Thin Red Jellies

by Lina Rather

Fiction, Short Story
When Jess died, Amy gave over her body without a second thought.

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Queer

24 pages, ebook

First published February 1, 2020

About the author

Lina Rather is a speculative fiction author from Michigan, now living in Washington, D.C. Her short fiction has appeared in venues including Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, and Shimmer. Her debut novella, Sisters of the Vast Black, is about nuns living in a giant slug in outer space and was published by Tor.Com Publishing in October 2019. When she isn’t writing, she likes to cook, go hiking, and collect terrible 90s comic books. Find out more about her and her writing at linarather.com or on Twitter @LinaRather.

Reviews

[Jassmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once more an incredibly interesting premise with an execution that I can't help but think could have been better (same as We Who Will Destroy the Future which I read just before this one). It's a story about two partners temporarily sharing one body and I thought that the exploration of that was really interesting - it kind of reminded me of The Host (but Melanie and Wanda are dating), but the circumstances and some of the conditions were really different. A big thematic line is also about insurance inequality. I was really enjoying it for the most part, but the ending kind of caught me unprepared with it's abruptness.
I don't really get the title though...?
The rating is more like 3,5 - I really liked the worldbuilding, I just thought that there might have been a better story told within it? Or... something.

https://giganotosaurus.org/2020/02/01...

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting, sweet, and somewhat melancholy story about healthcare and selfhood. Although it was definitely an enjoyable read, it didn't get enough across to me about the relationship between Amy and Jess or who they really were outside of the situation they found themselves in for me to love it. I think it did more to explore the inequity of healthcare access than really give a sense of the trauma and stress of sharing a body.

[DW Rowlands · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, that was painful, but also really good! Definitely recommended.