Reactor, February 2025
“Not Alone” by Pat Murphy
“Red Leaves” by S. E. Porter
“Agate Way” by Laird Barron
“The Witch and the Wyrm” by Elizabeth Bear
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Two short stories and two novelettes appear in this issue.
The narrator of “Not Alone” by Pat Murphy is an elderly woman who runs a small amusement area in a swampy area of Florida. An extraordinary event causes her to understand the interconnections among members of communities of living things.
I have been deliberately vague about this story’s speculative content, which appears late in the text. The theme of individuals coming together to form a whole, as in a flock of birds or a colony of ants, is conveyed in an effective manner through realistic details. The narrator’s transformation at the end continues this theme in a striking way.
“Red Leaves” by S. E. Porter is narrated by the ghost of a boy, although he does not realize he is dead. Another ghost encourages him to attack a clergyman in the manner of a poltergeist. A séance conducted by a phony medium, attended by the dead boy’s mother, leads to a violent and dramatic climax.
The most interesting aspect of this story is its unusual depiction of ghosts, who can be bound inside living persons or within buildings. I never quite understood why the ghost who eggs the boy on wants to kill the clergyman. The intended victim is an unpleasant person who tells people their deceased relatives are in Hell, but who seems undeserving of the death penalty. The conclusion adds a bittersweet touch to a plot that is otherwise a familiar one of revenge from beyond the grave.
In the novelette “Agate Way” by Laird Barron, two women who eke out a living performing odd jobs are hired by a city politician to find out why a large number of pets have vanished. The investigation involves a decaying, nearly abandoned part of the city, as well as the ruins of an estate that once held a private menagerie of exotic beasts.
There is much more going on than suggested by this overly simplified synopsis. Various elements of horror fiction are involved, from nature’s revenge on humanity to sacrificial cults to the breakdown of reality. These disparate themes may be meant to create a mood of irrationality, but are likely to confuse readers. Contrasting sharply with this are the hardboiled narrative style and the tough, no-nonsense attitudes of the protagonists. Fans of gritty urban horror who don’t demand plot logic will best appreciate this dark tale.
“The Witch and the Wyrm” by Elizabeth Bear is a lengthy novelette, almost a novella. In a previous story, the narrator made a bargain with a dragon. He promised to protect its egg in exchange for a substance that would resurrect the dead. The magical liquid has unexpected side effects, making women and female animals instantly pregnant and giving birth unnaturally quickly.
In addition to restoring the deceased to full life, as desired, it also causes other dead people to emerge from their graves as ravaging zombies. Adding to the narrator’s worries is the fact that the dragon’s egg hatches early. The baby dragon thinks of the narrator as its parent, and needs to be fed constantly.
As can be seen, there are enough plot complications to keep the story moving for its full length. At the end, the narrator has acquired an apprentice and has a quest to fulfill, so a sequel seems inevitable. Readers familiar with the previous story in this series will be able to get more out of this installment than those who have not read it. Both may find the conclusion too open-ended.
Despite the theme of reviving the dead, and violent battles with zombies, the story has an oddly tongue-in-cheek mood, evolving into full comedy when the baby dragon shows up. Some readers may find the narrator’s lightness of tone disconcerting.
Victoria Silverwolf wrote this review as one month turned into another.