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Flight
As a girl, Maggie dreamed of joining the Sisters, a group of women who enjoy the status and attention afforded by their beautiful wings. Now, years later, she has wings of her own. But an encounter in the woods forces her to reckon with her past—and the painful price her wings demanded.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
18 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 19, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
January 10, 2025
BEAUTY IS THE BEGINNING OF A TERROR WE’RE ONLY JUST STARTING TO GRASP.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies
This is a novella that DARES to speak out for All Young Women against the savage possibility of violent Sexual Initiation.
Rape.
Like Maggie, the heroine of this slim story (as many of you know my own story) in Junior Year of Uni, I - a dumb, autistic, introspective male - was also selected for the Rite of Initiation, alas.
Like Maggie, I bolted away fast from its incipient horror.
Flight!
Then, I found safe asylum - in a real Asylum. And I don’t regret it for a moment. For, heavily medicated, I was instructed to Submit... And Submit I did. To hopelessness in the beginning.
Until a Still, Silent Voice within me said: go BACK in your memory to what brought you in here.
And I did - and Saw THEM clearly. And their ugly meaning. Well, once burnt, twice shy. Never again. So I continued to resist - for fifty five years. Here I stand.
Infinitely more mild-mannered now, though, I now know that once, an autistic stranger to violence, I had fallen into the Hand of God... hard. He appreciably narrowed my focus.
But now at last He has widened it again, and it’s years from the day of my running. Now I’ve established a ceasefire with my pursuers, as they know me well, and leave me alone. Their silence is a blessing.
Labour Day, 2024, will therefore be commemorative for me.
And peace is what that Silent Voice wanted to lead me to, fifty five years ago.
That far-off day was the first day of Frosh hazing and initiation at my uni.
And I saw them all there, too clearly, as Maggie did here. Yes, that Long-Ago Night, like Maggie, I took Flight.
I escaped.
That flight has ended now that my pursuers have quit.
Now they themselves are pursued - by the fact of their eventual death and their own inevitable long ordeal by fire hereafter, which in my own case now only means peace in the Fire of God, so this telling fable places the Crown on my Lifetime Ordeal of:
Flight.
Cause it tells it like it is.
And I know that still, silent Voice was right all along -
Desperate times really did call for desperate measures.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies
This is a novella that DARES to speak out for All Young Women against the savage possibility of violent Sexual Initiation.
Rape.
Like Maggie, the heroine of this slim story (as many of you know my own story) in Junior Year of Uni, I - a dumb, autistic, introspective male - was also selected for the Rite of Initiation, alas.
Like Maggie, I bolted away fast from its incipient horror.
Flight!
Then, I found safe asylum - in a real Asylum. And I don’t regret it for a moment. For, heavily medicated, I was instructed to Submit... And Submit I did. To hopelessness in the beginning.
Until a Still, Silent Voice within me said: go BACK in your memory to what brought you in here.
And I did - and Saw THEM clearly. And their ugly meaning. Well, once burnt, twice shy. Never again. So I continued to resist - for fifty five years. Here I stand.
Infinitely more mild-mannered now, though, I now know that once, an autistic stranger to violence, I had fallen into the Hand of God... hard. He appreciably narrowed my focus.
But now at last He has widened it again, and it’s years from the day of my running. Now I’ve established a ceasefire with my pursuers, as they know me well, and leave me alone. Their silence is a blessing.
Labour Day, 2024, will therefore be commemorative for me.
And peace is what that Silent Voice wanted to lead me to, fifty five years ago.
That far-off day was the first day of Frosh hazing and initiation at my uni.
And I saw them all there, too clearly, as Maggie did here. Yes, that Long-Ago Night, like Maggie, I took Flight.
I escaped.
That flight has ended now that my pursuers have quit.
Now they themselves are pursued - by the fact of their eventual death and their own inevitable long ordeal by fire hereafter, which in my own case now only means peace in the Fire of God, so this telling fable places the Crown on my Lifetime Ordeal of:
Flight.
Cause it tells it like it is.
And I know that still, silent Voice was right all along -
Desperate times really did call for desperate measures.
August 24, 2020
The girls gather round, slow and stupid from the food, the champagne. They are trusting. They are lambs.
“What are we doing?” they ask. “Are we playing a game?”
“Of a sort,” the Brothers say, hefting their weapons.
i liked this one, but it's shallowly written enough that it's the kind of story whose appreciation of it depends on what the reader themselves brings to it. it's a fast read, made from the scaffolding of a powerful story and some striking imagery, with very little character depth or agency or psychological insight. which is fine by me; sometimes simplicity is best to showcase yer dark shadows.
anyway, you decide—i got an all-day birthday feast to start destroying!
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/flight...
come to my blog!
August 26, 2020
The story can be read here.
It is a reverse chronology short story. This story is so short, so easy for re-reading if you don't accustomed to this kind of storytelling.
Well, maybe I am biased here, rating this story as an okay story. The reason is I feel the conclusion is flat.
It is a reverse chronology short story. This story is so short, so easy for re-reading if you don't accustomed to this kind of storytelling.
Well, maybe I am biased here, rating this story as an okay story. The reason is I feel the conclusion is flat.
August 20, 2020
Men Is Evil!
Is Okay for Women to be Dishrag! They Don't Even Have to Educate their Children! You See Child Misbehaving, It's Normal Because He is Men and Men is Evil. Everything Happens to Women as They Are Like Lamp. Lamp Sits, Does Nothing. If Lamp Falls and Breaks, Is Evil Men. Women Just Fluffy Inside That's It! Women Gets Raped, Is Character Development. Women Gets Raped, No Consequence.
Let's Live in an Oversimplified World! Yay!
Is Okay for Women to be Dishrag! They Don't Even Have to Educate their Children! You See Child Misbehaving, It's Normal Because He is Men and Men is Evil. Everything Happens to Women as They Are Like Lamp. Lamp Sits, Does Nothing. If Lamp Falls and Breaks, Is Evil Men. Women Just Fluffy Inside That's It! Women Gets Raped, Is Character Development. Women Gets Raped, No Consequence.
Let's Live in an Oversimplified World! Yay!
July 15, 2023
Anti-man rant.
This is a short story about snippets of significant events in the life of a young woman, documenting her existence from a young girl, sitting with her father, watching a sexist ad about cars, through college, rape, getting wings, marriage, childbirth and motherhood.
The whole thing is a metaphor for something...I'm not sure...but it might be how rape victims are somehow frowned upon by society. It's so fucking cryptic, I was pissed off because I feel reading it was a waste of time.
Telling the snippets of this girl's life in reverse chronology doesn't add to the reading pleasure. Ms Wrenwood probably thought she was being smart; she wasn't! If you're going to read this, start at the last chapter and work your way forward. It'll make only slightly more sense. It's only 16 pages, so not a big chunk of your life will be wasted.
This is a short story about snippets of significant events in the life of a young woman, documenting her existence from a young girl, sitting with her father, watching a sexist ad about cars, through college, rape, getting wings, marriage, childbirth and motherhood.
The whole thing is a metaphor for something...I'm not sure...but it might be how rape victims are somehow frowned upon by society. It's so fucking cryptic, I was pissed off because I feel reading it was a waste of time.
Telling the snippets of this girl's life in reverse chronology doesn't add to the reading pleasure. Ms Wrenwood probably thought she was being smart; she wasn't! If you're going to read this, start at the last chapter and work your way forward. It'll make only slightly more sense. It's only 16 pages, so not a big chunk of your life will be wasted.
August 6, 2021
Ever since she was a girl, Maggie had a dream. To have wings and soar above the clouds just as the women she saw on tv. But she also craves the attention those women get.
When she is in the last year of college, she finally gets her wish. But before that, her body had to be broken and rebuilt, for the sake of a sick game.
My thoughts.
First of all, I found the way this was written very interesting.
The story begins in the present and every scene, we go further and further back in time.
I initially thought that this was going to be similar to Fabulous Beasts . Because for some reason, I thought that the main character's kid, or his parentage, was going to play some role here.
That was not the case though, the only role her son played, was being aggressive to a girl he was playing with and that event triggered her memories.
Another thing I found interesting, was the relationship Maggie has with her wings.
She initially is the one who wishes for them, but after getting them she has what you'd call a love-hate relationship with them.
She likes it when her friends show her around or when she gets free things because of her wings, and tries to convince herself that this makes all of the pain worth it. Of course that isn't true and she ends up hating them. It is even mentioned that the reason she fell in love with her husband, was because he looked at her and it was as if he couldn't see the wings.
As the story approaches its ending, we see how Maggie got her wings and why she hates them.
To me, that part explained both why she hates that part of herself and why she carries so much trauma, and it also took the story to a place I didn't know it'd go.
I will also go so far as to say that this is a symbolic story.
I am not entirely sure as to what the wings symbolise tho, my guess is that they probably symbolise sex or sensuality. And the fact that the girls who went through that initiation can't use them for flying, like the woman Maggie saw on TV, could maybe mean that since this was done without their consent, they cannot enjoy them on their full capacity, but still carry them on their backs like their trauma? I don't know, I'm just guessing stuff.
It was a nice short story though and I'd love to read more from the author.
If you made it so far, congratulations!
'Til next time, take care :) :) :)
When she is in the last year of college, she finally gets her wish. But before that, her body had to be broken and rebuilt, for the sake of a sick game.
My thoughts.
First of all, I found the way this was written very interesting.
The story begins in the present and every scene, we go further and further back in time.
I initially thought that this was going to be similar to Fabulous Beasts . Because for some reason, I thought that the main character's kid, or his parentage, was going to play some role here.
That was not the case though, the only role her son played, was being aggressive to a girl he was playing with and that event triggered her memories.
Another thing I found interesting, was the relationship Maggie has with her wings.
She initially is the one who wishes for them, but after getting them she has what you'd call a love-hate relationship with them.
She likes it when her friends show her around or when she gets free things because of her wings, and tries to convince herself that this makes all of the pain worth it. Of course that isn't true and she ends up hating them. It is even mentioned that the reason she fell in love with her husband, was because he looked at her and it was as if he couldn't see the wings.
As the story approaches its ending, we see how Maggie got her wings and why she hates them.
To me, that part explained both why she hates that part of herself and why she carries so much trauma, and it also took the story to a place I didn't know it'd go.
I will also go so far as to say that this is a symbolic story.
I am not entirely sure as to what the wings symbolise tho, my guess is that they probably symbolise sex or sensuality. And the fact that the girls who went through that initiation can't use them for flying, like the woman Maggie saw on TV, could maybe mean that since this was done without their consent, they cannot enjoy them on their full capacity, but still carry them on their backs like their trauma? I don't know, I'm just guessing stuff.
It was a nice short story though and I'd love to read more from the author.
If you made it so far, congratulations!
'Til next time, take care :) :) :)
September 6, 2020
2 stars...because I don't need to read another man-bashing story. I hated that Wrenwood allowed her protag to transfer her negative feelings towards men onto her five-year-old son. Thats not cool. In fact, I'm deducting a star because of it. And, yes! Very shallow.
August 26, 2020
A short Tor.Com book - read it for free here: Flight
Written in reverse time, a short paragraph describes what happens, then back in time for the next. The narrative works, filling in the events after the consequences, but I don't really see the benefit of this - just a change up of non-linear narrative I guess.
Not really my genre.
3 star medium range.
Written in reverse time, a short paragraph describes what happens, then back in time for the next. The narrative works, filling in the events after the consequences, but I don't really see the benefit of this - just a change up of non-linear narrative I guess.
Not really my genre.
3 star medium range.
December 17, 2020
More of a 3.5. It's a moody, episodic story that jumps around in time. Clearly a metaphor for college campus sexual assault, and perhaps also a commentary on gender roles and the pressure society places on women.
However, if you're reading Tor short stories because you love sci-fi/fantasy, there isn't much of that here. There is a conceit about how some women are given wings (literal wings), but other than that, there's nothing fantastical about this world. Not that you get more than the barest glimpse of this world, anyway.
However, if you're reading Tor short stories because you love sci-fi/fantasy, there isn't much of that here. There is a conceit about how some women are given wings (literal wings), but other than that, there's nothing fantastical about this world. Not that you get more than the barest glimpse of this world, anyway.
November 2, 2021
“I’m sure he didn’t mean to hurt you.” He winks at Maggie; an invitation to a game she does not want to play. “You know boys.”
Maggie looks from her son to the bruised girl to the man, and something flares within her that has been dead a long time.
“She has a right to her pain,” she says.
Interesting story told in reverse, of how women get their “wings.” This short story is available on Tor.com to read for free.
Maggie looks from her son to the bruised girl to the man, and something flares within her that has been dead a long time.
“She has a right to her pain,” she says.
Interesting story told in reverse, of how women get their “wings.” This short story is available on Tor.com to read for free.
Read
April 10, 2022Maggie sees the Sisters gliding through campus, their wings trailing ethereally behind them. She sees everyone who scrambles to give them things, to get other things out of their way, and she wants her life to be that easy. Only later—much later—does she wonder why she never questioned whether they could fly.
The prose in this is so achingly beautiful, but the story is so, so brutal, too. I am still collecting my thoughts. Mostly, though, WOW.
The prose in this is so achingly beautiful, but the story is so, so brutal, too. I am still collecting my thoughts. Mostly, though, WOW.
August 21, 2020
"She doesn’t care, doesn’t feel the wound, only gathers her son in her arms and takes in his wet, algal smell, and her urge to protect him is so strong that it does not occur to her to wonder if someone someday will need protecting from him."
December 13, 2020
The reversed chronology worked well for me. The story was just right length for this story, the snippets well-woven together and there were enough gaps to fill. Not a masterpiece, but a good read based on an interesting concept.
September 3, 2020
There's not a single reason why any story should be written in reverse chronology. It makes you go back (or forth?) all the time making the reading of this more of a chore than anything else.
I'm not sure if I managed to grasp the full meaning of this story or if it's just not my cuppa tea, but I just found it to be really shallow.
I understand that rape and similar traumatic events and aftermaths that many women in the world go through are topics that are not easily described nor discussed, but this is one of the stories that did it really poorly in my humble opinion. The author also tries to point to the root cause in many instances, but just fails to deliver that final blow that'll really make you think days and weeks after reading the story.
A fine short story should make you think about the issue at hand from many different perspectives, and this one was just one-dimensional, which shouldn't be the case with the earlier mentioned subjects.
You can read the story here, I'd love to hear other opinions: https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/flight...
I'm not sure if I managed to grasp the full meaning of this story or if it's just not my cuppa tea, but I just found it to be really shallow.
I understand that rape and similar traumatic events and aftermaths that many women in the world go through are topics that are not easily described nor discussed, but this is one of the stories that did it really poorly in my humble opinion. The author also tries to point to the root cause in many instances, but just fails to deliver that final blow that'll really make you think days and weeks after reading the story.
A fine short story should make you think about the issue at hand from many different perspectives, and this one was just one-dimensional, which shouldn't be the case with the earlier mentioned subjects.
You can read the story here, I'd love to hear other opinions: https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/flight...
September 23, 2020
Nice premises, it's a beautifully tragic story. I, surprisingly, liked the reversed chronology, it was strange at first but interesting. I wish it had been a little longer, I still struggle to really see what the author really meant - but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.
finished-short-stories
September 22, 2020the reverse chronology was an interesting slant to it and all the men in this were absolutely yikes
September 27, 2020
It's the cycle of abuse presented in such a way that it's impossible to miss but still will make you feel very clever and very woke for getting it :)
December 25, 2021
that hurt
August 4, 2022
VERDICT: 3.1 feathers, because I couldn't decide if it deserved 2.5 or 3.5. (The +0.1 is for the nice artwork).
A vague short story that didn't quite satisfy, but I sort of liked it. It gets points for oddity, a pervasive low-level uneasiness, and .
A vague short story that didn't quite satisfy, but I sort of liked it. It gets points for oddity, a pervasive low-level uneasiness, and .
September 2, 2020
Made me wonder if she ever saw her son as a potential "Brother". I liked the way the story was told in reverse chronological order. Had me so curious to see what had happened to her. Guess she should have read the fine print, or in this case, asked a few pertinent questions. Loved the author's writing style. It was almost poetic.
October 25, 2020
So this one reminded me a little of the film, Final Girls meets a college campus in the US of A headline touting "boys will be boys." It isn't very lengthy and it isn't even very detailed, the beauty of this story, and the horror of it, is that the reader can fill in their own detail if they wish as the story unfolds backwards through time.
March 14, 2024
““She looks over at her dad, who has brought his Miller Lite halfway to his mouth and is holding it there, gaping at the woman onscreen. Maggie understands, even then, that she wants other men to look at her this way, that this is something all little girls should aspire to. ”
believing this as a kid fucked me up so😊
believing this as a kid fucked me up so😊
August 20, 2020
Story about a girl who bought the pretty lie. Little bit dark but actually not very descriptive, for those who appreciate trigger warnings.
August 27, 2020
Meh... Not really my style...
September 3, 2020
Interesting story told backwards. I have seen this technique used a few times in the movies but this is a first for me in a story. Unfortunately, I am not sure it worked for me.
September 7, 2020
very similar in some ways to ponies?
December 30, 2020
Too brief and shallow to be impressive. A heavy-handed indictment of Victoria's Secret, but a solid attempt to illustrate the harm we do to young girls by placing lingerie models and cheerleaders and their ilk on a venerated pedestal.
February 14, 2021
A story told in reverse from end to beginning of how being powerless started off as looking like being powerful.
April 10, 2021
Reversed timeline worked surprisingly good for me. But the story left me conflicted... interesting concept.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 11, 2021
This was alright, a bit too much of an on the nose allegory about the system of patriarchal oppression, but it was well written enough.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews