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Mire House by George Squares

Mire House

George Squares

In 1950's Slovenia, a young moth named Katia tries to live a quiet academic life working as an archaeologist for the city museum. Although she is aware that the world is changing around her rapidly, she is most surprised to find that a piece of the old world has reappeared in the modern. While Katia is used to dealing with the hostility and microaggressions in her life, she must quickly cope with the fantastic: gods, forgotten places, and the legend of Baba Yaga, the primordial witch.

Submission Information

Views:
241
Comments:
2
Favorites:
0
Rating:
General
Category:
Literary / Story

Comments

  • Link

    Nice story. The only real complaint I would make is that it seems very condensed. This feels like the plot of a whole 100K word novel pressed down to fit in a short story. Perhaps it would make more sense if I had more familiarity with the source material, but I was left having to hit google more than once to get some background on just what I was reading. That's hardly a bad thing, but just something to keep in mind.

    The Eastern European setting is unique (at least to me), and the post WWII time frame is something I rarely seen explored. I think this is the first story I've ever read that takes place in a non-U.S.S.R. mid century setting. It makes for some very interesting world building.

    I might suggest explaining a little more about the Baba Yaga before she's introduced (Spoiler!). I knew just enough about the myth to start piecing things together, but I don't know enough to be able to truly understand her motives, actions, and background. I just had to assume that some of the unusual things surrounding her were part of her mythos.

    I also would have liked to see more development of the supporting characters -- hence why this feels like a condensed novel. You have a number of interesting people who only get a very small amount of screen time. The snow leopard in particular would have been interesting to see more of. It sounds like he was quite involved in the core of the story, but he's removed before we truly get to see him act.

    Again, the story was well written and very fresh and unique to me. The only problem is that I felt lost as I didn't have enough background to fully understand what was going on.

    • Link

      Thank you for the excellent feedback. I did have to dig deep for a lot of the source material and the historical mythos behind Baba Yaga (which is pretty scarce and near unheard of by folks who aren't European.) I may lengthen this or abridge it even further depending on what may work best. I'll just have to wait and see what happens and be receptive to ideas. : )