Welcome to Apex Magazine issue 147.
We’re closing out 2024 with an absolutely brutal issue. Manipulation, coercion, emotional and physical abuse, this issue has it all—including the end of the world. Like issue 146, this issue delves into really complex, messy interpersonal relationships. Let’s dive right in!
We open the issue with “And She Had Been So Reasonable” by Rachel Bolton. This story feels like a grownup version of a tale from the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. I can 100% imagine it with a Stephen Gammell illustration. The story is about a woman in a bad marriage. She wants to leave and her husband agrees … if she can do one thing. What results is graphic and gruesome and oh so reasonable.
In “Birds of a Feather,” by Rachael Severino, everyone is afraid of the narrator’s sister—their father, the older brothers, even the narrator (who is the baby of the family) is afraid of her. She’s quick to punish anyone who makes a misstep, but she also offers a kind of protection for her baby brother. And our narrator will do whatever he can to stay with his sister and keep that protection.
Danny Cherry Jr. returns to Apex Magazine with a flash piece that is beautiful and romantic … yes, I said romantic, not something we see a lot of in Apex. In “What Happens When a Planet Falls From the Sky?” two scientists on different versions of Earth slowly fall in love through stolen glances and shared poetry. Meeting on one place would be perfect if it didn’t mean the end of the world. I love the way this piece remains hopeful in the bleakest of situations.
“Their Wings as Powdery as Bones,” by Avra Margariti, is a claustrophobic dark fantasy story about a town that is trapped beneath a dome of angels. Some children seem to be called to the writhing feathered dome, levitating up to the waiting angels. The narrator’s sister is one of these children and their mother is desperate to keep her daughter here on Earth. The tale that unfolds is one where atrocities are done in the name of love, where one sister is used against the other, and where being the child who is not chosen is the most painful thing of all.
AI robots are malfunctioning in Garrett Ashley’s “Ceasing to Be.” The glitch causes the AI to self-destruct, throwing their heads so no one will find the important components inside. But that exactly what Muni and their stepfather Rham are looking for. Muni has had a hard life. Both their mother and grandmother have passed away, they live with their stepfather who makes money selling AI parts on the black market, and school is a struggle. When Muni volunteers to be paired with an AI child in an exchange program, they’re only expecting to get some extra credit. But what they get is a deeper understanding of themselves. This story is beautiful and melancholy.
Our flash fiction pieces this month explore love, loss, and longing. "Your Return to the Five Ruins of the Bog" by Parker M. O'Neill is a slipstream piece for our Abandoned Castle theme, guest judged by Apex summer intern Jadyn Straigis. "Let Her Collect Stamps" is a modern fantasy by Juniper White sure to make your heart ache.
The classic fiction stories this month are by Danian Darrell Jerry and DaVaun Sanders. In our nonfiction, Robert V.S. Redick discusses the tyranny of high concept, and Zohair (the author of “Quietus” from Apex Magazine issue 140) gives us a deeply personal essay about what it is like to be an author in Pakistan. We also have an excerpt of Brian Keene’s latest Apex release, Island of the Dead.
For reviews this month, A.C. Wise reviews short fiction in her latest Words for Thought, Leah Ning reviews Asunder by Kerstin Hall, and Lesley Conner reviews Woodworm by the Spanish author Layla Martinez.
As always, we are deeply grateful to our subscribers and patrons. Without them, Apex would not feasible. If you would like to make sure that Apex continues strong for years to come, pick up a subscription directly through Apex or through Weightless Books, or join our Patreon.
We will see you in 2025!
Yours in reading,
Lesley Conner
Editor-in-Chief
