Let’s close the spooky season with an out-of-this-world but extremely relatable horror novella, Walking Practice, by author Dolki Min. It’s funny, it’s gory, and it’s going to stir up your emotions and encourage examination of love, identity, and how we connect as humans.
After crash-landing on Earth, a solitary alien has spent years perfecting its assimilation into human society. The alien has comfortably established a routine to make sure they never run out of humans to eat. Using the internet, the alien remains anonymous and covertly arranges dates with lonely individuals looking for love in a big city. For these love-starved people, this ‘person’ that reaches out to them is always their ideal lover, but in this case, finding the perfect partner has consequences. The alien shifts and shapes itself into any body required so it can catch their date off guard and leave with a full stomach. And while the alien may be satiated after each encounter, there is more to life than a fleeting night together and a good meal.
Min’s shapeshifting alien challenges our black and white perceptions of identity and gender. The alien cleverly drops information about themselves at the beginning of the story, and lets the reader assign a gender to the creature based on their own biases. This is, of course, a lesson to the reader, as the alien confronts our expectations of gender and our desperate need to gather data and slot someone neatly into a well-defined category. The alien shapeshifter and their interactions on this foreign planet painfully show the queer experience, from being unable to conform to society’s expectations to the consequences of falling outside the expected gender roles. The alien’s desperate survival to shape itself into something desirable for its prey (us, humans) demonstrates how insane society’s expectations are for a world existing beautifully on a spectrum.
The audiobook for Walking Practice is incredible. Narrated by non-binary transfeminine voice actor Nicky Endres, the alien’s plight on our planet feels so engaging and authentic, like I was drinking coffee with them and hearing their story firsthand. Nicky gives the main character’s voice a cadence and variation that feels so authentically relatable and, well, alien at the same time. The alien will be rattling away, telling the reader about their day, and suddenly the voice warps, it shifts, into something frightening to share an intrusive alien-like thought (like eating humans) before continuing with their tale. The way Nicky so effortlessly navigates the alien’s stream of consciousness and punctuates it with changes in tone and speed really gives us a sense of this effervescent and unimaginable character. The alien is friendly, conversational, yet horrifying. Nicky’s voice lures us in, allowing the alien to charm us before the monster pops through once again.
One of the more poignant parts of the story is the rare moments the alien laments about its deep loneliness and desire to be loved. Once again, Min masterfully mirrors the difficulties of the queer experience. The alien painstakingly shapes itself into a man or woman their prey desires, but when alone back at home, they reveal their deepest and truest desires. All they truly want is to be known and accepted as they are, horns and three legs and all. Despite the alien’s busy dating (and eating) schedule, the isolation seeps through their story. So many people surround them, but never stick around to get to know the alien meaningfully. The alien completes a kill only to shuffle back home alone, having broken a connection to someone yet again. The alien must shape itself and hunt to feed, but when survival mode is lessened after a good meal, they wish for stability and the ability to fall in love without fear or retaliation.
I am in awe of the way Dolki Min layers this story and exposes so many contradictions and impossibilities for anyone who falls outside the suffocating confines of societal expectations. Get your dose of horror via an alien hunting humanity, and reflect on the very real terror our society perpetuates for anyone outside the lines.
Rating: Walking Practice – 9.0/10
-Brandee
