Lunchling by Jay Alexander

​I’ve recently stumbled across a really fun bunch of kindle genre freebies. This was my first priority read – I’m familiar with Jay Alexander as an editor (he’d recently bought a short story of mine) and wanted to check him out as an author. Because, you know, it’s interesting to see what the person on the other side of the table can do. And sure enough, Alexander is a good storyteller in his own right if we’re going by this tale of mad puppets and hungry forest deities.
A blend of creature feature and folk, this is a story of an ordinary family that gets pinned against extraordinary circumstances.
And to think, all these parents wanted to do was to make sure their kid ate his food. The kid, a finnicky eater at best, needed to be tricked into it and so they did trick him - with a creepy old puppet they found in the woods while drunk. Obviously, that’s the moral right there…don’t bring creepy puppets you found in the woods while drunk back with you.
But then again, it worked for years. Creepy or not, the puppet delighted the kid and encouraged him to eat. Until it decided enough is enough and that the eater looked too much like food to resist. So much like food that he’d make a proper lovely sacrifice to the boss.
Cue in the puppet nightmare of your most extreme imaginings. Ready, set, go.
Can this family survive the Lunchling? Read and find out. It’s a short read, lots of fun and well worth checking out. Recommended.