★★★☆☆
(Dark Fantasy) Fairies depend on humans to leave gifts of food, but when the old widow Willowbright had depended on dies, she struggles desperately to find someone else to provide for her. (5,857 words; Time: 19m)
"Buttercream and Broken Wings," by Aimee Ogden [bio] (edited by Scott H. Andrews), appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue 307, published on June 25, 2020.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2020.355 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: It’s hard not to sympathize with Willowbright. She means no harm, and she doesn’t go around curdling milk to push people into leaving her gifts. The human girl seems like a great future patron, and it’s awful just how badly that goes wrong, although we could almost predict it, given the nature of the girl’s first request: to make her look ugly so her stepmother and stepsister won’t hate her.
The way the wild fairies constantly tease her, it’s not a surprise that one of them helps her at the end, and, give how alienated she is from the queen and her court, it’s not a big surprise that Willowbright ends up following the wild fairies in the end.
Con: I’m not quite sure what to draw from the story. Was Willowbright foolish or incompetent? Or was she simply unlucky? I get the feeling we’re supposed to view her joining the wild fairies as a good thing, but it seems like an awful thing to me.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Aimee Ogden Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Pro: It’s hard not to sympathize with Willowbright. She means no harm, and she doesn’t go around curdling milk to push people into leaving her gifts. The human girl seems like a great future patron, and it’s awful just how badly that goes wrong, although we could almost predict it, given the nature of the girl’s first request: to make her look ugly so her stepmother and stepsister won’t hate her.
The way the wild fairies constantly tease her, it’s not a surprise that one of them helps her at the end, and, give how alienated she is from the queen and her court, it’s not a big surprise that Willowbright ends up following the wild fairies in the end.
Con: I’m not quite sure what to draw from the story. Was Willowbright foolish or incompetent? Or was she simply unlucky? I get the feeling we’re supposed to view her joining the wild fairies as a good thing, but it seems like an awful thing to me.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Aimee Ogden Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
No comments (may contain spoilers):
Post a Comment (comment policy)