Aliterate: Spring 2017

Aliterate #2

by Brendan Hickey (Editor), Emilio T. Jasso (Editor), Alicia Kort (Editor)

Aliterate is a biannual literary magazine featuring the best new genre fiction. In volume two we turn our eye to the fantastical and weird. Within these pages you'll find demons, dragons, and obsession.

Contents
When the Moon Fell into the Sea - Story Boyle
The Fold - Aaron Worth
Drowning Joys - Jason Kimble
The Dragon and the Orange Juice - Genoveva Detelinova, trans. Kalin M. Nenov
The Reordering of Tonia Vivian - Karen Heuler
Katausky vs. Paper - Jon Hakes

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2017

Reviews

[Kalin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second issue of Aliterate contains one light-hearted story (Genoveva's) and five of the more grimdark variety.

My reading notes:

~ Jason Kimble's "Drowning Joys" is extremely evocative (and less dark than I initially feared). It's also full of quotable lines, such as this one:

Things change. People change. Sometimes into horses. It’s not just the devil in the details. There are plenty more monsters than that.

~ The nastiness of Karen Heuler's "The Reordering of Tonia Vivian" reminded me why I'm avoiding most contemporary literary fiction. It wouldn't have felt so chilly if the protagonists weren't children.

Now I need an antidote. :(

~ "Katausky vs. Paper" was an antidote. Of sorts. ;) Though terrifying in its own right (terrifying is the new black--the oldest black too, but we know fashion runs in circles), its funny or phantasmagoric moments pulled me out. Just like those fingers at the end.

The imagery lent a hand:

Katausky found the daylight moon more natural than the nighttime moon, a circle of faraway mountains rather than an unearthly glowing sphere.

As did the misquotes:

“You are become Death, believer of everyone’s bullshit.”

A more than satisfying conclusion to the volume.