Girls, At Play by Celeste Ng
My rating: 5/5 cats
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
this explanation/intro will be posted before each day’s short story. scroll down to get to the story-review.
this is the FOURTH year of me doing a short story advent calendar as my december project. for those of you new to me or this endeavor, here’s the skinny: every day in december, i will be reading a short story that is 1) available free somewhere on internet, and 2) listed on goodreads as its own discrete entity. there will be links provided for those of you who like to read (or listen to) short stories for free, and also for those of you who have wildly overestimated how many books you can read in a year and are freaking out about not meeting your 2019 reading-challenge goals. i have been gathering links all year when tasty little tales have popped into my feed, but i will also accept additional suggestions, as long as they meet my aforementioned 1), 2) standards.
if you scroll to the end of the reviews linked here, you will find links to all the previous years’ stories, which means NINETY-THREE FREEBIES FOR YOU!
2016: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
2017: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
2018: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show…
reviews of these will vary in length/quality depending on my available time/brain power.
so, let’s begin
DECEMBER 12
We play the game every day. In eighth grade we’re too old for four-square and tetherball and kickball. It doesn’t have a name, this game, and we don’t talk about it even when we’re by ourselves, after school, the boys gone off to football or paper routes or hockey and no teachers around. But the game has rules. You go with the boy who snaps your bracelet. You don’t pick the boy; he picks you; they’re all the same to you.
because i felt like such a dummy for waiting two years to read Little Fires Everywhere even though i LOVED Everything I Never Told You, when i learned celeste ng had a couple of short stories that were eligible for my december project, i knew i had to pounce. progress!
and HOLY SHIT, PALS! this one was incredible. if you had told me megan abbott wrote this story, i would believe you without hesitation, and that is HIGHEST COMPLIMENT TOWN. this is actually like megan abbott meets Ponies and that’s the last comparison i will make.
girls, girls, girls, girls, girls, girls!!
girls are so freaking dark.
this line killed me, for context:
Everything is a little small, but if we hold our breath, it still fits.
celeste ng, BE MY VALENTINE!
read it for yourself here:
https://blr.med.nyu.edu/content/archi…
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