Beautiful Things

by Jennifer Loring

Mitzi Weinhaus is the talentless daughter of two Munich Kabarett stars. One night, in an underground club that has so far escaped Nazi detection, she meets the enigmatic singer Giselle, who offers her the chance to be a hero. All Mitzi has to do is infiltrate the notorious Dachau death camp, but she won’t have to do it alone.

Teamed up with the mysterious Wolfrik, for whom she develops an alarming attraction, Mitzi soon finds herself ensnared in a world of secret societies, super-soldiers, monsters, and gods. Double-crossed on all sides, it is up to her to save her parents from certain death–and to save her heart from one of the most powerful beings in the universe.
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Loring paints a WII steampunk/urban fantasy mashup with grace and infinite skill, and delivers a gripping story centred around those immortal human challenges: love, fear, oppression and deliverance.

41 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 29, 2014

About the author

Jennifer Loring's short fiction has been widely published in numerous magazines, webzines, and anthologies. She received an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror for her short story “The Bombay Trash Service”, and in 2013 won first place in Crystal Lake Publishing's inaugural Tales from the Lake horror writing competition. Since then, her work has appeared in two Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthologies.

Jennifer completed her PhD in Humanities and Culture with a graduate certificate in Women's and Gender Studies. She also received an MFA from Seton Hill University’s program in Writing Popular Fiction, with a concentration in horror. Jenn lives in Philly with her husband, turtle, and a basset shepherd.

Reviews

[Charles Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jennifer Loring's Beautiful Things is an ambitious work of Dieselpunk short fiction, a retrofuturistic blend of science fiction and fantasy. She tackles this pulp-inspired genre with a daring tale of mysticism, intrigue and the supernatural set in an alternate Nazi Germany. There is a lot packed into each page and the story moves quickly, sometimes at the detriment of developing the characters more fully or cementing the plausibility of her alternative world. Beautiful Things perhaps deserved to be told as a full novel to let the author's talent shine more brightly. I would rate it just shy of four stars and recommend it for those who want to taste something a bit different with their morning coffee. Well done!

[Marius Plessis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cool take on WWII. I absolutely loved 'Beautiful Things' - it works very well as a short story, and manages to pull you in right from the start. The genre is very intriguing, with elements of steampunk, fables and historical fantasy. I love!

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of potential, but this felt like a Cliffs Notes version of the story: very rushed, with lots of characters being shoved into place instead of being developed. Or maybe it's a teaser for a longer book? In any event, not a great execution.

As a heroine, Mitzi didn't really do much. She takes it at face value her parents are in danger without any kind of proof or real explanation. She's told someone will pick her up, she goes along. (Why did they need Mitzi for anything, again? Or her parents?) She abruptly falls in love with a stranger with hairy palms. Treachery revealed! Stranger calls Mitzi the bravest woman ever, which...no. She hasn't done anything but been jostled along by the other characters, accepting whatever anyone tells her, and making some perfunctory 'take me seriously! respect me!' outbursts.

The ending was...melodramatic. Mildly cliffhanger-y; it's not clear what was really accomplished. I mean, the characters don't know, of course, and such is life. But I'm a little...unconvinced, I guess? There could have been a lot more nuance with the antagonist/villain(?), who instead just felt... Okay, so she's some kind of succubus-god-vampire thing. Feeding off people being turned on in an audience? Not that horrible, in my book. Using people is bad, but on the other hand she was working to take down Hitler. So, uh...

I guess "not enough development" kind of covers it all.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story/novella is probably closer to urban fantasy than the other genres it touches, but it’s not your grandfather’s urban fantasy. It has elements of the ‘weird menace’ stories of the pulp era and alternative history sf, yet the writing is far more stylish and the world building more subtle and effective than either of those or most genre fiction. The 1930s decadence, reminiscent of the musical, CABARET and Christopher Isherwood’s BERLIN STORIES which it developed from, is a great background for urban fantasy. The Mitzi and Gisele characters are very well done, especially the dialogue and subtext. I’d love to read a novel set in this world.