(Horror) A Canadian man returns from a near-fatal accident in the far north, but his wife notices something’s not quite right with him now. (6,090 words; Time: 20m)
Rating: ★★★☆☆ Average
"Dark Warm Heart," by Rich Larson [bio] (edited by Ellen Datlow), published on April 12, 2017 by Tor.com.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Pro: The setup is great. We gradually realize just how wrong things are. And yet we also know how very much they love each other. The fact that he’s bitten her a couple of times creates a lot of tension.
He’s dying without food, and the only food he can eat is human flesh. He tries to get some at a medical cadaver, but security runs him off.
So his wife decides she wants to keep him, and she prepares to cut off a finger to feed to him. Her ring finger, symbolically, since he needs “dark warm heart” food, and tradition has it that the ring finger has a vein directly connected to the heart.
Minor note: From the airport code, we know this is set in Edmonton, Alberta.
Con: Why does she think feeding him one finger one time will fix anything? Her actions at the end make little sense.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 04/12/17)
Rich Larson Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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He’s dying without food, and the only food he can eat is human flesh. He tries to get some at a medical cadaver, but security runs him off.
So his wife decides she wants to keep him, and she prepares to cut off a finger to feed to him. Her ring finger, symbolically, since he needs “dark warm heart” food, and tradition has it that the ring finger has a vein directly connected to the heart.
Minor note: From the airport code, we know this is set in Edmonton, Alberta.
Con: Why does she think feeding him one finger one time will fix anything? Her actions at the end make little sense.
Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 04/12/17)
Rich Larson Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Eesh! Starts out dark and tense and just keeps going. That ending -- shocking. But, yeah, that's not gonna work.
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