"The Thing about Ghost Stories" is a 2018

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

short story by

Naomi Kritzer Naomi Kritzer is an American speculative fiction writer and blogger. Her 2015 short story " Cat Pictures Please" was a Locus Award and Hugo Award winner and was nominated for a Nebula Award. Her novel, ''Catfishing on CatNet'' won the 2020 Lod ...

. It was first published in ''

Uncanny Magazine ''Uncanny Magazine'' is an American science fiction and fantasy online magazine, edited and published by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, based in Urbana, Illinois. Its mascot is a space unicorn. The editors-in-chief, who originally ...

''.

Synopsis

Leah is a folklorist studying

ghost stories A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...

, who gradually becomes aware that she may be living in one herself.

Reception

"The Thing about Ghost Stories" was a finalist for the 2019

Hugo Award for Best Novelette The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...

.2019 Hugo Award & 1944 Retro Hugo Award Finalists
by

Cheryl Morgan Cheryl Morgan is a British science fiction critic and publisher. She has won Hugo Awards for her work on the fanzine ''Emerald City'' from 1995 to 2006, and as non-fiction editor of ''Clarkesworld'' magazine from 2009 to 2011. Morgan was the f ...

, at TheHugoAwards.org; published April 2, 2019; retrieved April 25, 2019 At

Tor.com ''Tor.com'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on speculative fiction. From 20 ...

, Katharine Duckett lauded Kritzer's portrayal of the parallels between ghost stories and living with a

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

patient, as well as of Leah's "instantly engaging voice".“The Thing About Ghost Stories” and Coping With the Dementia of a Loved One
by Katharine Duckett; published March 6, 2019; retrieved April 25, 2019

References

External links

Text of the story
Works originally published in online magazines 2018 short stories {{2010s-fantasy-story-stub