Garden of the Bloodpotter by Erin Brown is a dark fantasy novelette published by Psychopomp.
Hen is a scrawny and dirty neglected child, ostracized and shunned by the denizens of her village. They see her suffering and consider her a nuisance, who might serve a better purpose butchered and eaten.
Hen’s predicament might immediately bring to mind the suffering child in Ursula K. Le Guin‘s The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. Except this village is no Utopia and the villagers are destitute, cruel-minded, and probably cannibals.
An ominous stranger comes to the village and he takes Hen under his wing. He shows her his strange magic and opens her eyes to a world the pitiful child had never even thought to imagine. Their destinies intertwine and gradually Hen’s reality shifts. Over time, she transforms into the person who would be called Omen. The drama that follows is heart-wrenching and anxiety-inducing.
Garden of the Bloodpotter is a darkly captivating story that will whet readers’ appetites for the mysterious, the magical, and the macabre. This story is short enough to read in one sitting, but with no words wasted, Brown delivers a potent tale that culminates with a hauntingly dreadful yet satisfying end.
