Two Truths and a Lie [novelette]

Unsettling, but very good.

Pinsker has a handy sense of wordsmithing that makes one very present in the moment, perhaps a little too real. However, sometimes the moments contain perfect like sentiments like this:

“Chris Bethel. He was in the class between us and Denny, except he had a different name back then.”

In that moment, she remembered Chris Bethel, pre-transition, playing Viola in Twelfth Night like a person who knew what it was to be shipwrecked on a strange shore. Good for him."

An eerie end, though. Not quite sure about it. Pinsker is one to watch.

https://www.tor.com/2020/06/17/two-truths-and-a-lie-sarah-pinsker/

This is the kind of dark urban fantasy that I don't often read. Stella tells lies and sometimes is tripped up by the lies but it's not until she goes home to her family and helps a school friend clean a house after his brother's death. While doing this they discover a few tapes of a TV show on a local station where they took part. Stella becomes interested in the show, she doesn't remember much about it and she investigates and unearths more questions than answers.
It was unsettling and interesting.

Spring 2021 (April);

This story is delicious, creepy, and masterfully written. Pinkser hadn't really been on my radar before now, but she's there in a big way with blinding spotlights now, just from this piece. This story plays incredibly fast and loose with childhood creepy clowns, spotty amnesia, hoarding, and the slowly growing strain about whether someone who lies can utterly be reinventing the past, present, and future just based on what they say.

I honestly wish this was a whole book I could have gotten lost in, and plan to get into her other books & short stories soon.

Stella, while home on a visit after years away from her hometown, attends the funeral of an old friend's older brother, and agrees to help him clean out the brother's house. He was a serious hoarder, and Stella is glad she only committed to one day of the exhausting and disturbing experience. One thing we need to know about Stella is that she has a habit of making up lies, not for any particular reason, but simply to see if people believe her.. When she asks her friend, Marco, if he remembers a Saturday morning kids' show called The Uncle Bob Show, she expects him to say he doesn't, because she made it up.

But he does remember it. His brother, Denny, was on it, more than once. The tapes of those episodes are among the "treasures" Marco show more has uncovered so far, and he starts playing them. It's not your normal Saturday morning kids' show, and Stella is creeped out.

She's more creeped out when she goes back to her parents' house, and they remember it, too. They remember Stella being on it.

Stella doesn't remember that. She starts digging for more information about the show and its very odd host, and the more she digs, the creepier it gets.

This is a very odd story, and Stella is not that easy to like, or care about. And did I mention creepy?

Definitely not my cup of tea.

I bought this story. show less

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3790330.html

A good spooky story about childhood memories of a creepy local TV presenter which turns into fighting off an otherworldly menace. A little closer to horror than I usually like, but very memorable.

Two Truths and a Lie won both the Hugo and Nebula for best novelette and it was well-deserved. It reads like both something totally new but the well-contained atmosphere and tight-writing make every piece of it feel like it's part of a fable or fairy tale we all know. I found it haunting.

Huuuuu, I went in blindly, expecting fantasy or sf, but this was definitely more on the creepy horror side of things. Very well done, unsettling and weird, after a while I started questioning everything I read.
Mental note to self: Reading the Hugo packet is great BUT check genres before you dive in. This was not a suitable read so close before bedtime.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go think happy thoughts and do calming breathing exercises so I can sleep tonight.