Beast Beset

Review from April 2026
There's something about Mel's writing that sparkles. It's so compact and also so dense and as you pour a part of yourself into the text the meaning refracts through implication and spreads out a universe in front of you. With just a few words the she can capture ideas that fill out whole worlds in the imagination.

Within this space, I think Mel is probably my favourite writer. I've tried in the past to imitate her style, that sparse prose laden with implication and characterisation, but I feel like I've never quite got there. My recent stories Crystal Glass and Orange Juice were both in some part inspired by the way that Mel writes and the things she chooses to write about: it's the little parts of relationships and the struggles and the humanity and the mundane that is made transcendent. In a creative community that is filled with characters that often feel more archetype than human I find that Mel writes some of the most human and most believable characters.

In her recent mechsplo story Beast Beset this strength is really clearly in view. Pell's awkwardness is really wonderful and the way that the two of them navigate this new relationship is compelling and sweet and emotional. I instantly fell in love with both of them. The setting is great, it's like a space feudalism govern by ancient laws and customs (and also has mechs). There's never any need for tiresome exposition: the ideas of what this setting represents, especially the patriarchy of it, are explored through the characters' relations to each other and the world they inhabit.

It's a short read, coming in at only 3.7k words on AO3 but in those words it captures more story than some works with tens of thousands. It's short enough that I feel safe telling you, the person reading this, to just go and read it now. It won't take you that long. I read it as it was coming out of tumblr and like it made it a joy to check that website every day to see the latest part. If you enjoy it and want to read more then check out Long Time, No Shear because that's my favourite Mel story.