Hero family? "Galaxy Girl and the November Monstrosity" by Aleksandra Hill
BogiReads brings you the daily speculative reading recommendation of editor Bogi Takács.
Today's recommendation -
Author: Aleksandra Hill
Title: “Galaxy Girl and the November Monstrosity”
Venue: Uncharted, 2023 (it doesn’t list a publication month) – eds. Elizabeth Crowder, Myna Chang, and Kate Tooley
Type: Short story – 4595 words
Themes: Superheroes, contemporary fantasy, family, diaspora
Where to read: Text free online / Audio on LeVar Burton Reads
A superhero story where the superhero goes home for the holidays – and she’s just Jessie Piszczek, who needs to help cook the Thanksgiving turkey. Despite the Polish name of the protagonist, Polishness isn’t discussed (the author is Polish-Canadian), but this story had the perfect uncomfortable Eastern European family feels, transposed to the US. I don’t see this in English-language SFF a lot, and especially not combined with superheroes. I’m part of the first generation in Hungary who grew up on superhero comics, so this made multiple worlds come together for me :)
I clearly need to read more from Uncharted Mag! By the way, the author of this story is the founder and publisher of khōréō.