. She never considers that there are things out there who want to take over the map. A fun read.
“Homewrecker” by E. Catherine Tobler is an interesting take on the house horror trope. The story is laid out as an Internet thread like Reddit, analyzing footage from a home renovation show. The story is not linear in the sense that it shows the footage timestamps jumping backwards and forwards. It’s a fascinating choice by the writer. It seemed to disrupt the flow of the story for the reviewer, but your mileage may vary as an argument could be made that it both foreshadows and raises the dread level.
“All the Good You Did Not Do” by Jolie Toomajan is an odd story that explores an ordinary man who does an extraordinary thing to stop a zombie apocalypse before it starts. It examines the question of what happens to the hero after the parade is over and his fifteen minutes of fame expires.
Erica Satifka delivers the best story of the issue with “Papas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Slug Monsters.” Every parent deals with teenage rebellion and angst. As the title implies, that’s an entirely different proposition on the moon of Titan where a child picks its first artificial body. The story explores how the new generation, the children of the first settlers, can have a completely different view of what is home and what is right than their parents. A fun tale.
“Twenty Pieces of Documentation Presented to the Emergency Committee on the Study and Understanding of the M3D1154 Contagion” by Damien Angelica Walters riffs off the Medusa mythos to craft what might be the ultimate girl power story. Like some of the other stories in this issue, the editor has let the author use format as part of the story presentation. It’s an interesting approach. In this story the text is laid out as evidence summaries for some unnamed legislative committee.
“Wet, Dry, Bitter” by Leah Ningh has the dubious distinction of being the darkest story this reviewer has ever read. The subject matter is extremely disturbing. Because it is a flash fiction piece, it’s not possible to explain what it is about without giving away too much. The tale has a very limited appeal. Which doesn’t include the reviewer.
The story “Woman Embracing Woman, on Loan From Private Collection” by Liv Strom is a piece of flash fiction that revolves around a reclusive artist who is never seen by anyone, and her relationship with one of her models. They live together and love together for over thirty years without the model ever seeing her lover. The end has an interesting twist reminiscent of another story in the issue.