Get in Trouble, Short Stories by Kelly Link, Fantasy & Emotional Truths

Get in Trouble is the latest short story collection by Kelly Link.  Link is a highly regarded writer of short stories having won the O'Henry Prize and the Hugo Award for best Novella.  Link's imaginative creations are interwoven with magic, mysticism, super heroes and poignant human emotions.  Costumes,  be they superheroes or villains appear often in the stores.  Some caped crusaders possess super powers or falsely perceive their own strengths.  The use of parrallel universes borrows from the Land of Oz  in several of these stories.  The best stories are placed up front & at the finish.  An isolated teenager left to care for mischievous, magical beings ("The Summer People") seizes her opportunity to escape and does a disappearing act; leaving another teen to bear the burden.  The most compelling character is a young girl fleeing to meet an on-line infatuation at a costumed comic convention.  She posed as her older, beautiful sister to deceive her potential predator into an illicit rendezvous.  The calamitous results entangle her with a cast of quirky individuals & zany misadventures.  A lovely homage is paid to Peter Pan in the story "Light" where some of the characters have duo shadows that wreck havoc on their human forms.  What got to be troubling, were the repetitive themes.  Taken as individual short stories, Link's writing is crafty & intriguing, but as a collection they became bothersome.