It's a Jumble

  I loved Ephiny Gale’s first collection of short stories, Next Curious Thing , and so I jumped at the chance for a review copy of her second, Pick Your Potion . It’s a worthy follow-up of strange and beautiful stories, by turns gentle and warm and then harrowing and brutal. The book’s back cover copy describes it as “a full apothecary’s bar of speculative stories,” and it’s an apt description. Gale showcases a range of moods, styles and genres in this book, ranging from science fiction to fantasy to horror and hybridities among these three.   Some of my favorite stories in this collection embrace warmth and comfort.   New lovers find one another on a divided generation spaceship in “Solace” and in a magical orchard in “The Orchard.” In other stories, old lovers find one another in different forms, or friends finally recognize the romantic spark between them. One of my favorites was “All the Times I’m Ten,” a twist on the “chosen one” trope that manages to feel both f...