Beneath A Thousand Skies

Summary:

A woman talented in the art of spinning–creating pottery by manipulating clay in her mouth–longs to become the best, but wonders if it is worth the sacrifices she must make…

“…Our folklorist at Gyle tells a story every once in a while. She says they’re looking for their human cousins that left the oceans millions of years ago. They want their ink sacks back.”

I went into this novelette blind. I was browsing original fiction on reactor.mag wanting something short to read, and the title caught my attention, and the premise had the perfect amount of intrigue to reel me in.

I was not expecting a story that I have been gnawing at and thinking about for the last few days. Partly, that is down to the horror element – especially as it leans into body horror, which is absolutely my favourite flavour of horror, especially when you through in a bizarre nautical twist on the idea. But I think the real reason is that the core story, about chasing dreams, about sacrifices and making choices for better… or worse, is something very tangible and familiar.

What would you do to chase a dream? To rise to the top?

I feel like Langlan has written a story that will resonate with anyone feeling as though they are struggling to get somewhere, whether with a job, an art, or both. And I love how it built up, we get to see our POV’s character catch the bug, the seed of the dream, working towards it despite being pushed to give up by family, by society, by the reality of having to earn a living and still cleaving to that dream. The fact that it’s in first person also making it so easy to walk in those shoes, to stare at the four walls wondering … can I make it?

The idea of making pottery with your mouth and decorating it with cephalopod ink sacs that have evolved as part of our biology is both fascinating and uncomfortable, in that way that makes you want to back away, but you can’t keep looking and wanting to understand. And the way society and opportunities have built up around this was really well done; and the idea of sponsorship and patronage and needing to catch the eye of the right people through that heady, imperfect balance of talent and luck and determination with the ever-present possibility of it all being snatched away again gives the story resonance.

As the tension builds, creeping in like haar off the sea… or unshelled nautilus crawling on to land; Langan pushes both elements to their limits. Challenging the idea of what sacrifices are worth making, what prices are too much, and I particularly liked the brief interactions between our POV and Caroline, the two sides of the coin and how its revisited at the end. It was a brush of rationality, a lifeline – that has part of you willing our MC to listen to their doubts, that rationale voice; even as Langlan makes us go… but what if? What if we take that jump? That risk?

I think the only element I struggled with did stem from that, because while I liked that push and pull and that we were offered a glimpse of the other side. The conflict is almost too easily resolved? Our MC turning their back on the doubts, the evidence a little too quickly – and some of that is down to the length, and to be honest I think it does work, I would just have liked to see it gnawed at just a little while longer.

The ending…was unexpected and fantastically horrifying. Like a last cherry on top of the feast, especially the last three lines, which felt a little like you had waded out into the ocean and just found the edge of the shallows and plunged in deep.

Both weirdly fascinating and disturbing in that sense that afterwards you could easily imagine phantom tentacles curling around places they shouldn’t. However, what I really loved about Squid Teeth is that the weird elements, and the body horror were so beautifully balanced with what was a very resonant, human story; with these two very different elements complementing each other. A quick read, that had a far more lasting impact and has left me wanting to check out more of the author’s word – and I would absolutely recommend Squid Teeth.