[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, December 4, 2023

“Maladaptive Camouflage” by Ann LeBlanc

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

“Maladaptive Camouflage” by Ann LeBlanc deals with worm-like colonies of aliens who duplicate humans in order to take over their lives. The real people destroy the duplicates, if they can determine who or what they are. The author uses this premise to tell a tale of a woman having to decide which of her two wives is the original.

This synopsis is misleading, because it makes the story sound like a thriller. There is a bit of that, but mostly it is about the relationship between the two women, and the nature of the invading duplicates.

The author makes use of the currently popular second person narrative voice mixed with first person (one of the two wives speaking to the other as “you”) in a manner that is more effective than the way it is used in some other works. This technique allows a couple of plot twists to take the reader by surprise.

The premise can be interpreted as a metaphor for coming out as “queer” (to use the narrator’s term) but many readers are likely to just see it as an old-fashioned idea for a science fiction horror story.

Victoria Silverwolf avoided the temptation to mention Invasion of the Body Snatchers in this review.