Sci-fi that's short but (bitter)sweet

The Gaijin Girl: A Mayake Chronicles Short Story by E.E. Giorgi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A futuristic fairytale that's hard to put down. I won't say much because it's such a quick read and I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that it takes on themes of theory vs. reality. Literature, social networks, and even people's self-conceptions are veiled in questions about what's real and what's not. Against this backdrop, we watch a girl named Lilun as her lonely, restrictive childhood approaches its end.

Whether or not you've read other books in the Mayake chronicles, this story is an intriguing window into a perspective that's been kept hush-hush in the rest of the series. It's always fascinating to see "villains" in their day-to-day life, and even better when this perspective challenges our preconceptions of what they're like.

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