Sing by Karin Tidbeck
My rating: 4/5 cats
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
boilerplate mission statement intro:
for the past two years, i’ve set december’s project aside to do my own version of a short story advent calendar. it’s not a true advent calendar since i choose all the stories myself, but what it lacks in the ‘element of surprise’ department it more than makes up for in hassle, as i try to cram even MORE reading into a life already overcrammed with impossible personal goals (live up to your potential! find meaningful work! learn to knit!) merry merry wheee!
since i am already well behind in my *regular* reviewing, when it comes to these stories, whatever i poop out as far as reflections or impressions are going to be superficial and perfunctory at best. please do not weep for the great big hole my absented, much-vaunted critical insights are gonna leave in these daily review-spaces (and your hearts); i’ll try to drop shiny insights elsewhere in other reviews, and here, i will at least drop links to where you can read the stories yourselves for free, which – let’s be honest – is gonna serve you better anyway.
HAPPY READING, BOOKNERDS!
links to all stories read in previous years’ calendars can be found at the end of these reviews, in case you are a person who likes to read stories for free:
2016: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
scroll down for links to this year’s stories which i will update as we go, and if you have any suggestions, send ’em my way! the only rules are: it must be available free online (links greatly appreciated), and it must be here on gr as its own thing so i can review it. thank you in advance!
DECEMBER 15
What I had wanted to say, when he started talking about how Kiruna was just one world among many, was that I’m not stupid. I read books and sometimes I could pick up stuff on my old set, when the satellite was up and the moons didn’t interfere with it so much. I knew that Amitié was a big space station. I knew we lived in a poor backwater place. Still, you think your home is special, even if nobody ever visits.
people are all the time asking me what my deal is with birds & all the shade i throw their way. and sometimes i think “maybe i am being too hard on birds.” and then i giggle at having said “hard on.” and then i read a story like this and i am like NOPE!
even at their best, birds’re dicks.
none of that has anything to do with the story, except that it gave me one more reason to stand my ground on my anti-bird worldview. birds don’t even need a reason to do what they do. regard – unprovoked evil.
anyway, story. it’s great. however, i am really glad i knew going into this that there is a follow-up story, Listen, because although expertly written and descriptive as hell, it does leave you wanting more. it’s a story of the dark underbelly of the symbiotic relationship but maybe also a cautionary tale about cultural appropriation or what happens when an outcast meets a newcomer in a parasitic world.
bonus points to story for being secret twin peaks fanfic, a place where the phrases Where we’re from, the birds sing a pretty song” AND “Sometimes my arms bend back” come into play.
i told you these would be short. i’m not trying to be lazy, but i gotta get 30+ booknotches on my belt by the end of the month. is PRESSURE!
♥
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2013/04/17/sing/
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