"It doesn’t feel like a win."

December 20, 2021 8:19 AM

"Some Kind of Blood-Soaked Future" by Carlie St. George is a short story playing with/within the horror genre, involving found family and a sort-of-chosen career protecting others. "Here’s the thing about surviving a slumber party massacre: no one really wants you around anymore. All your friends are dead, and your mom is dead, and you get shuffled off to live with your miserable Aunt Katherine, who blames you for getting her sister killed because she’s an awful human being like that."

Thanks to the folks in the John Wiswell kaffeeklatsch at Worldcon this past weekend who recommended this!

posted by brainwane (9 comments total)

This is great.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:54 AM on December 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

Anyone interested in a novel-length exploration of some of these ideas should check out We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory.
posted by tdismukes at 10:03 AM on December 20, 2021 [3 favorites]

Oh, this made me cry right now. Not sire what Mrs. Norwood is, but she's awesome.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:21 AM on December 20, 2021 [5 favorites]

I think all good slasher sequels deal with the trauma the survivors experience, actually, the bad ones do, too, just…. well, badly. I like this story’s take. I always felt bad for Laurie Strode, forced to deal with Michael Myers over and over, but having to deal with a continual stream of different killers…. Anyway, I admire the “joke” setup that manages to dig into the character of the survivor and make it visceral for the reader. It remains absurd but not humorous.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:23 AM on December 20, 2021 [3 favorites]

Wow this is a good one.
posted by Literaryhero at 1:41 AM on December 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

This is excellent. Clearly written by someone with a love of the genre and I loved the detail of the protagonist being ace which is something I've thought about for years.
posted by slimepuppy at 2:11 AM on December 21, 2021 [2 favorites]

This also reminds me of Final Girl Support Group.
posted by jeoc at 4:57 PM on December 21, 2021

If you like this, you might like the podcast Red Tiding Hoods, which I mention in my latest podcast roundup. Honestly, this story is better, with more depth and clever ideas, but the podcast might be fun if you like the conceit.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:09 PM on December 21, 2021

This also reminds me of Final Girl Support Group.

This looks interesting, is it good?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 6:21 PM on December 22, 2021