Bears, by Leah Bobet

I finally got around to reading Leah Bobet’s short story “Bears” and I’ve got to say, this is a weird, weird story.

And I like it.

This is the one I mentioned a few months back with the wonderful opening

Ninety-eight percent of all fictional deaths are directly attributable to being eaten by bears.

Bullshit, you say? What about those shooting and stabbings and drownings and beatings and death by Doomed Gay Manlove?

Well, it's not my problem if you can't see the bears.

The rest of the story unfolds as the bears begin to get loose from the stories you thought you knew and the bears have their own agenda. Get past the first couple of pages and this is something of a weird delight.

I rather like this line, too:

"You are ascribing moral values to a force that is inherently without morality," I tell him, and give him a shove forward. "Anyone who even rolled up and smoked a philosophy text could tell you—"