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Michael Hartford

writer, photographer, programmer, dad

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“Pear of Anguish” by Gemma Files

Posted on February 6, 2022

Two girls, outcasts from middle school society, dabble in witchcraft and opening portals whose keys are pain and blood.

This is a terrible, beautiful, horrifying story about puberty, bullying, despair, and a heartbreaking folie a deux; it’s very much in the vein of the movies “Incision” and “Heavenly Creatures.” The narrator claims not to be as deeply enmeshed in the fantasy world as her friend, except when she is, and the story’s ambiguity and unreliability make it especially haunting.

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