Ghost Hedgehog by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
My rating: 4/5 cats
Some of the shades had colors in them and looked more like people. Those were the ones I’d been ducking since I learned to walk.
Although I remembered one shady fady lady who had hovered near my bed when I was really little and told me all kinds of strange stories I couldn’t understand at first, and later when I could, I realized they were kind of scary, although the kids in the stories sometimes survived. She wouldn’t come in my room if Mom or Dad were there reading me to sleep. Sometimes I preferred my parents’ stories, and sometimes I wanted Vo-Ma’s. She left, though, when I was about four, and I never knew why. Mom didn’t understand what I was crying about.
quick review for a quick short!
i loved this one—it’s a story old as time—a young boy plagued by ghosts and the demands they make on him just cuz he can see them and they can’t do anything with their incorporeal fingies and vocal cords, but hoffman makes it fresh and fun and funny and i liked it even though there was not a single hedgehog to be seen. figure of speech-hedgehogs, pppbbbbllltttt to you!
i’ve never read hoffman before, but i just discovered how many free shorts she has available on various sites, so i am going to be peppering my 2018 short story advent calendar with those, for sure.
in the comments section to this story on the tor page, time-stamped 2011, hoffman pops on to graciously accept all the praise from fans, and says:
I read this aloud at World Fantasy and people liked it, so I am working on a book about Jack…Thanks for the enthusiasm!
WHERE THIS BOOK AT, HOFFMAN??
i mean, i couldn’t find a listing for it, but i might have just missed it. if anyone knows anything, let me know, please, because i would like to read it!
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2011/11/16/ghost-…
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