Review of Weird Dream Society edited by Julie C. Day
Weird Dream Society: An Anthology of the Possible and Unsubstantiated in Support of RAICES (Reckoning Press, 2020), edited by Julie C. Day, is an anthology of weird speculative fiction stories that run the gamut from unbelievably surreal to quite believable. The twenty-three stories range in length and scope, but they come together to form a whole that is very evocative of the name “weird dream society.”
The language throughout the stories is lush and descriptive, making some of them very dense reads, even when they are fairly short. A few of the stories stood out for me as definite favorites. “Butter-Daughters” by Nin Harris is a beautiful blend of the surreal and the academic, reading very much like a history or anthropology article but still containing elements of story. “Skin Like Carapace” by Steve Toase manages a masterful amount of world-building through tiny details and things that are left unsaid. “Higher Works” by Gregory Normal Bossert tells the story of what could very well be a near-future society of nanotechnology and underground musical/visual performances, with the characters making the story even more engrossing. I also loved “Jewel of the Vashwa” by Jordan Kurella, which features some of the best use of an unreliable narrator that I’ve ever seen in a story.
If you like your short fiction surreal and weird, check out Weird Dream Society. Proceeds from the anthology go to benefit RAICES.
The editor provided me with a copy of the anthology for review consideration.
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