Short Fiction Fridays #8: Ghosts
Movie projectors, Laika, goldfinches, and more...
It’s spooky season! I’ve got a suitably spooky issue for you all, with six recommendations that involve Ghosts.
Like unicorns (see also Issue #5), ghosts are a classically mutable speculative symbol. SFF readers bring a prior understanding of ghosts to each story, and genre authors can use this to subvert or soothe or twist the knife as they see fit.
Ghost stories are not restricted to the domain of horror. I’ve included science fiction and fantasy stories below, as well as some that are–like ghosts–somewhere in between. Read on for movie projectors, AI clouds, goldfinches, Laika the space dog, and more…
“The Weight of It All” by Jennifer Hudak
An anorexic girl who longs to become insubstantial is possessed by a ghost who wants nothing more than to feel weighty and alive. She traps the ghost inside herself and together they spiral, almost lost, until the worlds they left reach out. Hurting, healing, and living in stark relief.
CW: Eating disorders
“We, the Girls Who Did Not Make It” by E.A. Petricone
There are thirteen of them, and they all have favorite colors. They watch a fourteenth girl struggle against her captors (they can’t help her, they’re all dead), and reminisce about their lives in all their full unfair imperfect glory. Biting, unapologetic, and fiercely protective.
CW: Abduction, sexual assault, torture, murder
“The Projectionists” by E.M. Linden
When the leaves fall, young Hasan watches American movies projected onto a bedsheet. Then, when it snows, his city fills with silent people that leave no footprints. Hasan wonders if they hold the clue to finding his mother, who he can neither mourn nor forget. Quiet, stubborn, and brave.
CW: Death of a parent, police/government brutality
“The Equations of the Dead" by An Owomoyela
Lat wants to ask the AI clouds to raise the dead through emulation, and Harmless falls in love with him for it. Unfortunately, Harmless works fetching things for the Old Man. More unfortunately, the Old Man wants to see Lat. Fast-paced, impulsive, and conceptual.
CW: Assault, murder
“Animal Sacrifice” by Mar Stratford
The narrator, who has always been followed by see-through dogs, takes a solitary job cleaning up orbital debris. Seeing Laika playing in the stars outside the porthole is more of a comfort than a surprise, and the little dog brings back old memories. Melancholy, rueful, and hopeful.
CW: Death of a parent, harm to an animal (mentioned), animal death
POEM: “The Charm of Goldfinches” by Crystal Sidell
Goldfinches flock to a widower’s magnolia tree, perching in droves in the shape of one letter per day. The message of the birds might not be as it first appears… Cryptic, classic, and unsettling.
(I was the guest editor for this issue of Apparition Lit, for full disclosure!)
CW: Death of a partner
UP NEXT
With summer well and truly behind us, I think it’s about time for the next issue’s theme to be Nostalgia.
THANK YOU FOR READING
If you enjoyed any of these stories, please support their authors and the magazines that published them. I’d also love to hear any suggestions for future list themes! Just reply to this email or contact me elsewhere and I’ll use your theme (within reason) for a future newsletter.
I have contacted the Revue team to request the ability to add alt text for photos, since these back issues are available on the web, but until that is an option please note that all included images are non-informational cover art for linked stories.