khōréō, Volume 2, Issue 1

khōréō

by Aleksandra Hill, Celeste Rita Baker (Contributor), Evalyn Broderick (Contributor)

khoreo magazine’s Volume 2, Issue 1! Originally published March 15, 2022. Includes five fantastic stories: “Phoenix Tile” by Guan Un; “Me and Seed Sheself” by Celeste Rita Baker; “Electric Waterfalls” by Ruth Joffre; “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” by Evalyn Broderick; and “Hiraeth Heart” by Lulu Kadhim. Cover designed by Marika Bailey.

ebook

First published March 15, 2022

About the author

Aleksandra Hill is a Polish-Canadian speculative fiction writer and the founder of khōréō, a magazine of speculative fiction by immigrant and diaspora writers. She earned an MFA at the New School in Fiction and Non-Fiction writing and is an alumna of the Odyssey Writers Workshop. In past lives, she earned a Ph.D. in computational biology and worked as a management consultant and a product manager.

Reviews

[Jassmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phoenix Tile by Guan Un ⭐⭐⭐,5
This wasn't very memorable experience for me. I listened to the audio, because Khōréō does audio for most (?) of their short-stories, which how amazing is that?! And the audio was really well done, but the story mostly failed to catch my attention. There was one bit I liked though:

She’s shouting now in a voice only I can hear, the feedback screeching like a wounded beast under her voice. “I’m going to tell everyone you’re coming and how close you are to the edggge. I’m going to tell them the wonder boy, Ah Lok, dies tonight. And I’m going to take a thousand photos of the place where you die and tag them ‘Good Riddance.’”

Hiraeth Heart by Lulu Kadhim ⭐⭐⭐,5
Very thoughtful and a little bit confusing short-story about... returning to a home that you never had chance to experience as home? I am enough intrigued by Lulu Kadhim that I want to try another short-story by her. And so I added Amber Dark and Sickly Sweet to my tbr!

Me and Seed Sheself by Celeste Rita Baker DNF
I feel bad about this since the reason I DNFed the story is the Carribean dialect. But... English isn't my first language and this was so hard to read for me and I gradually realised that I have no idea what the story is about because I just went from word to word and... yeah.

There seemed to be some interesting elements in the story, but who can tell really. I might try more from the author in the future, I know she has some stories in standart English too.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker by Evalyn Broderick ⭐⭐⭐⭐,5
Let's just say... jewish sci-fi bake off! But don't expect like... crazy sci-fi bake off. It's just... you know such a cute and warm and sweet story! Seriously just go and read it!
Sadly Evalyn Broderick didn't write much else yet, but I added Elixir: Stories of Hope and Healing to my tbr.

Electric Waterfalls by Ruth Joffre ⭐⭐⭐
This was a bit meh, it was an okay sapphic story centered about global warming. There was a lot of technical worldbuilding that was not easy to follow for me. And not much of a story.

Read the stories here: https://www.khoreomag.com/category/is...
I also absolutely adore the art of the cover, check out more of the author's work here: https://marikabailey.squarespace.com/...