CHM #55 January 2025
Added 2024-12-27 21:44:40 +0000 UTC
We kick this issue off with Alex Ebenstein’s “The Wind Beneath” an elevated (pun unintended) apocalypse tale. We then bring you Addison Smith’s “Those Perfect Materials,” which gives us body horror on a cosmic scale and turns the fetishization of youth on its head. Daniel Bart Hutchins “Evil in My Sight” is the smartly crafted story of a city beset upon by a turkey processing plant that seems to infest everything it touches, followed by an anxiety-inducing tale of emotions made physical, Anne Liberton’s “Buddha in Your Head.” C.R. Langille’s eerie grief tale, “The Stars Have Teeth,” shows us a mother’s single-minded desperation backgrounded by a world thrust into chaos.
“Devil Is Fine,” Michael Bettendorf’s very weird Western, introduces aging gunslinger Grant (no mister), tasked with escorting a younger gunslinger, an oil heir, and a box containing a harmonica to safety. Scott McNee gives us a darkly funny workplace horror with “Disposal of a Leg.” We close the issue with Ian Kappos’ “Soothsayer,” which introduces us to Devin—obsessed with his discovery of an unidentifiable animal carcass, he ends up entangled in his friend Sammy’s deteriorating mental state and his more sinister pastimes.
Our crypt story this month is “The Three Marked Pennies,” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman, which finds an entire city drawn into a lottery with life-altering consequences. Part of a trilogy, we’ll be bringing another of the stories to you next month. It was originally published in Weird Tales.
