​"The Madness East of St. George"

By Jeff Cottrill

JUDGE'S REMARKS

Sitting down to read The Madness East of St. George is like sitting down with an old friend for a familiar cup of too-hot tea. Only, your friend’s jaw is a touch unhinged – in the literal sense – the wallpaper is peeling, and blood is pouring into the room like that scene in The Shining. The real genius isn’t in the absurdity of the horror, but in the mundanity of everything else.

As a Canadian (living in Ontario, no less), I was immediately drawn to the setting of this piece: Toronto transit. The author takes a familiar experience  – who hasn’t ridden on subpar transit? – and turns it into a masterful piece of satirical horror. From one sentence to the next, I was gasping in disgust and then laughing out loud.

I found myself thinking a lot about The Madness East of St. George after I’d finished reading it, finding more to love on my second and third visits through the slick prose. The author gives us a masterclass in manipulating language – at times too formal and too composed – which they contrast with the scene being described: an animalistic meltdown nothing short of insanity. This, coupled with the count-up to chaos, is perfect for elevating tension and drawing the reader right in. It’s got that Lovecraftian flavour that makes you want to utter to yourself next time you’re sitting in traffic, “The madness!”

"The Biomechanics of a Kiss"

By Jay McKenzie

JUDGE'S REMARKS

As you begin to read The Biomechanics of a Kiss, the first thing you will notice is the simply delectable prose. Effortless and beautiful, the author weaves lush images with a lived-in world that pulses off the page. This is a quiet story that is deeply emotional. It will leave even a gargoyle teary-eyed.

In The Biomechanics of a Kiss, the author accomplishes something very tough: the blending of two completely different tones while maintaining a balance that doesn’t remove from the impact of the story. In this case, it is the perky science lesson that is being taught in a voice reminiscent of the Mr. DNA animation in Jurassic Park, contrasted with the gut-wrenching emotional devastation playing out in first person through the rest of the story. It’s a tough line to walk, and The Biomechanics of a Kiss makes it look easy.

The Biomechanics of a Kiss secured itself a top-three placement through the genius inclusion of the narrator’s new girlfriend – a simple addition that complicates an already heartbreaking story and, rolling into the final lines of the piece, make the piece impossible to put down – even when it is over. 

"Parallel"

By Fynn Moran

JUDGE'S REMARKS

Chances are, if you aren’t drawn to Parallel, you might just not enjoy short fiction at all. Parallel is a stand-out example of what the medium can do: a painting in prose, almost cinematic in its delivery. The story is feverish and dreamlike, like reading one of those images that turns into something else (an autostereogram, Google tells me). 

I adored the way the author trusted the reader to fill in blanks, leaning instead on the emotional weight of the characters’ experiences rather than the whats and the whys. The author steps back and allows their characters to drive the narrative. I recognized elements of Stephen King’s short stories – especially The Long Walk – as well as the dystopian foreboding of Shirley Jackson’s short work.

As a writer, the thing I find most impressive about Parallel is the way it builds tension through the use of repetition (“steps parallel”). This story is relentless in its pacing, building and building until at last – without a single wasted word – it arrives at the ending. An ending which, upon reflection, feels as though it were predestined. There truly could not be any other conclusion to the story, and that feeling resonated with me long after I’d finished reading. 

Elysia Rourke judged the 2025 MoonLit Getaway Short Fiction Contest.