Today we’re doing something a little different, because I just read something so in line with our interests here at Okazu, that I wanted to immediately tell you all about.  Today, we’re talking about Radcliffe Hall from Uncanny Magazine, Issue 48, by Miyuki Jane Pinckard. The title is linked to the full text of this story. I recommend it highly.

Tomoe Kikuchi is a young Japanese woman from the Hakone region of Japan who is running away from a tragedy. Having been schooled in London, she has moved with her family to Boston in the United States and is to begin attending a small women’s college in the American Northeast. As she is driven up to the foreboding building in which she is to live, Radcliffe Hall, it all starts to go dark…and dangerous.

This is a long short story, or perhaps novelette, so I really don’t want to spoil any piece of it, but I must hint. If you wish to read it completely unspoiled – go read it right now. ^_^

Set in the early part of the 20th century as it is, Radcliffe Hall has many influences one might expect from a paranormal suspense novel set in a small women’s college in the American Northeast. Imagine me winking broadly here. There is a Lovecraftian under (and over) tones, and a ‘S’ sensibility that befits the Japanese protagonist. The story is clearly meant to call those two things up.  Aside from these, there is also a strong sense of psychological horror, rooted separately in two period influences – spiritualism and racism. Of these, the greatest horror is white supremacy. The story is too short to let this build up as slowly as it ought to, but it’s there from the beginning and is as much a cause for the overwhelming sense of danger as the paranormal happenings.

This story is also sapphic as heck and in that portion of the story lay redemption and safety. It functions like a beacon of light in an otherwise gloomy setting.

If you are a fan of Otherside Picnic, you may find the explicable terrors a little bit banal, but I think you’ll enjoy the story overall. It hits right in that sweet spot of lesbian loss and love and crazy shit happening that both OP and, the web series Carmilla both capture, with a historical flavor.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

This was a great read. 

Check out Uncanny Magazine for other fantastic stories and consider subscribing and help support great writing!

How about that title, too? Radclyffe Hall was a noted lesbian novelist, writer of the in/famous Well of Loneliness.