From 9A

While these are relatively normal issues many pregnant people face, her condition is made worse when the being within her awakens, and she discovers that it can control her body in ways no human child can. Iraxi’s journey from having a lack of control and agency over her body and fate, to the way she takes it back and forges a new path forward “Flowers for the Sea” a truly unsettling read.

Becoming a monster to save yourself

“The Night Sun” and “Flowers for the Sea” have one important detail in common: they are both about Black women becoming monstrous to protect themselves from abuse. Transformation to their monstrous forms gives them agency and power in situations where they once had none. Ultimately, their abusers’ shock reverberates in the silence they were forced to inhabit as their actions scream louder than the words they were never allowed to say.

The difference between the two stories has to do with the kinds of oppression the women are facing in their respective lives.

“The Night Sun” opens with Avery on a precipice. She has been in an abusive relationship with a white man for fourteen years. Now, she is in a position where she must choose whether to divorce him and move on or stay with him and hope that he changes somehow. Later in the story, we understand how and why she got into that relationship, how she was isolated from her friends and family, and how much Jonas has hurt her. Her transformation gives her access to more information from her surroundings and the ability to fight back if needed. She uses this fully to her advantage.

On the other hand, “Flowers for the Sea” is also about embracing monstrosity, but unlike Avery—who finds community and help because of her monstrous transformation—Iraxi uses her monstrosity to reject the community that has already shunned her. Throughout the story, we get several glimpses into how Iraxi is mistreated as an individual and as a part of her oppressed community while they were still alive. Little by little, the oppression eats away at her psyche, and we see how she has tried to harm herself to escape the pain of her existence.

In “My Genre Makes a Monster of Me”, Rocklyn poses these questions to her readers:

“Why didn’t those monsters rise up together and say **** this world, it’s time to start over? Why continuously strive to prove humanity to those ingrained with their own vanity?”

Iraxi answers these questions. She deliberately isolates herself from the people who hate her, but when prompted by her otherworldly child she uses her transgenerational rage to make the world a better place for herself.

Both “The Night Sun” and “Flowers for the Sea” were stories that made me anxious. Many of their disturbing details stayed with me long after I finished reading them for the first time. But most of all, I liked the way Rocklyn subverted our ideas of who monsters are and what monstrosity can mean for marginalised people. By the end, while I felt empathy and righteous rage and joy for both Avery and Iraxi, I was also a little terrified of them. It was gorgeously executed horror.

I would recommend these stories to anyone who wants quick, scary reads that go beyond superficial jump scares. Rocklyn’s work is brilliant, I sincerely look forward to what she will be cooking up next. Judging from these pieces and her essay, I know that it’s going to be terrifying.

“The Night Sun” was published by Tor.com and is free to read online here: https://www.tor.com/2020/03/11/thenight-sun-zin-e-rocklyn/

Rocklyn’s Essay “My Genre Makes a Monster of Me” was published by Uncanny Magazine and is free to read online here: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/my-genre-makes-a-monster-of-me/

Want to read some more subversive short horror? Try the following:

1. “Choke” by Suyi Davies Okungbowa https://www.tor.com/2022/09/14/choke-suyi-daviesokungbowa/

2. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

3. The Backbone of the World by Stephen Graham Jones

4. Bloody Summer by Carmen Maria Machado

5. “The East Hound” by Nalo Hopkinson https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781597804608/978159 7804608___8.htm