Saturday, October 15, 2016

The Troll Who Hid Her Heart, by Jenn Grunigen

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(Virtual Reality) The narrator hunts for the virtual trolls her grandmother created long ago. (4,552 words; Time: 15m)

Rating: ★★☆☆☆, Not Recommended

"," by , appeared in Strange Horizons issue 10/10/16, published on .

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

Pro: At some level, this story seems to be about the narrator choosing the virtual world over people in the real world. Brenden burns the paper book to try to get a human response from her. Since the narrator thinks of herself as a troll (the one who hid her heart), all the stories about people slaying trolls are about someone destroying her (or her feelings, at least). The segment that suggests that she's driving up to the mountains in real life to die in the snow is consistent with that; she's tired of people, tired of life, and ready to die where the trolls are.

Con: Maybe, and maybe not. It's very disjointed, and it's not entirely clear what it's supposed to mean. It's hard to be sympathetic to the narrator, who seems to be a really unpleasant person. Perhaps that makes her a troll who doesn't belong, but it doesn't make her much fun to read about.

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