“THE LITTLE WITCH” by M. Rickert — 🎃

A lonely old woman befriends a trick-or-treater who doesn’t seem to age….

And that’s about as much as I can tell you by way of summary, so as not to spoil this spellbinding short story. 

I loved reading “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡,” even though I’m not entirely sure I understood it as a whole. In any case, author M. Rickert’s prose is beautiful enough to make up for any discombobulation one may feel. I found the way she wrote scenery particularly breathtaking, with vivid, poetic descriptions of natural landscapes that were nothing if not transportive. Her characterization was also a stand-out, managing as she did to break my heart multiple times in just a scant number of pages (indeed, most of my notes are some variation of 𝘰𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘥).

“The Little Witch” is a weird, mystifying, at times surprisingly unsettling little story about two witchy, weary souls finding one another and feeling less lonely in the world. It captures the melancholy, ephemeral nature of the autumnal season better than anything I’ve read so far this year. I adored it, utterly, and encourage you to take the time to read it before the month is out. The story can be found on Tor’s website.