Runalong The Short Shelves - Pseudopod

Hellooo!

September was a bit busier at weekends than I’d planned so I’ll be using October to catch up on some planned short fiction for August and September.

First up let’s talk about the podcast Pseudopod’s August delicacies and much fun was hard and by fun I mean creepiness. Tis the season!

I loved episode 987, - Reflections on Bloody Mary, by Catherine MacLeod. Narrated by Christiana Ellis, and hosted by Kat Day - this story has a great character telling us her life story. She is the wife of an academic and we hear he’s shouting after her. This story tells us why and what happened next. We get the unpeeling here of cycles of domestic violence and control and a really neat spin on the Bloody Mary urban myth. Horror and yet a sense of satisfaction at the ending here was really strong.

Another strong voice is found in episode 988 Anthropology 201, by Kitty Sarkozy. Narrated by Kitty Sarkozy, hosted by Kat Day. Here we have a working class woman keen to study and improve herself on what seems to be a phone call relating how she got exposed to ge supernatural side of life. The college setting and our narrator’s thoughts on this really set the scene but then we get the arrival of the strange in the form of a tutor and a mysterious student. The change into something stranger and eerier really works and it’s a compelling unsettling tale we know that has changed our narrator but her dry sense of humour really works through too.

There is a poweful story in episode 989, Dimorphism, by Jessi Ann York, narrated by Marie Lestrange. Hosted by Alasdair Stuart. This has a woman being bitten by wolf spiders. She talks to her therapist but we sense she has kept her secrets. She is condone people like to control and yet she has had a number of incidents where she and animals have had an impact on her. There are scenes of animals being eaten and killed but the key here is someone finding out who they are and not letting anyone else tell them what to do. It’s disturbing but empowering and that’s a hard balance to get right and this rally impressed me.

I loved Episode 990 Hearts and Half-Measures, by Cassiopeia Gatmaitan. Narrated by Jess Lewis, hosted by Scott Campbell. It’s got a strange visceral start as Hearts are eaten and we realise our story is being told from the inhuman monster’s point of view but then even more cleverly we find that our narrow is a trans woman whose father is not happy about her transition and requires her to eat hearts so one day she becomes fully male. This is a story about the pure joy of discovering who you are and loving your life as you want and also how some forces will try to contain and control you and that can’t be accepted. This is a gorgeous story and my favourite of the month.

Salt I was less moved by episode 991 for August 28th, 2025. The Hermit Crab God by EgoBot, narrated by Christopher Tang, hosted by Kat Day. This story of weird fiction has its heart in the right place with an environmental theme but even though it’s great to see the jerk of a main chapter learn his lesson the hard way I just didn’t feel that invested in the characters.

As always a feast of horror to listen too and strongly recommended.