Reviews and Comments

I read this short story here: www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/fiction/theres-magic-in-bread/

There's also an author interview linked on that page, which I also enjoyed: www.fantasy-magazine.com/fm/non-fiction/author-spotlights/author-spotlight-effie-seiberg/

This short story has two parallel perspectives centered around baking bread, and about feelings of despair and helplessness; one half about struggling with that helplessness in this covid pandemic with home baking, and the other half running a bakery (and involving a bread golem!) in a more historic setting with antisemitic violence and policing.

I certainly have needed a lot of escapist literature in the past few years.  (Even as I write this my brain pops in to say...ok but what if we reread the entire Vorkosigan or Foreigner or Wayfarers series again????) But it's also deeply refreshing to read a piece that directly addresses the pandemic, as well as addressing my own feelings of helplessness when things are falling apart around me and I don't feel like I have any leverage to fix it.

I am not sure the message that even things that don't help still help sinks in for me; not in the sense that the story is ineffective but more I find myself coming up against a lot of internal friction and resistance. Some of this I think is continuing to come to terms with the fact that true solutions to big problems are slow communally-driven systemic changes, and that will rarely feel tangible on a personal level, even if I'm dealing with them as directly as is possible. Deep down, I too hunger for the empowerment of creating my own bread golem and making tangible change in the world.

I really enjoyed Emily Tesh's Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country novellas, and so was excited to read this (very different) novel. In some ways this novel emits YA sf child warrior action dystopian vibes, but it's a lot heavier than I'd expect a YA book to be.

This is a book where aliens have destroyed earth, and there's a small space enclave of humans set on vengeance at all costs. But, the thrust of the story is that when the protagonist Kyr leaves this community, she discovers that these humans are largely a fascist cult, and this is extremely hard to swallow information for cult poster child Kyr, still set on vengeance for humanity.

It's a book about deprogramming from propaganda and the narratives you've grown up with. It's a book about burying queer feelings in unsafe environments even from yourself. Unsurprisingly, it's also a book with (at times) unlikeable main characters who do some awful things at every scale.

(I will also repeat the book's own content warnings here which are: "contains sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, and ableist attitudes; sexual assault, including discussion of forced pregnancy; violence; child abuse; radicalization as child abuse; genocide; suicidal ideation; and suicide". I really appreciate the trend of books providing their own content warnings these days!! It is nice to not be surprised by these things!)

It's always hard in any story to not to be sympathetic with the main character, but I think you need extend quite a bit of trust towards the author for the first part of the book. Moreover, I also wonder if your excitement about this book will likely parallel your desire to hear this sort of "white person unlearning shitty childhood beliefs" story. I personally think it's a pretty believable arc, especially because this book is more of an "unlearning" story than a "redemption for past actions" story. So, I mention all this not as an insult to the book, but rather a conditional on any recommendation.

(I don't know where else to put this thought but it's an extension of the above conditional and also a content warning of sorts; there's a scene at the end with Kyr and Yiso, an alien that Kyr has been xenophobic at and has misgendered for most of the book. They're having a poignant moment, and in that moment out of nowhere, Kyr asks to touch Yiso's alien hair-equivalent? This is incredibly creepy?? I'm sorry??? It's just that in a book dealing with being less space racist maybe a "touching" hair-touching scene could have gotten a second look. They already had an awkward hug scene earlier that would have made way more sense to revisit here!)

Finally, to put a few spoilery thoughts in a vague way, I did not at all expect the plot of the book to go the way it did. I appreciated the way the turn of the book provides Kyr with some much needed perspective that would have felt like implausible personal growth otherwise. I also appreciate the plot structure revisiting the events of the beginning of the book with a different perspective. It was a nice echo, especially with a character who begins the book herself obsessed with replaying past historical military events in VR.