The lovely faintingviolet turned me onto Kelly Link, and I’m here to report that her latest book of short fiction, Get In Trouble, is a delight and there was not a story in this collection that didn’t simultaneously charm and terrify me. As a whole, Link’s greatest achievement is her ability to build entire universes in 40 pages or less. It’s an incredible feat that includes massive speculative worlds and full character development, while still using beautiful prose packed with metaphor and description.
Here’s the breakdown:
“The Summer People” – this was hands-down my favorite in the collection. Set somewhere up in the Adirondacks, Fran is a teenager with a mostly absent father who takes care of maintenance and rentals for the summer cottages of the wealthy. We soon find out that for Fran, The Summer People aren’t just the seasonal visitors, but Faeries living in a secluded glen that act exactly as you think Faeries would. Link’s prose in this piece is startling beautiful, capturing the off-kilter delight of the Faerie world while also maintaining its dark mystery and unsettling undertones. I also loved Fran and really wanted an entire book about this plot and these characters.
“I Can See Right Through You” – this piece teeters on the edge of the uncanny, where we can never be sure if we’re in the world of fantasy or just a skewed reality. Two washed up movie stars are trying to find their way through bad press, bad fame, and shattered adulthood. Link’s way of calling our main character, “the demon lover” but never having him present any actual demonic qualities calls into question whether the story is a metaphor or reality until the very end.
“Secret Identity” – this was a clever piece. Billie is a fifteen-year-old who meets a man named Paul Zell in an online chess game, and they decide to meet in person in New York City. But Billie has a terrible secret. And Paul Zell never shows. She finds herself in the middle of a super-hero convection, in a world where super heroes are just another day-job, and everyone at the convention keeps mistaking her for a sidekick. I enjoyed the narrative style of this story, with Billie telling it in both the 1st and 3rd POV. It was a narrative style I’ve never encountered before, and it worked well for the character’s voice and the tenor of the story.
“Valley of the Girls” – while enjoyable, this was my least favorite of the collection, though the premise was well done and interesting. The ultra wealthy children of this universe have Faces, kids who resemble them who are hired by the family to do all the social obligations that require poise and manners. Identity crises ensue as the children enter adulthood. Also, the wealthy girls all have pyramids built like the Pharaohs for when they eventually die. It’s a cool world Link’s created, and the story is well paced, but it took me a while to get into this one because of the unique way Link tags the characters’ names and sets up her premise.
“Origin Story” – I enjoyed the cleverness of this plot. Set in a dystopian Oz, where superheros are normal and the modern world has encroached on the old yellow brick road, two characters named Bunnatine and Biscuit discuss the origins of the Wicked Witch and Dorothy Gale, the culture of superheroes and their villainous counterparts, and the not-so-hidden secret of Bunnatine’s mother. Told mostly in dialogue, this story was exceptional, and probably my second favorite. Link builds the world so carefully, never giving too much away, but opening just enough windows in her prose for us to understand the world.
“The Lesson” – this was another story teetering on the edge of the speculative world. At its core, this is a relationship story about a married couple, their surrogate, and their baby. With fantastical elements that could or could not be actual fantasy, Link builds the stakes with every page. While I liked this story, and the ending was poignant and beautiful, I felt the fantastical elements in this piece weren’t really necessary.
“The New Boyfriend” – hands down, this was the scariest piece in the collection. I may have had to scroll through some happy cat memes after finishing this one. Life-size animatraonic boyfriend dolls are a must-have for teens in this universe. The problem is they look a little too real, and in the case of the “Ghost boyfriend” option, glitches in the system make him the creepiest Edward Cullen on the planet. Immy’s friend has just gotten “Ghost boyfriend” for her birthday, and Immy’s beyond jealous. To the point of break-into-her-best-friend’s-house-to-crush-on-a-doll jealous. Link builds the creepiest plot here, offset by the juxtaposition of the supernatural and the digitally programmed.
“Two Houses” – this was the second scariest piece. Set in a spaceship where astronauts are cared for by an AI named Maureen in the ship’s interface, the astronauts sit around during a birthday party sharing ghost stories from their past. Maureen makes the stories come to life, and in the end, the stories all lead back to the missing spaceship the astronauts have been searching for. Again, Link builds an entire universe in less than 40 pages, with full fledged characters that she’s created through a mostly dialogue structure. It was brilliant.
“Light” – several universes exist simultaneously in this piece, and people who have two shadows can end up with a living twin. Lindsay and Alan are these twins, grown up now and facing adult problems. I hated both Lindsay and Alan as characters, but the world Link builds for them to inhabit is so interesting, I wanted a full novel about it. The pacing of this piece is excellent and the ending is poignant and beautiful.
Overall, this collection was darkly delightful, and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of Gaiman or is looking for really good short fantasy.
4 stars.