Shiny

Issue 4

Twelfth Planet Press (2008)
$3
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Reviewed by Alexandra Pierce, Nov 2008

The concept behind Shiny – to have an electronic magazine of young adult short fiction – is a great one, appealing as it should to that demographic who, we are told, spend an enormous amount of time online. This, the fourth issue of Shiny, includes three short stories and two reviews. Longer than the previous issues, I still found it easy enough to read on screen – the layout is done with onscreen reading in mind, which of course makes sense, but a number of other webzines I’ve seen don’t seem to have understood this concept.

The first story is by Bren MacDibble, appearing for her second time in the magazine. “Being Bella Wang” is set in that quintessentially Aussie exotic locale – Bali – and is focussed on Sienna, a clone of Bella Wang, a golf pro. For those of us who put up with excess parental pressure to be, to do, to accomplish… this will probably make you feel better. At least you aren’t your parent. MacDibble nicely ties in the science fiction element – which isn’t particularly overt, and is treated quite casually – with a fantasy element that fits its location nicely. The conclusion, while seemingly light-hearted, became darker and more threatening upon reflection.

Michael Merriam contributes “All the Leaves your Bed”. The start of the tale is told from the perspective of a tree, and then moves on to that of a young girl, Danielle, who keeps getting into trouble for acting in a ‘wild’ way. As you may guess, the story chronicles the friendship between the two. This story didn’t quite work for me. Danielle was a bit too two-dimensional, and the hints and suggestions about what had happened before – and what happened after – were too scarce. It didn’t feel fleshed-out enough.

The editorial, written by Krasnostein, warns that the third story – “Skitter Skitter” by Rhonda Parrish – is an appropriate one for Halloween, when this particular issue was released into the wild. And it is indeed quite creepy – a horror story of the old school, I think, where there’s not much in the way of explanation but a whole load in the way of atmosphere and general nastiness. This story, like the other two, features a teenaged girl as the protagonist. It could have been dangerous having girls as the main character for all three – there’s always the chance that the stories will be too similar, and the characters start to blur into one another. Fortunately, this is not the case here. Chloe is a very different girl from MacDibble’s Sienna and Merriam’s Danielle. She’s actually not very likeable, either, but that works well for the story.

Finally, Shiny 4 is completed by two reviews: Tehani Wessely reviews The Two Pearls of Wisdom (by Alison Goodman) and comes away star-struck; Tansy Rayner Roberts, one-time co-editor of the magazine, reviews Maureen Johnson’s Devilish, and is not quite as impressed as she had hoped to be.

All in all, this fourth issue is another solid one from Twelfth Planet Press. It’s to be hoped that Shiny continues to grow, getting a name for itself which will in turn encourage more authors to write, and contribute, good young adult short fiction.