A Narrowing Path

by Angélique Jamail

Elsa has felt awkward and out of her depth for as long as she can remember. In a world where one's Animal Affinity is a sign of maturity and worth, Elsa's inability to demonstrate hers has become more than a disappointing nuisance; it's a narrowing path.



Obscured behind the curtain of society's disdain, she has no confidence that she'll ever conquer her Plainness. Frustrated by her failure to fit into their picture-perfect life, Elsa's family grows more intolerant of her by the week. Her boss, a seven-foot-tall rage demon, is one clawed step away from setting loose his temper and firing her-or worse.



And on top of all that, her cat wants to eat her. Things could be better. But that's not the direction they're heading.



A violent gang of wolves prowls the streets of Elsa's neighborhood, harassing Plain Ones. With the pack's presence becoming stronger and its threat more real, Elsa's life is rapidly plummeting from lackluster to perilous.



Her only bright spots are her cousin and a co-worker who seem to know her better than she knows herself. But even though they can see through to what society won't, will that be enough to protect Elsa from making a drastic choice? In her desperation to shed her Plainness, how far will she go to evolve?

67 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 30, 2025

About the author

Angélique Jamail is a Lebanese-American author whose poetry, short fiction, and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including Synkroniciti, Equinox, New Reader Magazine, Waxwing, The Milk of Female Kindness, Femmeliterate, Literary Mama, and others, and her poetry has been featured on the radio. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net (for essay), has been a finalist for the New Letters Prize in Poetry, and has won various essay contests. The first time she read one of her stories to an audience was fourth grade; it was a character-building experience. Her novelette Finis. (Odeon Press), first published in 2014, has been praised by fiction writer Ari Marmell as having “some of the most real people I’ve encountered via text in a long time,” and by poet Marie Marshall as “a witty tale of conformity, prejudice, and transformation, in a world that is disturbing as much for its familiarity as for its strangeness.” Her poetry collection The Sharp Edges of Water came out in 2018, and Homecoming, a standalone follow-up to Finis., in 2020, both from Odeon Press. Her novella A Narrowing Path will be published by Memento Vivere Press in 2025. She is the Creative Writing Director at The Kinkaid School in Houston and began serving on the Board of Directors for Mutabilis Press in December 2019. She’s also the creator of the popular zine Sonic Chihuahua. Find her online at her blog Sappho’s Torque and on social media.

website: www.AngeliqueJamail.com
blog: www.SapphosTorque.com

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