Fairy tale

More than a twisted fairy tale, The Salt Grows Heavy takes inspiration from a variety of mermaid lore and legends, laying the mythos out on a surgical table and taking it apart bit by bit. This short, sharp novella flays its characters open—often literally—in order to perform a surgical, queer satire of happy endings. Cassandra Khaw’s writing is masterful, and her horror is gruesome and gleeful, rendered in prose so grisly, you have to pick it out from between your teeth.Spoilers of the Week | June 3rdAn unnamed Plague…

May’s new book releases bring favorite genre staples like dragons, rebellious magic users, space heroes, and time travelers—but also fierce mermaids, reinvented gods and legends, queer cyberpunk detectives, moody personal AIs, and so much more. Add five or 10 or 54 to your reading list!Spoilers of the Week May 16-20Image: Head of ZeusCity of Last Chances by Adrian TchaikovskyThe Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author returns to fantasy with this tale of a magical, cursed city on the brink of revolution. Read an excerpt…

Crafting a story can feel a bit like solving a puzzle. Sometimes you know your point A and point B, but it’s that space between that can be difficult to fill in. How do your characters arrive at the next big plot beat? What needs to happen to get them there in a way that feels natural? Each word becomes a puzzle piece that needs to be carefully placed in order to make it all make sense. That’s the exact idea at the heart of Storyteller, the latest release from publisher Annapurna Interactive, The unique puzzle game…

Image: Epicmedia/Courtesy of Sundance InstituteThe only non-English language film in the Midnight section of this year’s 2023 Sundance Film Festival, In My Mother’s Skin is a gut-wrenching horror story about a girl placed in a desperate situation who makes a choice she quickly regrets. It takes place in the Philippines near the end of World War II, but its themes transcend the specificity of its setting.With an opening scene that appears to depict some sort of cannibal zombie monster devouring its prey—it’s dark, but you…

Photo: Helen Sloan/NetflixOkay, yes, sure; this is a movie about kids who get whisked away from the normal world and stuck in a magical school taught by a plethora of A-list celebrity actors in which the heroes and the villains are rigorously defined. But if you can get certain wizards out of your head, the first trailer for Netflix’s movie adaptation of Soman Chainiani’s School for Good and Evil series looks excellent.If you’re unaware of the book series, the premise is basically this. Two young friends, the sulky Agatha…