Review: Pick Your Potion by Ephiny Gale
Pick Your Potion
By Ephiny Gale
Publisher: Foxgrove Press
Genres: LGTBQIA, Novellas & Short Stories, Sci-fi & Fantasy
Publication Date: 03/09/2024
Pages: 226
Synopsis from the Publisher
Magic, mystery, and the macabre collide in Pick Your Potion, a mesmerising collection of genre-blending fantasy, science fiction, and horror stories from award-winning Australian author Ephiny Gale.
The 26 weird tales in Pick Your Potion are female-centric, mostly queer, and always intriguing.
Within these pages, you’ll find:
A deadly and addictive magical board game.
A time-loop demon apocalypse.
A dimension-jumping cruise ship.
A competition to win a magical orchard.
A collection of murder victims’ last texts.
Heartwarming, heart-stopping, and heartbreaking in turn, Pick Your Potion offers a full apothecary of speculative stories to serve the curious reader.
Review
I love anthologies of short stories, it’s like pick and mix, you can have a little bit of everything you like in one book. What a selection of short stories in this book! They cover sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, horror and LGBTQIA romance. I loved this selection. Some of the stories left me wanting more. I particularly loved how Ephiny Gale packs so much world building and detail into the short stories, it’s a fantastic talent. I like the introduction where the stories were presented as a cocktail menu with some background behind each story.
My favourites include:
Curioqueens - a story about a cursed board game.
The Candle Queen - about a queen who must not let the candles go out else the world will end.
Faewild - think Pokémon crossed with Hogwarts.
Smol Animaux - a very dark story set in lockdown.
I loved all the stories in this book, I will definitely seek out more writing by this author. I enjoyed visiting each world throughout the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Foxgrove Press for the opportunity to review this ARC.