‘When Mystical Creatures Attack!’: Collection of linked stories explores dark places

Don't let the whimsical title and cover art fool you. 'When Mystical Creatures Attack!” (University of Iowa Press, 163 pages, $16) by Kathleen Founds is not filled with magic and light. This collection of linked stories, which garnered the 2014 John Simmons Short Fiction Award, explores some rather dark places in the human heart and mind.

While six of the stories have been published as stand-alone fiction, the tales in 'When Mystical Creatures Attack!” rely heavily upon one another to create a cumulative effect. The book reads more like a novel with an unusual structure than a collection of stories. The book's primary figure is Laura Freedman, a teacher in the throes of disillusionment and mental illness.

The title story, which opens the book, is a collection of student writing in response to a prompt: 'Write a one-page story in which your favorite mystical creature resolves the greatest sociopolitical problem of our time.” We are introduced to many of the book's recurring characters through this device as the students (and Ms. Freedman) tell personal stories about their interconnected lives under titles like 'How the Giant Squid Made Me Stop Being Pregnant” and 'How the Sphinx Solved the Problem of Loneliness.” Both funny and sad, 'When Mystical Creatures Attack!” plants the seeds for all that is to follow.

While Laura Freedman battles her inner demons, one of her students, Janice Gibbs, is doing her best to improve her life. While Janice struggles mightily in these stories, she provides a counterbalance to Laura in that she is able to beat back despair. She is the book's tentative symbol of hope, though Founds also offers a final vision of hope in the hereafter for those who struggle mightily in the here and now.