Bill Hsu's Reviews > Fruiting Bodies: Stories

Probably my favorite collection of 2022 so far. The main characters are mostly girls and young women, mostly queer, struggling to make crucial decisions in precarious situations, often with magic realist elements. In the best stories, the tension is beautifully sustained (see for example "The Changeling", where the girls' delusions about the baby keep the narrative teetering on a knife's edge); the outcomes are often surprising. I usually prefer tighter treatments. But I enjoyed the longer pieces as well, where the character sketches and intimacies have time to unspool.

I enjoyed "Take Only What Belongs to You", about a literary quest. The protagonist is obsessed with an author and establishing her queerness, something that I can relate to. The beauty of "Fiddler, Fool Pair" is mostly in the wordplay, juggling classic fairy lore and magical card games; this kind of proto-fantasy piece is usually a tough sell for me, but I liked Harlan's approach.

The title story is my favorite, with the tender magic realist intimacies, the mysterious intruder disrupting the couple's domestic routine, and the tension ratcheting up to the surprise ending. "Endangered Animals" is less impressive, but it captures a kind of sadness in unraveling/evolving relationships, and the larger changes in the world, that I found quite attractive.

(3.5 stars, rounded up)