A review of Eileen Bell’s “Angela and Her Three Wishes” in The Puzzle Box (Edge, 2013)

Cover Photo of The Puzzle Box courtesy of Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing

By Derek Newman-Stille

The Puzzle Box overall is a collection of stories about the hidden within, and Eileen Bell creatively employs the notion of the puzzle box as a genie’s lamp, holding within it the power to grant wishes.

Wishes open paths to our secret desires, open doorways to our wants, and ultimately ourselves. When Angela encounters a genie from within the puzzle box, she confronts notions of her selfhood, her identity. She discovers secrets about her origins and deconstructs the lies that have been told to her “for her protection”. The walls that have been placed around her by the lies that have been told are opened, torn down, but the revelations within may be even more painful.

When genies bring truth instead of wishes, the whole foundation of our ideas of ourselves may be opened up.

To find out more about The Puzzle Box, visit Edge’s website at http://www.edgewebsite.com/books/puzzlebox/pzbox-catalog.html .

To read more about Eileen Bell, visit her website at http://www.eileenbell.com/ .