★★★☆☆ Do Not Look Back, My Lion, by Alix E. Harrow

** spoiler alert ** Stylistically gorgeous, but thin on content

Do Not Look Back, My Lion

Alix E. Harrow

Stylistically gorgeous, but thin on content

** spoiler alert ** 

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Rulers send boys to war, where they get killed, and that makes their mothers and fathers angry.

OK, well yeah, of course you've heard it. There are some stories that get told over and over and again -- we've all heard them. And there's nothing wrong with that! The old stories are repeated because they're powerful and true, and there is power in telling the old story in a new way with new words and a new twist. That's what Do Not Look Back, My Lion is. It is a retelling of the story I summarized above, in new words, with a new twist. The new twist involves one of the words in my one-sentence version of the story. It is, honestly, not that new a twist -- it has shown up in many previous tellings of this story.

Now, Alix E. Harrow is a beautiful stylist, and the words of this story will bowl you over. The story itself, not so much. Well, maybe it will bowl *YOU* over, but not me.

I'm honestly sorry. I wanted to like this more than I did.

Do Not Look Back, My Lion is a short story by Alix E. Harrow, free to read here.