A short fiction anthology inspired by a throwaway tweet and one weird-ass picture.
The stories include absurd aliens, philosophical questions about life and death, Death itself, befuddled activists, prophecies, and post-apocalyptic pigs.
A wonderfully weird and twisted group of authors contributed stories to this collection based entirely on their (third) response to the image on the cover, including: DeAnn Bell, Olivia Berrier, Josephine Bruni, Dan Cox, Josh Dygert, Sam Hirte-Runtsch, Jonathan Howard, L.G. Keltner, Chris Loud, Amanda Marples, Charlie Wilson, Cath Barton, Jetse de Vries, Joanna Michal Hoyt, Dean Knight, Molly McLellan, Arathi Menon, Jesse Rodriguez, Lyle Skains, Nicola Thompson, Emma Venables, and Clare Weze.
Normal Deviation is an unusual and eclectic anthology wherein each story is based on its author's third impression of a bizarre and rather unsettling photo, which appears on the cover. When first seeing a strange image, the editors explain, most people intuitively fall back on familiar tropes, and indeed many of the initial interpretations revealed by the contributors involve either wizards or some conflict between forces of Light and Dark, Good and Evil, or Life and Death. "Third Option Thinking" invites a deeper interrogation that calls up more subliminal associations evoked by robed, masked figures sitting in the middle of the desert with an unopened suitcase between them.
A few of the stories on the surface appear to have nothing whatsoever to do with the image, such as Josephine Bruni's "Brexit," which follows a worried Italian immigrant in London on the eve of the infamous referendum. Perhaps its link to the photo is the hot espresso placed next to the cooler Americano with milk on the counter of the coffee shop where Marco works, while the suitcase is expressed through its theme of foreignness and emigration. Another particularly haunting take is "Good Night, Travel Well" by Emma Venables, which deals with the rape of German women and girls at the end of WWII. By contrast, "The Fly Catchers" by Nicola Thompson was a delightfully weird tale of talking plants, while Josh Dygert's "The Judges and the Suitcase" successfully built up a somewhat predictable premise of two alien judges appearing out of nowhere in the middle of Nevada.
Unfortunately, I found most of the rest of the pieces mediocre or only mildly interesting. "Third Option Thinking" is a fascinating idea for a short story collection, however, and I hope to see more books like this.
A collection of stories from sci-fi, supernatural, thriller and others defying definition. Some stories were really good and unforgettable while others were average. Most stories mention the suitcase in one form or other. The book started to drag towards the end. I squeezed in another anthology before I could finish reading it.