Apex Magazine Issue 105, February 2018

I don't always review short stories, but people need to know about this one, which I was lucky to stumble upon a link to in a GR friend's review of something else.

This is one of the best things I read all year. Like goosebumps, mixed with trying to pick out key quotes that kept spiraling from a sentence to a paragraph to a page of amazing prose. This very light fantasy story is about what books mean to us – how they can speak to our emotions and how the right book can guide us through hard times. It is poignant and very funny.

Don't take my word for it – go read: https://apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-portal-fantasies/

Merged review:

I don't always review short stories, but people need to know about this one, which I was lucky to stumble upon a link to in a GR friend's review of something else.

This is one of the best things I read all year. Like goosebumps, mixed with trying to pick out key quotes that kept spiraling from a sentence to a paragraph to a page of amazing prose. This very light fantasy story is about what books mean to us – how they can speak to our emotions and how the right book can guide us through hard times. It is poignant and very funny.

Don't take my word for it – go read: https://apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-portal-fantasies/

This isn't how it is meant to be. I awake without the alarm, it is dark and it is raining heavily. I wander downstairs and make coffee and decide to read a few reviews and then get a few pages in of my present book before heading on the insufferable freeway to go to work. Thunder starts and I check the radar. There is rain aplenty.

I sip the coffee and the first review is of this short story. It seems promising, so I hit the link offered and read along with the audio. I have never done that before, I think to myself.

About 40 minutes later, a clap of thunder roars over head as I read/listen to the last line. Timing is everything, I suppose. My coffee has gone cold. It is still raining.

Merged review:

This isn't how it is meant to be. I awake without the alarm, it is dark and it is raining heavily. I wander downstairs and make coffee and decide to read a few reviews and then get a few pages in of my present book before heading on the insufferable freeway to go to work. Thunder starts and I check the radar. There is rain aplenty.

I sip the coffee and the first review is of this short story. It seems promising, so I hit the link offered and read along with the audio. I have never done that before, I think to myself.

About 40 minutes later, a clap of thunder roars over head as I read/listen to the last line. Timing is everything, I suppose. My coffee has gone cold. It is still raining.