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nataliya_x's review
5.0
This review is for the short story Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon. No, I did not read the entire magazine, but such are GR merge rules...
The legend is old and familiar. Find a magically beautiful changeling, trick her to stay with you, forcibly separate her from everything that was hers and make her yours, turn love into possession to fulfill your heart's desire. Because the point of the stories, quests and legends is getting what you want, isn't it?
The one who knows the price and knows that it must be paid.
It's a wonderful, wonderful story, fully deserving its Nebula win (and would have deserved a Hugo win if the world had been fair).
_________________________
Read it for yourself here:
http://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/
"It’s different when you got a choice."This story is perfect. I have no other words for it - it's simply perfect. It takes only a few minutes to read, and yet in those few pages it easily achieves everything that it possibly can. It's incredibly atmospheric, lyrical, full of vivid imagery and told in a fairy-tale cadence and yet concise and complete and saying so much while saying little.
The legend is old and familiar. Find a magically beautiful changeling, trick her to stay with you, forcibly separate her from everything that was hers and make her yours, turn love into possession to fulfill your heart's desire. Because the point of the stories, quests and legends is getting what you want, isn't it?
"So the young man with the touch of magic watched the jackalope wife dancing and you know as well as I do what young men dream about. We will be charitable. She danced a little apart from her fellows, as he walked a little apart from his.In a North American desert at half-moon young men watch jackalope wives dance - the part-jackrabbit part-antelope creatures that shed their skins for the night of dancing in the moonlight when they appear as the beautiful, alluring, breathtaking women. And as it always happens, one of the young men - the broody one with a touch of magic - wants, needs, to make one of them his own, to own and possess his heart's desire.
Perhaps he thought she might understand him. Perhaps he found her as interesting as the girls found him.
Perhaps we shouldn’t always get what we think we want."
"Now, it happened there was a young man in town who had a touch of magic on him. It had come down to him on his mother’s side, as happens now and again, and it was worse than useless.Everyone knows what to do - grab her changeling skin and burn it, tying her to the world of humans, giving her no choice but to stay with you.
A little magic is worse than none, for it draws the wrong sort of attention."
____________
"This sort of thing happens often enough, even with boys as mortal as dirt. There’s always one who learned how to brood early and often, and always girls who think they can heal him.
Eventually the girls learn better."
“She was beautiful,” he said. As if it were a reason.But what do you do if it's not that easy? If something goes terribly wrong?
As if it mattered.
As if it had ever mattered.
“Of course it hurts her!” yelled Grandma. “You think you can have your skin and your freedom burned away in front of you and not scream? Sweet mother Mary, boy, think about what you’re doing! Be cruel or be kind, but don’t be both, because now you’ve made a mess you can’t clean up in a hurry.But forget the careless selfish young man. Forget the jackalope wife whose desires do not matter to him. They are in the story but it's not their story. It is the story of Grandma Harken, the one who picks up the pieces, the one who does not let love cloud her judgment, the one who has no illusions about the way the world works. The one who to me is a spiritual cousin of Pratchett's Granny Weatherwax.
The one who knows the price and knows that it must be paid.
"You get over what you can’t have faster that you get over what you could. And we shouldn’t always get what we think we want.”___________________
It's a wonderful, wonderful story, fully deserving its Nebula win (and would have deserved a Hugo win if the world had been fair).
_________________________
Read it for yourself here:
http://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/
calypte's review
4.0
I love Ursula Vernon's style - sort of fairy-tale-ish, but with a wry sense of humour and an underlying cleverness. It's super-tough to write simply yet so well, and this was nigh-on a perfect little short story.
hadas's review
5.0
Wow, what a short story - beautiful and fascinating and original. It definitely left we me wanting to read more of the Vernon's stories.
warloujoyce's review
5.0
The moon came up and the sun went down. The moonbeams went shattering down to the ground and the jackalope wives took off their skins and danced.Hmm, how can I explain that 5-star rating? I’d simply tell you to go ahead and read the story. I promise it’s worth your time. However, I’ll attempt to craft a brief review because this merits one.
Jackalope Wives is an example of why I became fond of short stories. There’s no scarcity of them and when I find a gem such as this one, I go back to wishing I can write like their authors do – because short stories, when executed well, are powerful and beautiful.
On the surface, this story is about jackalope wives who shed their rabbit skins at dusk and dance to wild music, as well as the folly of young men who think it’s justified to catch one for themselves.
“Of course it hurts her!” yelled Grandma. “You think you can have your skin and your freedom burned away in front of you and not scream? Sweet mother Mary, boy, think about what you’re doing! Be cruel or be kind, but don’t be both, because now you’ve made a mess you can’t clean up in a hurry.”But this short story is ultimately about choice, consent, and consequences. How Vernon was able to weave those three together in a few pages without feeling forced or hurried is a triumph on its own. She also skillfully creates an excellent tale that combines wisdom and magic – two components that I cannot resist.
And let me tell you, Vernon knows how to leave an impression with her choice of words. I was rather fond of the following lines:
So the young man with the touch of magic watched the jackalope wife dancing and you know as well as I do what young men dream about. We will be charitable. She danced a little apart from her fellows, as he walked a little apart from his.------
Perhaps he thought she might understand him. Perhaps he found her as interesting as the girls found him.
Perhaps we shouldn’t always get what we think we want.
“She was beautiful,” he said. As if it were a reason.P.S. Did I mention it’s free? Check out the Jackalope Wives here: http://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/
As if it mattered.
As if it had ever mattered.
anna_hepworth's review
4.0
An interesting take on the trope of animals shedding their outer skins to show beautiful young women underneath. I particularly loved the old woman character that holds the story together, and her rugged practicality.
shimauchiha's review
3.0
I liked it well enough, but I can't say I was particularly impressed with the originality.
kitsana_d's review
3.0
Only read Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon. Awesome short story about choices.
macthekat's review
4.0
I have read Anasi Boys and I have read a little Sandman both by Neil Gaiman, Jackalope Wives puts me in mind of both. It reads very much like a myth of some pre-industrial people. Where or which isn't’t ever clear, which I do not mind as it doesn’t matter to the story.
This also reminds me of the selkie stories that has been making the rounds the last few years, but this is a different kind creature altogether. While many of the selkie stories seems to center around the jealousy of the other women and envy of the men who does not have a selkie wife and the selkies’ endless longing back to the sea is also a theme. None of those themes makes it into Jackalope Wives. This is a story about (thinking hard) getting what you should not want, about the fact that you can’t both be kind and heartless at the same time, if you try things goes all wrong. It is about being willing to offer your live so that someone else don’t have to suffer. It is about the kindness and the hardness of old women, of grandmothers.
It is a very good story. It holds so much emotion without pulling my heart-strings. It has the fable or myth-like air about it that I always finds fascinating. It is the same fascination that draws me to the myths of old. To the norse mythology, to the Finish ones, to the Greek ones. You tell a story about something that is so obviously fantastical (dear-bunnies that turn into woman and dance in the desert) and that is a perfectly fine story on its own, but you are also telling a different story at the same time. It is one of the oldest forms of storytelling and it has always drawn me. When it is done well as it is in this case it is amazing.
I really liked the ending as well, it was not what I was expecting and I liked it a lot.
So Ursula Vernon thank you for a fascinating, beautiful and scary story with a lot of heart. And thank you for a story about an old woman.
See more of my reviews here: http://wp.me/p40HVI-gT
This also reminds me of the selkie stories that has been making the rounds the last few years, but this is a different kind creature altogether. While many of the selkie stories seems to center around the jealousy of the other women and envy of the men who does not have a selkie wife and the selkies’ endless longing back to the sea is also a theme. None of those themes makes it into Jackalope Wives. This is a story about (thinking hard) getting what you should not want, about the fact that you can’t both be kind and heartless at the same time, if you try things goes all wrong. It is about being willing to offer your live so that someone else don’t have to suffer. It is about the kindness and the hardness of old women, of grandmothers.
It is a very good story. It holds so much emotion without pulling my heart-strings. It has the fable or myth-like air about it that I always finds fascinating. It is the same fascination that draws me to the myths of old. To the norse mythology, to the Finish ones, to the Greek ones. You tell a story about something that is so obviously fantastical (dear-bunnies that turn into woman and dance in the desert) and that is a perfectly fine story on its own, but you are also telling a different story at the same time. It is one of the oldest forms of storytelling and it has always drawn me. When it is done well as it is in this case it is amazing.
I really liked the ending as well, it was not what I was expecting and I liked it a lot.
So Ursula Vernon thank you for a fascinating, beautiful and scary story with a lot of heart. And thank you for a story about an old woman.
See more of my reviews here: http://wp.me/p40HVI-gT
maittrix's review
5.0
One of the best short stories I have ever read.
I read this here: https://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/
I read this here: https://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalope-wives/