I don't always review short stories, but people need to know about this one, which I was lucky to stumble upon a link to in a GR friend's review of something else.

This is one of the best things I read all year. Like goosebumps, mixed with trying to pick out key quotes that kept spiraling from a sentence to a paragraph to a page of amazing prose. This very light fantasy story is about what books mean to us -- how they can speak to our emotions and how the right book can guide us through hard times. It is poignant and very funny.

Don't take my word for it -- go read: https://apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-por...

Merged review:

I don't always review short stories, but people need to know about this one, which I was lucky to stumble upon a link to in a GR friend's review of something else.

This is one of the best things I read all year. Like goosebumps, mixed with trying to pick out key quotes that kept spiraling from a sentence to a paragraph to a page of amazing prose. This very light fantasy story is about what books mean to us -- how they can speak to our emotions and how the right book can guide us through hard times. It is poignant and very funny.

Don't take my word for it -- go read: https://apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-por... ( )

A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies — Alix Harrow

Neat short story. ( )

I was that foster kid.

But with better foster parents, who didn't understand why I read that much, or that being depressed as a teenager isn't just being 'moody'. What they did do was giving me more books. I was being teased for reading that much but never for what genre I read. I got a bike so I could go to the library on my own. I was complemented when I went (sometimes that was the only thing that actually made me put my clothes on). When we were herded outside (''Fresh air is good for you!'') I could take my books and just sit in the sun. I even got some tea to take with me.

So even though I wanted to escape my life sometimes, I always had a place to call my home. It wasn't perfect, it wasn't chosen, it left it's scars but at the end of the day I could always return.

Excuse me while I go cry and/or leave an emotional message to my (foster)parents. ( )

Read Alix E. Harrow's A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies. It was AMAZING.



What would I be, cut off from the orderly world of words and their readers, from the peaceful Ouroboran cycle of story-telling and story-eating?

AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING.

As a lover of libraries, I felt this story in my bones. Go read now. ( )

Delightful short story!

But then, I'm always a sucker for libraries, librarians, book discussions, and anything that throws the yoke off our necks. :)

Want some Harry Potter? How about some [b:The Count of Monte Cristo|7126|The Count of Monte Cristo|Alexandre Dumas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309203605s/7126.jpg|391568]? How about we just live there a bit, shall we?

Ah, well, we only have a short story here, but at least the feels are here. :)

( )