Every Ghost Story, by Natalia Theodoridou
Read it here in about half an hour.
Thinking about why I love it…
I love the concept: something unknown has happened in the universe, and now most of us can see ghosts, but those ghosts all look like something out of 19th century spirit photography – white shrouds, black eyes, no hands or feet – and are not able to communicate with us verbally, but instead make only a ‘Woo’ noise. This creates a situation where the ghosts can cause anxiety in the living, because the living don’t know who a particular ghost is (was?), so can’t atone for wrongs or even say a meaningful goodbye. How ironic, to discover that life after death does exist, but still be unable to get any closure.
I love unreliable narrators. The protagonist in this story is sarcastic and uncomfortable with having been made to go to Ghost Camp – this is essential to the story, because she interprets the other characters as ignoring her, not getting her name right, or not throwing a ball at her, because they’re rude, similarly anxious, or dislike her. There are clues, though, like how she doesn’t eat, or sleep, and how she feels when she touches the electric fence.
Ghost Camp teaches people that the path to happiness is to ignore the ghosts, and not to wonder about them, because it’s futile; to metaphorically let go of the people they’ve lost, in order to be free of the sadness. At the end of the story, Alex seems to be starting to let go of his ghosts, but it’s unclear what the future holds for our protagonist.
Mina Ma 