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A review by nataliya_x
Apex Magazine Issue 105 by Jason Sizemore
5.0
This is a review only for a brilliant Hugo-winning short story A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix Harrow:
This story is told by the second kind of a librarian. Come again — which kind, you ask? Well, here you go:
There are books that people want to read. And there are books that they *need*, which surpasses mere “want”. The second kind of librarians can tell. But there are rules: “Both of them mean the same thing: We give people the books they need, except when we don’t. Except when they need them most.”
Sometimes what you need most is an escape. From life, from ordinary evils, from mundanity. Sometimes you are a yearner, and it’s really the matter of life or death.
It’s another one of those absolutely delightful stories that make you sigh with happiness. Well-written, perfectly developed for its length, and just lovely. Not to mention that any book set in a library already has a head start for the permanent spot in my heart. To quote Jo Walton, “I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.“
Now I know that Alix Harrow is definitely not a one-hit wonder (I just read and loved her first novel, [b:The Ten Thousand Doors of January|43521657|The Ten Thousand Doors of January|Alix E. Harrow|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548174710l/43521657._SY75_.jpg|63516505]).
5 stars.
Read it here: https://www.apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-portal-fantasies/
——————
Recommended by: Tadiana
This story is told by the second kind of a librarian. Come again — which kind, you ask? Well, here you go:
“(There have only ever been two kinds of librarians in the history of the world: the prudish, bitter ones with lipstick running into the cracks around their lips who believe the books are their personal property and patrons are dangerous delinquents come to steal them; and witches).“
There are books that people want to read. And there are books that they *need*, which surpasses mere “want”. The second kind of librarians can tell. But there are rules: “Both of them mean the same thing: We give people the books they need, except when we don’t. Except when they need them most.”
Sometimes what you need most is an escape. From life, from ordinary evils, from mundanity. Sometimes you are a yearner, and it’s really the matter of life or death.
“I do my best to give people the books they need most. In grad school, they called it “ensuring readers have access to texts/materials that are engaging and emotionally rewarding,” and in my other kind of schooling, they called it “divining the unfilled spaces in their souls and filling them with stories and starshine,” but it comes to the same thing.“
It’s another one of those absolutely delightful stories that make you sigh with happiness. Well-written, perfectly developed for its length, and just lovely. Not to mention that any book set in a library already has a head start for the permanent spot in my heart. To quote Jo Walton, “I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.“
Now I know that Alix Harrow is definitely not a one-hit wonder (I just read and loved her first novel, [b:The Ten Thousand Doors of January|43521657|The Ten Thousand Doors of January|Alix E. Harrow|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548174710l/43521657._SY75_.jpg|63516505]).
5 stars.
Read it here: https://www.apex-magazine.com/a-witchs-guide-to-escape-a-practical-compendium-of-portal-fantasies/
——————
Recommended by: Tadiana