Nightmare“The Cut Cares Not for the Flesh” by George Sandison
“First Girls” by Jessica Luke García
“Preamble to the Death of a Small God” by H.B. Menendez
Reviewed by László Szegedi
“The Cut Cares Not for the Flesh” by George Sandison
The setting of this story was really promising, one that could have gone further in many directions: a couple with hidden tensions arrive at a secret underground party. The author chose his story to focus on mystically exchanging bodies but used cheap plot tools to make his point, one such being how a man would behave in a female body. Both the circumstances and the adventures were described in plodding detail, making it difficult to concentrate on the second part of the story.
As the author is in the spotlight of the magazine this month, you can read an interview with him about the story, how exactly he constructed it, and what those symbols within meant to him. While it’s a great interview and everything in it makes sense, still, after reading it, I didn’t feel myself closer to any of the characters, and the plot failed to amuse me at all.
“First Girls” by Jessica Luke García
A fun piece of an essay told from the perspective of those young ladies being killed at the beginning of slasher movies. Basically, the B-movie horror version of John Scalzi’s novel Redshirts, but in much shorter form. It’s well-written and made me smile a few times. Plus, the audio version of this story on Spotify was the best Nightmare episode I’ve listened to so far, mainly because of the playful yet precise narration by Roxanne Hernandez.
“Preamble to the Death of a Small God” by H.B. Menendez
In this old-fashioned witch story, the reader is transported into the world of witches, where the air is thick with the scent of incense and the villagers are fearful of the supernatural forces lurking in the shadows.
The story is filled with all the classic elements of the genre: mysterious omens, strange rituals, a cursed fate, and a connection to the transcendent.
The plot is narrated through a series of conversations between a deceased girl and an outcast witch. I felt the author spent too much time building the world and the history of the island. Unfortunately, neither that origin story nor the present line didn’t come out unique or interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention.
László is an SF enthusiast living in middle Europe, who also writes songs in his attic.