Sunday Short: Thomas Olde Heuvelt's The Ink Readers of Doi Saket

This Sunday's short is another Hugo nominee -- Thomas Olde Heuvelt's “The Ink Readers of Doi Saket”. You can read the story on Tor.com here. 

Illustration by Victo Ngai.

The story takes place in the village of Doi Saket in Thailand during the festival of Loi Krathong. As the intro on Tor.com states: 

People send their dreams and wishes floating down the Mae Ping River with the hope that those dreams will be captured, read and come true. It is a surprise what some wish for and why. One can never know what’s inside someone’s heart—what they really truly want, and those dreams sometimes reveal our true selves.

The story depicts the festival of Loi Krathong and also the murder of a boy Tangmoo. 

Truthfully, this story is my least favorite of the nominees. I enjoyed the humor and the characterizations of villagers as they went about their tasks for Loi Krathong... but the murder of Tangmoo (an innocent boy) didn't seem to fit the tone for me. 

Otherwise, there were definitely some beautiful phrases that stayed with me from the story. I appreciated the way wishes were granted in sort of a cause and effect tumble. I also thought the accompanying illustration by Victo Ngai (above) was beautiful.

Favorite line:  Wishes, like pearls on a string of cause and effect. 

Rating: 3/5

Next week's short will be Sofia Samatar's “Selkie Stories Are for Losers”  which is available to read at Strange Horizons.