Title: Hungry Demigods
Author: Andrea Tang
Genre: Adult urban fantasy
Subgenre: n/a
Length: Short story
Rating: * * * * *
I don’t normally read short stories, let alone review them–especially from authors I’m unfamiliar with, but when I saw Andrea’s pitch on Twitter, I knew I had to read it. Immediately.
Franco-Chinese-Canadian urban fantasy novelette about food magic & immigrant witches, set in Montreal!
Um…
YES, PLEASE.
I am happy to report that this story far exceeded my expectations. Isabel, our main character, is not only a bad-ass tri-lingual witch who knows her way around a KitchenAid, she’s also blind and funny as hell, and just a little bit salty.
By Montreal standards, at least.
When her brother shows up with a friend from the university, a young man cursed with immortality, unable to feel, or bleed, or–worst of all–taste, Isabel is on the case. After plying him with magical pork buns, she sets out to find the source, and a cure for his malady.
This story was laugh out loud funny from beginning to end, but also nearly brought a tear to my eye once or twice. Her descriptions of St. Catherine Street and the vibrant downtown community made me so homesick for it. I could smell my favorite Chinese restaurant, and the bakery, and it felt like I was walking down the street to the amazing used bookstore there. It’s the type of story and atmosphere I wanted to write when I first started working on Evie, and Tang has hit the nail on the head.
Right now it looks to be a standalone story, but the way it reads it could easily be part of a series (please god, let it be part of a series!).
If you’re looking for a quick read to cheer you up on a gloomy day, this is it.
Hungry Demigods is a short story published on Giganotosaurus. You can read the web version for free, or use the download links on that page to get an epub or mobi file.
Like what you see? Check out Pass, Fail, Promise: Urban Fantasy Edition
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