Monsters, or...? "Hollywood Animals" by Corey J. White
BogiReads brings you the daily speculative reading recommendation of editor Bogi Takács.
Today's recommendation -
Author: Corey J. White
Title: “Hollywood Animals”
Venue: Interzone #295, September 2023
Type: Short story – Not sure about the word count because I read it in print
Themes: Animal rights, cinema, science fiction, near future, unions, labor
Where to read: Buy print and ebook here
Interzone is having a sale until Jan 14 where both issue #294 and #295 are just 99 cents each on Weightless, so I bumped up this story which I’d originally planned to include next week.
I was honestly blown away by it, to the extent that I picked up Corey J. White’s debut novella right away (I haven’t read it yet, so you might see it eventually – I’m trying not to do author repeats in at least 3 months though!).
This is a story about near future filmmaking and animal mistreatment. It is really about animal mistreatment, in its entirety, so if you think in the slightest that it might be too upsetting for you to read, then please don’t. But I do recommend it if you can – it is a take on the topic that is both thoughtful, heartfelt, and the speculative elements are integral to it. Also, despite the cruelty involved, this is not a story of utter hopelessness. And, unions!
Here are some author notes I found on Corey J. White’s website.
Take care,
Bogi.