The week’s best online fiction, with recommendations from FictionDaily’s editors.
Party by M.J. Corey, Shelf Life Magazine
Now, please, just, come on…just like, omg, read this. That’s all. Yeah, no, I know you have a lot, I know you have so much going on with your work and your whatevers and evers. Amen. I know you’re late to a party and you just got here and you feel bad and, I know, M.J. Corey knows too. Just–read. For a second. Okay. Yes. Okay, thanks, bye. –David Backer
Wild Wolves by Mel Bosworth, Metazen
This story is provocative, dressing the narrator piece by piece as he remembers his sister and father, who are both dead. Wolves are at least partly responsible. In the father’s absence, and to compensate for the sister’s loss, the narrator has been feminized. The gray wolf’s average litter consists of five to six pups; so that is likely going to be a problem, in the future. Bosworth uses the word “pants” twice, referring in neither case to vigorous respiration, as an overextended wolf might demonstrate. That could be an oversight, in this scumbag’s opinion. I immensely liked the second-to-last line of this story, and the one after that. If the M in “Mel” were changed out for a G, I would work her into my damp hair and style as desired.–Ryan Nelson
Montevideo by Nik Korpon, Shotgun Honey
Telling a story without explicitly telling it takes a certain genius, and Nik Korpon exhibits that genius in his tale of misdirection told through a lost vehicle report. Korpon uses implication brilliantly to illuminate the story of a fugitive fleeing a soured drug deal, letting us draw our own narrative from the skeletal facts we’re given. It is both a story and a puzzle, like all good mysteries. This one, with its colorful details and clever layers of meaning, will reward any who piece it all together.–Matt Funk
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