The Hanging Game by Helen Marshall
My rating: 4/5 cats
i have been choosing these free tor shorts the same way i choose wine: whatever looks dark and has a pretty picture. it has served me less well in wine than it has in these stories.
and this story is just what i like, and will appeal to fans of Karen Russell, Kelly Link, and Tender Morsels
it’s a coming of age story that shimmers with dark magical realism, about a group of children who play a hanging game; a hometown tradition with the weight of mythology.
There were rules for the hanging game. This is what they were. It had to be highrigging rope, like I said, and you had to steal it. Also it had to be an ash tree. Also you had to do it willingly. No one could force you to play the hanging game. It couldn’t be a dare or a bluff or a tease, or else it wouldn’t work.
it is about bears and fate and tithes. it is about the unstated prices for the things we do, and the debts handed down to us from our parents. it is about the ordinary fears of adolescence compounded with the terrors that children in fairy tales must confront. it is absolutely a perfect jewel of a story.
i would drink this wine, and i will read more by this author for sure.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/03/th…
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