Lawrence Harper doesn’t have a race car bed, thank God. Instead he has a twin mattress on the floor of his parents’ single-wide. He also has: a Spiderman blanket that smells like a thrift store, dusty and flowery; a plastic Buzz Lightyear clutched in one sweaty fist; reddish hair, skim milk skin; a heart that will fail in approximately eleven hours and twelve minutes; and a soul that shines like a comet streaking across the last midnight of summer.Alix E. Harrow has made me cry more than some of...

From the award-winning and best-selling author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January comes a powerful short story called Mr. Death, published in January 2021 by Apex Magazine.In just over five thousand words, Alix E. Harrow explored the everyday existence of a reaper named Sam Grayson, as he's tasked to making the transition from life to a death a little easier, via the ferrying of souls. What I found most fascinating about Harrow's narrative was the creativity and uniqueness of our reaper's que...

Mr Death. By Alix E HarrowMy stomach hurts After reading that. In the most beautiful way I can’t explain. How does she know how to make us so emotional with such a short amount of words? Just wow. Easily my favorite author of all time.

I loved this story. It's sad but hopeful and poignant in its own, understated way. It's a story of healing and love and coming to terms with loss... and of breaking the rules and risking yourself to save someone else.

I read the short story "Mr. Death" because I’m pretty much interested in everything Alix Harrow writes. I wasn’t expecting to have to hide my face so my husband wouldn’t ask me why I was crying.Sam Grayson, who died at age 44 from lung cancer, was offered an alternative to crossing the river of death into the great beyond. His reaper, Raz, offers him a job as a Junior Reaper with the Department of Death. It becomes Sam's job to escort the souls of people who have died across the river where they...

Imaginative; succinct but sufficient; poignant but not maudlin; powerful….or as my GR friend Fiona put it: “Alix E. Harrow has made me cry more than some of my exes. Damn but she can write! Mr Death is the kind of short story that punches way above the indication of it's word count, and is going to occupy a little glowing place in my memory.” https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...(contains link for a free read of this story, Mr. Death)Thank you Fi, for pointing me toward this gem.

This is the first issue of Apex Magazine I've read and I'm impressed with the quality of the stories. These are the ones which stood out for me.My favourite was "Mr. Death" by Alix E. Harrow. It's a clever, funny and emotionally moving story about a "Reaper" and the difficult job they do.I also enjoyed "The Niddah" by Elana Gomel. This one is a creepy post-pandemic tale of mutation which focusses on women and blood. I've always enjoyed Cassandra Khaw's fiction, and her story "Love, That Hungry T...

I have one child, one child that I carried, all 12 pounds of her, and had her pulled from me, squalling into this awe-inspiring and cruel world. All of my love, hopes, and dreams for the future lay upon her tiny shoulders. As the saying goes, "my heart lives outside my chest." This is why Mr. Death by the always incredible Alix E. Harrow smacked me around a bit emotionally. I empathized with both the reaper and the parents. Two sides of the same coin, and in the middle is a little boy, age two,

Well, Alix Harrow seems to be joining the list of authors that regularly make me cry and feel grateful for it at the same time; I should really keep a lid on that sort of thing. I love this story. And goddamn, Harrow crafts sentences that strike me as just perfect:"They look for people whose hearts are vast and scarred, like old battlefields overgrown with poppies and saplings. People who know how to weep and keep working, who have lost everything except their compassion.CW: (view spoiler)[death...

read Harrow's Mr. Death based on Hirondelle's recommendation (thank you, thank you) and loved it. definitely recommend it.

APEX magazine is back! For those unfamiliar with the magazine, it has been on hiatus recently. It's a magazine of science fiction, fantasy and all those words that slip in between those categories - and it's been missed. I got a chance to read the new issue ahead of its recent relaunch - it's out today - and it's been like meeting an old friend again. Editor Jason Sizemore talks in the introduction about the return, the reasons for the hiatus, and the new schedule. It'll now be a bi-monthly maga...

Need a good cry but also want something not depressing? Here you go.

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.this is the SIXTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who li...

Sam Grayson has been a reaper for three years, ferrying souls across the river of death when their time is up and their name appears in a manila envelope given to him. When he fails to reap his two hundred and twenty second soul, his own reaper from the Department of Death steps in with firm kindness ...and a test.This is a fantastic short story that I could continue to re-read for the creativity and interesting perspective. Harrow is quickly becoming a new favorite author for me!Read Mr. Death

An amazing story of what it takes to be a grim reaper... although, let's not go for the long robes and large scythes anymore. Nowadays, it's about staying close and comforting the dead as they depart from the world of the living.Sam, our protagonist, has been a reaper for a good number of years, but when he's confronted with the death of a two-year-old, he starts to have doubts about what he needs to do.The story can be read here: https://apex-magazine.com/mr-death/

This issue marks the return of Apex Magazine after an extended hiatus due to the editor Jason Sizemore's illness. He mentions in the editorial that he had his doubts if he or the magazine would ever return. With a comeback issue this strong, I'm very glad he and the magazine are back. "Root Rot," Fargo TbakhiThis seems to be replaying the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Mars. I don't know enough about that to comment on it, and as a result I couldn't really get into this story or character. The

Reader, I cried.

Well damn, what a powerful story. This got me right in the feels. An absolutely perfect short story. Loved everything about it!

Just listened to Mr Death by Alix E. Harrow and it was so so good. I have yet to dislike anything this woman writes!

This review is just about the Alix Harrow short story, Mr Death, available here on the magazine's site https://apex-magazine.com/short-ficti... . If I read more of this issue I will edit and note down my thoughts.And oh wow, what a story it was. It made me cry (and I do not cry that easily, usually) but not a bad thing at all. My third short story of hers, and I have said from the previously read one, that they were perfect, well this one also, maybe even deeper. Dunno, but devastatingly good: t...