A review by nataliya_x
Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math by Aimee Picchi

2.0

“She hopes to find a portal to a world with a warm patriarchal figure who will encourage her to spend long days in a library without any housework duties.”

It’s a very short story presented as four vignettes showing Penny at different ages (13, 16, 20, 30), overlooked and unfairly judged for being a woman. She is hoping to find a portal away from the world that is not fair to her. At the end of each vignette there is a portal math(-ish) problem to ponder. How the last one gets solved is where the question is.

“Using only paper and pencil, estimate the equivalency of one pair of leggings to nylons and one lip balm to lipsticks, if l = lipsticks and n = nylons, and then calculate the nearest portal's location and extrapolate why Penny was unable to find it.”

Maybe it’s the extreme brevity of this flash fiction story that makes it impossible to convey much more than just a pointed message as there is no room for worldbuilding or characterization. It’s simplistic because it has no room to be anything else other than a creative moral lesson. A few more pages would have done it justice and added some flesh onto the bare bones.

2.5 stars.

Read it here: https://dailysciencefiction.com/fantasy/other-worlds-fantasy/aimee-picchi/advanced-word-problems-in-portal-math
————

A similar-ish concept, but done better: Probably Still the Chosen One by Kelly Barnhill: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3358769473

——————

My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299