Selkie Stories Are For Losers

BY EMILY

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SELKIE STORY. (Previously.) This one, a short story by Sofia Samatar in the 2017 The New Voices of Fantasy anthology. 

Karen Russell-esque with its matter-of-fact magic in a soda pop world, it tells the “ever after” story of a teenager abandonned by his seal skin-donning mother. 

I read it when it came out and still think about these lines: 

“I hate selkie stories. They're always about how you went up to the attic to look for a book, and you found a disgusting old coat and brought it downstairs between finger and thumb and said “What's this?”, and you never saw your mom again.” 

Mmouah! I love this kind of prose that mixes fantasy with modernity without forcing slang or being too flowery.  More like this, please. •

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Cover: Doménikos Theotokópoulos “El Greco”. Lady in a Fur Wrap. c. 1580. Pollok House, Glasgow.