★★★☆☆
(Historical Horror) A young woman in 17th-Century Paris tells how the effort to treat her insane husband went awry. (5,682 words; Time: 18m)
"The Widow," by Emma Törzs [bio] (edited by Scott H. Andrews), appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue 305, published on May 28, 2020.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2020.307 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: It’s a nice account of how Perrine first greeted the news that her husband had been cured of his insanity by Dr. Denis’s treatments, but then fell in with de la Martinière, who only wanted to discredit Denis. Perrine has her own goals though, and with the help of La Voisin, she manages them.
Madame La Voisin was a real person, although one doubts she had the sort of metamorphosis potions we find in the story. Jean-Baptiste Denis really did experiment with Xenotransfusion up until the death of a patient led to it being outlawed in 1870.
Con: Why on Earth did Perrine want to become a wolf? That made no sense to me. Maybe her life was bad, but being a wolf would be worse. And why bother to turn her insane husband into a lamb? Why wasn’t killing him enough?
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Emma Törzs Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: It’s a nice account of how Perrine first greeted the news that her husband had been cured of his insanity by Dr. Denis’s treatments, but then fell in with de la Martinière, who only wanted to discredit Denis. Perrine has her own goals though, and with the help of La Voisin, she manages them.
Madame La Voisin was a real person, although one doubts she had the sort of metamorphosis potions we find in the story. Jean-Baptiste Denis really did experiment with Xenotransfusion up until the death of a patient led to it being outlawed in 1870.
Con: Why on Earth did Perrine want to become a wolf? That made no sense to me. Maybe her life was bad, but being a wolf would be worse. And why bother to turn her insane husband into a lamb? Why wasn’t killing him enough?
Other Reviews: Search Web
Emma Törzs Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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