#he's pretty tough to write just because his pre- and post- big shot era characterizations are so wildly different

[solalunar-eclipse]

Strings Neither Green Nor Red

Chapter title: Pink Embroidery (Clickon K. Addison)

AO3 Link

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Spamton belongs to Toby Fox, all other characters belong to @brightgoat on Tumblr and Twitter.

Click sighed. Vid had left their apartment keycard in their house again, and yet again, it was up to him to bring it to their workplace.

This had been happening more and more recently, and he was getting sick of it. Not only did it put him out of his way, but it cut into his break time, which he needed to be savoring every second of just to hold himself together. 

Ever since the rift in their department opened up with Spamton’s disappearance (which had only grown as Vid and Mags became more at odds), Click had been spending as much time avoiding the others as possible. This pattern forced him to do everything but that, making his mouth twist in annoyance as he rounded the corner towards the shop.

Click threw open the door to Vid’s place (a little convenience store, this week), not bothering to grab it before it slammed into the doorstop. “Hey! I got your keys!” he shouted into the silent store.

No reply came, except for the very faint echo of his voice off the tiled floors.

That kind of silence was weird, even for a depressed Video. Warily, he wandered up and down the aisles, unable to even catch sight of anyone at the register. Could Vid have gone out? But then why was the door unlocked? The yellow Addi had lost their apartment card, not the keys to their store.

Click’s ponytail twitched at a quiet noise, and he combed it over his shoulder somewhat shamefully, hoping nobody had seen that. 

That was nothing, however, compared to how he reacted when the storeroom door swung open in his peripheral vision.

It was sheer luck that his tail didn’t drop more than anything, but it certainly came close, given that he’d screamed nearly loud and high enough to shatter glass. Instinctively, Click summoned an arrow, pointing it at the figure in the doorway.

“…AH, [$!&*].”

That voice…

The pink Addison’s magic fizzled out as a new kind of terror welled up in the pit of his stomach. “S…Spamton?”

“[[The one and only!]] WHO’S IT LOOK LIKE I AM, [the Fonz]?” he shot back, looking decidedly unimpressed.

Click nearly let out a half-hysterical giggle, but choked it back. “N-no…” he said weakly, unable to muster a better response.

He’d been planning for this moment for years. His apology speech had been perfect—just the right blend of sales pitch and argument, sure to convince Spamton of his guilt and his desire to make it up to him. Now, though, he couldn’t remember a word of it.

Vaguely, he wondered if this was what stage fright felt like.

“You’re alive.” he managed to say, and then immediately winced. Way to point out the obvious, Click.

“WELL, DUH.” Spamton gestured to himself, blatantly unimpressed. “YOU GOT ANY MORE [Logical Deductions] TO POINT OUT, [[Sherlock]]?”

“Listen—Spam—” Click began, but he was rapidly cut off.

“NO. THAT WAS A [Answer Not Provided] QUESTION.” Spamton snapped. “I DON’T WANT TO [Here] ANY MORE OF YOUR [[Rated PG-13 For Foul Language]].”

“But I’m sorry—” he tried again.

Spam laughed harshly. “YOU?! SORRY? HA! AT LEAST [[Video compilation]] WAS BELIEVABLE. HE MIGHT’VE LIKED ME, [Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away]. I WAS JUST Y0UR [[Sob story]] [Punching bag]. AND YOU EXP3CT ME<TO [[Return to sender]] BACK T0 TH4T?!”

Click felt like he’d just been hit in the chest. “Wh—I don’t—just let me explain…”

“EXPLAIN WHAT? HOW I’M A [[glitchy little freak]] WHO’S [[going to come running back to us the second you fail]]? NO W4Y. I’M NOT GONNA [Put Up Your Dukes] WITH A [Round 2] OF THAT!!”

The pink Addi felt sick to his stomach. Hearing Spamton spew out his own words as part of his glitching genuinely left him closer to making a mess of the store’s floor than any alcohol could ever have done. 

Clutching at his mouth, Click leaned heavily against the shelves, resting his other hand on his knees. All his words were stuck deep in his throat, choked by the impact of his disgusting old speech.

Spam rolled his eyes. “SAME OLD [Drama Queen]. THAT [[Sales Shtick]] AIN’T GONNA WORK ON ME, YOU B[but are you okay?]!”

Click dragged himself back upright, leaning on one of the shelves. “Not really…but I probably deserved that…and more. I mean, I’m guessing you haven’t been okay for a while…”

Spamton seemed a little startled by his last outburst, as though he hadn’t meant to say that. When Click spoke, however, he refocused on the conversation.

“I MEAN, UNLESS YOU COUNT LIVING IN [[the trash like a rat]] AND [Eating the scraps from the table] AS OKAY.” he said, giving the pink Addi an irritated look.

“Oh, god…” Click groaned, as the true force of exactly what his words at the Cyber Grill had done hit him for the first time. “Oh, god, what did I do? I mean, at least you’re not dead, r—no, never mind, that sounds so messed up.”

“YOU GOT THAT ONE [Right as rain].” Spamton muttered. 

“How am I supposed to fix that?” he asked (mostly to himself), feeling weak. “How the hell do I—make this all go back to normal?”

“YOU DON’T. [U] CAN’T. [Default settings] AREN’T EVER COMING BACK, [[Clickbait]].”

“But I have to!” he cried, his speech fully off the rails by this point. “I need to, it’s eating me alive! Don’t you understand?! I can’t live like this!”

“Maybe I can help with that!” a voice said from behind him. 

“Vid!” Click gasped, never more relieved to see the yellow Addi than now. “Wait, actually, hold on—do you know why Spam’s in your store??”

Video sighed, giving him a half smile. “We started talking a few weeks ago. Now I’m working on making things up to him. Slowly.”

“And you didn’t tell anyone?! …never mind. That makes sense.” he sighed, still a little stung.

“But…how can you help?” Click asked, desperate.

“Okay, so listen, Click. This isn’t the kind of thing you can one-and-done. You’ve gotta prove, over and over again, that you’re not gonna treat him like you used to. Heck, he might never forgive you…I don’t even know if he’s fully forgiven me yet.” Vid said, surprisingly serious for once.

“That’s not helpful!” the pink Addi snapped.

Vid raised an eyebrow. “Aaand that’s the first thing you’ve gotta work on, right there.”

“What?” Click was bewildered.

“Your anger issues! Thing is, man…anyone who you don’t like, you yell at until you scare them the heck away.” Video explained. “‘S what ya did with Spam, right? Though for the life of me I can’t figure out what you hated about him so much.”

“I didn’t hate him.” Click scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I was just…annoyed.”

“Wow. How long’ve you been telling yourself that one?” Vid shot back. “You legit said the words ‘I hate Spamton’ out loud. More than once. And you insulted him, like, all the time! Since when have you ever not hated him? …no offense, Spam.”

“SOME TAKEN. FROM [[Cotton Candy Half Off]], NOT YOU.”

“W-wait, but that’s not what I meant—!” Click cried. “I…”

“YOU KNOW HE’S [Right on the money!], DONTCHA.” Spam sighed.

“But, it didn’t mean anything, did it? It was just…what we did! I mean, how else was I supposed to act when—”

Click cut himself off, unwilling to say the rest of the sentence out loud.

—when you were such a total failure?

“When what.” Spamton snarled, all glitching gone.

“No, it’s nothing! Really! I didn’t mean it!” Click yelped. “Dammit, I’m not messing this up again!”

“Aren’t you?” Vid asked, very little sympathy present.

The pink Addi turned several shades paler.

“Listen, man. I’m gonna give ya one last bit of free advice.” Video continued. “If you’d spent one damn minute actually hearing out Spam’s feelings way back when—geez, even just listening to one of his pitches—maybe you wouldn’t’ve made so much fun of him! Can you even imagine how hard it is to mess up sale after sale and then come home to your resident Pink making fun of you nonstop? And to put up with that for literal years? Don’t you get just how much that takes?”

Click felt a mounting realization building inside him. “Oh, god.”

“Yeah. Just, like, think for maybe five seconds about how the person on the other end feels, okay? Even if Spam never forgives you, at least you’ll know you won’t make the same mistake again.” Vid finished.

“DAMN, VID! WHEN DID YOU [Becomed] THE [[Mom Friend]]?” Spam called from behind Click.

Meanwhile, the pink Addi was having a crisis. “I thought you didn’t care! Are you saying I’ve been kicking you while you were down this whole time?” he asked, stunned.

“UH, YEAH??” Spamton said, like that should be obvious.

“…but, wait—does that mean I’m like the other Pinks?!” he cried.

“Did—did you think you weren’t?” Vid wheezed. “What planet have you been living on?”

“I thought I was better than them!” Click shrieked, defensive.

“TECHNICALLY, YOU’RE THE [#1] THOUGHTFUL [[Magenta]] IN OUR DISTRICT…BUT THAT’S A [How Low Can You Go?] BAR, PAL.” Spamton explained.

“So what you’re saying is, ‘better than Joyston’ is still pretty damn terrible.” Click muttered. “…actually, that sounds really obvious when I say it out loud.”

��[TBH], YOUR ONLY REDEEMING [[Quality Product]] IS THAT YOU’RE A TOTAL DORK AROUND POPPUPS.” Spam said.

Click opened his mouth, ready to snarl some insult right back. He could feel a million appear instantly in his head, ready to fire for maximum impact.

And then, he saw Spamton brace himself.

Instantly, he felt sick all over again. He really hadn’t changed, had he? Honestly, he deserved way worse than being made fun of for his love of poppups. Spam should be beating the life out of him right now, not patiently explaining where he’d gone wrong!

“I really am a terrible person.” he said instead, his shoulders slumping.

“I don’t know about terrible, but you’re…really good at hurting people.” Vid said, and Click winced. “But, that doesn’t mean you can’t change that! It’s pretty hard for Addis to change, but I sure have.”

“Yeah, you’re being weirdly rational right now.” Click said. “Why?”

Vid sighed. “Back before…everything, things never went wrong for me. Sure, I might’ve lost a sale here or there, but nothing, like, apocalyptic ever happened. But having your whole life turned upside down kinda changes your outlook…I still wanna live life to the fullest, but now I’m a lil’ more careful to keep an eye on how other people are feeling, too.”

“HEY, HANG ON, [[Video player]]! YOUR [life turned upside down] AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN GET TO GO TO [[Bel-Air]]? ROUGH.” Spam said, suddenly smirking.

“Wh—HA!” Video cackled. “Did I really say that?”

“YEP.”

Click’s first instinct was to roll his eyes again at such a (frankly) lame joke. But then, he noticed how Vid was genuinely laughing for the first time in years. And Spamton—Spamton was grinning. For real. 

Faintly, ever so faintly, Click felt his expression relax into the lightest of smiles. His shoulders dropped, and he leaned a little more into the shelf. 

“Guess that wasn’t half bad, Spam.” he hummed.

Both of the other people in the store did double takes. “SERIOUSLY?” Spamton asked, startled.

Vid just beamed.

Blushing, Click looked away, feeling tense again. “Hey, I have to start somewhere, right?!”

“YOU GUYS ARE [[Full of surprises]].” Spam said, smiling wryly.

“Having the element of surprise isn’t just for fighting tactics!” Video cheered.

Click smiled again, briefly. It was getting easier already, when he allowed himself to be infected by Vid’s energy instead of pushing it away.

“MY [20XX—20XX planner]’S GONNA BE FULL IF I START SPENDING [[Time is money!]] WITH BOTH OF YOU, YOU KNOW.” Spamton said, but not in a way that suggested this was necessarily an issue for him.

“Sounds like a good problem to me.” Click replied, after a moment of thought. It wasn’t too difficult for him to not be annoyed by Spam’s presence, given how long he’d been hoping for exactly this. Responding to him genuinely was still weird, though…it took actual effort for him to think of something that wasn’t a snappy retort.

“...OKAY, THIS IS ACTUALLY [[Stranger Than Fiction!]]. WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT DID YOU DO WITH [Clickbait]?” Spam asked, a faint smirk on his face.

“Is that your new nickname for me?” Click said, raising a brow. “I’ll have you know my businesses are all perfectly respectable!” He stuck his nose in the air, only a little bit serious. 

“SURE, SURE…WHATEVER YOU SAY.”

It took all of Click’s strength not to slice back at Spamton. Instead, he rolled his shoulders, sighed, and asked, “What are you going to do now?”

Spam’s look of surprise when the pink Addi spoke, however, made all his effort worth it.

Once he’d recovered, though, he asked, “WANNA GET SOME [[Sweet treats]]? I [Seeing Is Believing!] A COTTON CANDY STAND THIS MORNING!”

Click’s eyes lit up, and unbeknownst to him, his ponytail began to swish excitedly. “Really? Where?!”

“DOWN BY THE [[Carnival in town]]! …BUT YOU’RE PAYING.” Spam said, smirking.

The pink Addi winced, but even that wasn’t enough to deter him from the prospect of his favorite food. “I’ll take that deal.”

Spamton beamed from ear to ear, stunning Click into silence. “HEY HEY HEY, WHADDAYA KNOW! LOOKS LIKE I CAN STILL [[Salesman Never Sleeps]] AFTER ALL!”

Click groaned softly, but without malice. “Dammit, it’s not fair! You know my weak spot, don’t take advantage of me like this!”

“HAEHEAHAHA! A GUY’S [Gotta Do What He’s Gotta Do!]!!!” 

“Yeah, yeah. You coming or not?” the pink Addi asked, pushing himself off the shelf and heading for the door. 

“JUST TRY TO KEEP UP!” Spam exclaimed, already right beside him.

It was only once they’d left, the bell on the door long since finished ringing as it swung shut, that Vid remembered they hadn’t even gotten their apartment card back.

[maddie-grove]

The Top Twenty Books I Read in 2019

My main takeaways from the past year’s reading:

Sometimes you think something is happening because of magic, but then it turns out to have a non-magical explanation so weird that you find yourself saying, “You know what? I wish faeries or God were responsible for this. I’d honestly feel less disturbed.”

Stop bathing and changing your clothes and shaving for three years, three months, and three days. You’ll find out who your real friends are. I promise you that.

I want more books about bisexual ladies!!! Give them to me!!!

Anyway...

20. The Prodigal Duke by Theresa Romain (2017)

Childhood sweethearts Poppy Hayworth and Leo Billingsley were separated when his older brother, a duke, sent him away to make his fortune. Years later, the duke is dead, a financially successful Leo has come back to England to take his place, and Poppy has become a rope dancer at Vauxhall Gardens after a life-shattering event. New sparks are flying between them, but is love possible when so much else has changed? Leo and Poppy are believable and charming as old friends, Romain makes great use of obscure historical details from the oft-depicted Regency period, and I loved Leo’s difficult but caring elderly uncle.

19. Simple Jess by Pamela Morsi (1996)

Althea Winsloe, a young widow in 1900s Arkansas, has no interest in remarrying, but almost everyone in her small Ozarks community is pressuring her to remarry, and she still needs someone to help farm her land. Enter Jesse Best, a strong young man with cognitive disabilities who’s happy to take on the work. As he makes improvements to her farm and bonds with her three-year-old son, Althea gets to know him better and starts to see him in a new light. This earthy romance could’ve been a disaster, but instead it illustrates how people with disabilities are often...uh...simplified and de-sexualized in a way that denies them autonomy. Morsi has a similarly nuanced take on Althea and Jesse’s community, which is claustrophobic and supportive all at once.

18. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (2018)

Outspoken and insecure, bisexual high school senior Leah Burke is having a tough year. Her friend group is in turmoil, her single mom is seriously dating someone, and she’s caught between a sweet boy she’s not sure about and a pretty, perfect straight girl who couldn’t possibly be into her...right??? The sequel to the very cute Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Leah on the Offbeat pulls a The Godfather: Part II with its messy protagonist, sweetly surprising romance, and masterful comic set piece involving the Atlanta American Girl Doll restaurant.

17. Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper (2006)

Kidnapped from her home in eighteenth-century Ghana, fifteen-year-old Amari is sold into slavery and winds up on a South Carolina plantation, where she faces terrible cruelty but finds friends in an enslaved cook, her little son, and eventually a sulky white indentured servant around her age. When their master escalates his already-atrocious behavior, the three young people flee south to the Spanish Fort Mose in search of freedom. Draper’s complicated characters, vivid descriptions, and deft handling of heavy subjects makes for top-notch historical YA fiction.

16. A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole (2019)

After her controlling politician father was jailed for poisoning a bunch of people in their small, prosperous African country, Nya Jerami gained unprecedented freedom but also became the subject of vicious gossip. Johan von Braustein, the hard-partying stepson of a European monarch, wants to help her, partly because he sympathizes and partly because he has a crush, but she thinks he’s too frivolous and horny (if wildly attractive). After an embarrassing misunderstanding compels them to enter a fake engagement, though, she begins to wonder if there’s more to him. I’m not a huge fan of contemporary romance, but this novel has the perfect combination of heartfelt emotion, delicious melodrama, and adorable fluff. 

15. One Perfect Rose by Mary Jo Putney (1997)

Stephen, the Duke of Ashburton, has always done the proper and responsible thing, but that all changes when he learns that he’s terminally ill. Wandering the countryside in the guise of an ordinary gentleman, he ends up joining an acting troupe and falling in love with Rosalind, the sensible adopted daughter of the two lead actors. Like another Regency romance on this list, this novel celebrates love in many forms: there’s the love story between Stephen and Rosalind, yes, but there’s also Rosalind’s loving relationship with her adopted family, the new bonds she forms with her long-lost blood relatives, the way her two families embrace the increasingly frightened Stephen, and the healing rifts between Stephen and his well-meaning but distant siblings. Stephen’s reconciliation with his mortality is also moving.

14. My One and Only Duke by Grace Burrowes (2018)

Facing a death sentence in Newgate, footman-turned-prosperous banker Quinton Wentworth decides to do one last good thing: marry Jane McGowan, a poor pregnant widow, so she and the baby will be financially set. Then he receives a pardon and a dukedom at the literal last minute, meaning that he and Jane have a more permanent arrangement than either intended. I fell in love with the kind-but-difficult protagonists almost at once, and with Burrowes’s gorgeous prose even faster. 

13. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (2013)

It’s 1986, and comics-loving, post-punk-listening, half-Korean Park and bright, weird, constantly bullied Eleanor are just trying to get through high school in their rough Omaha neighborhood. He’s only grudgingly willing to let her share his bus seat at first, but this barely civil acquaintance slowly thaws into friendship and blossoms into love. Far from being the whimsical eighties-nostalgia-fest I expected, this is a bittersweet love story about two isolated young people who find love, belonging, and a chance for self-expression with each other in an often-hostile environment (a small miracle pre-Internet).

12. Shrill by Lindy West (2016)

In this memoir, Lindy West talks about the difficulties of being a fat woman, the thankless task of being vocally less-than-enthused about rape jokes, the joys of moving past self-doubt, and the very real possibility that Little John from Disney’s Robin Hood was played by “bear actor” Baloo, among other subjects. I was having a hard time during my last semester of law school this past spring, and this book’s giddy humor and inspiring messages really helped me in my hour of need.

11. Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood by Karina Longworth (2018)

In 1925, very young businessman Howard Hughes breezed into Hollywood with nothing but tons of family wealth, a soon-to-be-divorced wife, and a simple dream: make movies about fast planes and big bosoms. He got increasingly weird and reactionary over the next thirty years, then retired from public life. More a history of 1920s-1950s Hollywood than a biography, this book has the same sharp writing and in-depth film analysis that makes me love Longworth’s podcast You Must Remember This.

10. The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan (1966)

In Civil-War-era Virginia, iron-willed Martha Farnsworth and her nervous younger sister try to run their nearly empty girls’ boarding school within earshot of a battlefield. When one girl finds Union soldier John McBurney injured in the woods, she brings him back to the house, where he exploits every conflict and secret among the eight girls and women (five students, two sisters, and one enslaved cook). Charming and manipulative, he nevertheless finds himself in over his head. Cullinan makes great use of the eight POVs and the deliciously claustrophobic setting; it’s fascinating to watch the power dynamics and allegiances shift from scene to scene.

9. A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian (2018)

Reserved tavern keeper Sam Fox wants to help out his brother’s sweetheart by finding and destroying a nude portrait she once sat for; disgraced gentleman Hartley Sedgwick isn’t sure what he wants after having his life ruined twice over, but he happened to inherit his house from the man who commissioned the painting...plus he’s not exactly reluctant to assist kind, handsome Sam in his quest. I wrote about this heart-melting romance two times last year; suffice it to say that it’s not only one of the best Regencies I’ve ever read, but also possibly the best romance I’ve ever read about the creation of a found family.

8. Frog Music by Emma Donoghue (2014)

Blanche Beunon, a French-born burlesque dancer in 1876 San Francisco, has a lot going on: her mooching boyfriend has turned on her, her sick baby is missing, and her cross-dressing, frog-hunting friend Jenny Bonnet was just shot dead right next to her. In the middle of a heat wave, a smallpox epidemic, and a little bit of mob violence, she must locate her son and solve Jenny’s murder. This is a glorious work of historical fiction; you can see, hear, smell, and feel the chaotic world of 1870s San Francisco, plus Blanche’s character arc is amazing.

7. The Patrick Melrose novels (Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, Mother’s Milk, and At Last) by Edward St. Aubyn (1992, 1992, 1994, 2005, and 2012, respectively)

Born to an embittered English aristocrat and an idealistic American heiress, Patrick Melrose lives through his father’s sadistic abuse and his mother’s willful blindness (Never Mind),  does a truly staggering amount of drugs in early adulthood (Bad News), and makes a good-faith effort at leading a normal life (Some Hope). Years later, the life he’s built with his wife and two sons is threatened by his alcoholism and reemerging resentment of his mother (Mother’s Milk), but there may be a chance to salvage something (At Last). Despite the suffering and cruelty on display, these novels were the farthest thing from a dismaying experience, thanks to the sharp characterization, grim humor, and great sense of setting. Also, I love little Robert Melrose, an anxious eldest child after my own heart. 

6. The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (1974)

In 1550s England, no-nonsense Kate Sutton is exiled to the Perilous Gard, a remote castle occupied by suspicious characters, including the lord’s guilt-ridden younger brother Christopher. Troubled by the holes she sees in the story of the tragedy that haunts him, she does some problem-solving and ends up in a world of weird shit. Cleverly plotted, deliciously spooky, and featuring an all-time-great heroine, this book was an absolute treat. The beautiful Richard Cuffari illustrations in my edition didn’t hurt, either.

5. An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole (2019)

Daniel Cumberland, a free black man from New England traumatized from being sold into slavery, and Janeta Sanchez, a mixed-race Cuban-Floridian lady from a white Confederate family, have been sent on a mission to the Deep South by the Loyal League, a pro-Union spy organization. Initially hostile to everyone (but particularly to somewhat naive Janeta), Daniel warms to his colleague, but will her secrets, his shattered faith in justice, and the various dangers they face prevent them from falling in love? Nah. Alyssa Cole’s historical romances deliver both on the history and the romance, and this is one of her strongest entries.

4. The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite (2019)

Heartbroken by the death of her father and the marriage of her ex-girlfriend, Lucy Muchelney decides she needs a change of scenery and takes a live-in position translating a French astronomy text for Catherine St. Day, the recently widowed Countess of Moth. Catherine, used to putting her interests on hold for an uncaring spouse, is intrigued by this awkward, independent lady. I’ve read f/f romances before, but this sparkling Regency was the first to really blow me away with its fun banter, neat historical details, and perfect sexual tension.

3. The Wager by Donna Jo Napoli (2010)

After losing his entire fortune to a tidal wave, Sicilian nineteen-year-old Don Giovanni de la Fortuna sinks into poverty and near-starvation. Then Devil makes him an offer: all the money he wants for as long as he lives if he doesn’t bathe, cut his hair, shave, or change his clothes for three years, three months, and three days. This fairy-tale retelling is an extraordinarily moving fable about someone who learns to acknowledge his own suffering, recognize it in others, and extend compassion to all. 

2. Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell (2013)

In this collection, Russell weaves strange tales of silkworm-women hybrids in Japan, seagulls who collect objects from the past and future, and, yes, vampires in the lemon grove. She also posits the very important question: “What if most (but not all) U.S. presidents were reincarnated as horses in the same stable and had a lot of drama going on?” My favorite stories were “Proving Up” (about a nineteenth-century Nebraska boy who encounters death and horror on the prairie), “The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis” (about a disadvantaged high school student who discovers an effigy of the even more hapless boy he tormented), and “The Barn at the End of the Term” (the horse-president story). 

1. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (2016)

Lib Wright, an Englishwoman who has floundered since her days working for Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, is hired to observe Anna O’Donnell, an eleven-year-old Irish girl famous for not eating for four straight months. With a jaundiced attitude towards the Irish and Catholicism, Lib is confident that she’ll quickly expose Anna as a fraud, but she finds herself liking the girl and getting increasingly drawn into the disturbing mystery of her fast. Like The Perilous Gard, this novel masterfully plays with the possibility of the supernatural, then introduces a technically mundane explanation that’s somehow much more eerie. Donoghue balances the horror and waste that surrounds Anna, though, with the clear, bright prose and the moving relationship that develops between her and Lib, who grows beyond her narrow-mindedness and emotional numbness. I stayed up half the night to finish this novel, which cemented Emma Donoghue’s status as my new favorite author.