LINKDING

Excerpt: After we kill our father but before we leave the island, we argue. Cal doesn’t want to go; he’s afraid of the water. Even after the rest of us outvote him two to one, he refuses to move, crouching on the ground, pressing the ruined side of his face into the earth, snarling whenever we try to touch him. In the end Ari has to sit down with him and say something in a quiet soothing susurrus, like they do, and the whole time Mir is pacing in the waves at the very edge of the water, where it barely comes up to her ankles. She is moving back and forth and back and forth, with her eyes on the horizon, and when this is happening Father’s blood is still on all of our hands but mostly on hers. ➤ that's a very evocative short story title right there and it's like. yeah. that's what the story is about! ➤ a fantasy story about three teens who have escaped their powerful and abusive father figure, who are a team in escaping, who might not always like each other but who are bound together in inextricable ways ➤ the entire story takes place in a boat as they make their way away from the island, hoping to find the mainland, but it never feels static, it's always pushing you onward, as you get more hints of the backstory, of what exactly all the context is for the murder and the escape ➤ it's so good!!! ➤ also. it's told in plural first person? which is so cool. The three teens are the "we" and "us" of the narrative voice. it's so well done! I love when stories play with pov. ➤ also. trans characters! ➤ 5k words

Summary: <blockquote>According to the ways, when the head of a household passed away, his womenfolk had to refrain from lifting their feet in dance and their voices in song until the moon cast its full light down for the third time. During that interval, which, to be clear, could be three months, the mourners remained cloistered in their home and performed ritual ablutions to cleanse themselves of death, while their family and friends slowly entombed them within walls of food containers and condolence cards. When her mom asked Oona to join her in observing this ancient duty, Oona said nah. The explosion that followed was totally understandable, but through it all Oona remained immovable and flippant.</blockquote> ➤ about the difficulties of being a teen girl whose dad just died, and who is trying to figure out her identity as an othered visible minority, with a large and close-knit multigenerational family whose older generations are more connected with traditional culture and who want her to be too ➤ the traditional culture is selkies ➤ yeah it's a GREAT premise and I love how carefully and believably the selkie culture is imagined, and what the experience of being part of a landed selkie family would be ➤ very emotionally affecting too! ➤ 8k words in length