I heard about this short story thanks to Lydia Schoch’s review. I encourage you to read her take as well, because she’s much better at writing these things without spoilers than I am. But I’m going to try anyway, because I enjoyed this tale quite a lot.
As Lydia notes, there are few stories that mention menstruation. Which is odd if you think about it, because it’s a normal part of life for 50% of the population. But apparently it’s a topic people prefer not to talk about—and demons too, as Terazael, the bloodthirsty-but-rather-helpless monster summoned in this story demonstrates. (You know, I never realized until just now that “demonstrate” has the word “demon” in it.)
Anyway, I can’t tell you much about this story without spoiling it, other than to say that it’s a delightful comedy about a woman who summons a demon while she’s on her period, and the comical antics and misunderstandings that follow. Now, if that’s not an original and intriguing enough concept to catch your attention, I don’t know what is.
Pads For His Throne is very short, but don’t let that stop you from picking it up. It’s not the size of the book that matters; it’s the size of the laughs you get from the story, and there are some big ones in here.
Thanks for the shout out!
It’s so cool that you decided to read and review this story, too. You did a nice job with your review.
Thank you! 🙂
When a friend read Weed Therapy, my novel that was unpublished by the author for reasons that will go unstated, she commented that she was surprised I didn’t describe the MC’s bathroom habits. There is a lot of detail about daily activities in the story and she was joking, of course, but … think about it. How many stories talk about a character going to the bathroom. I think it’s just the case that there are some things — potty trips and menstruation — that just kind of go unsaid.
It’s true–and in most cases, it’s probably for the best. I know for me, it would be a drag to have to factor things like that into what characters are doing. I rarely even bother with details like meals, what characters are wearing, etc. either.
But… when a really good writer does it, it can be used to great effect. But I suppose that’s true of anything, isn’t it?
Very true … I tend to stay away from those things as well, but in Weed Therapy I devoted words to the intimate details of some meals because it revealed things about the characters and also it was the meals where conversations took place that were a key part of the story.