Get in Trouble

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, American author Kelly Link’s short story collection Get in Trouble (2016) features nine stories that cover a range of genres including fantasy, horror, science fiction, and magical realism.

Fran, a teenage girl suffers from the flu in "The Summer People." Her itinerant father tells her he must leave for a few weeks and that she must tend to the needs of “the summer people” in his absence. In return for serving them, the summer people provide servants like Fran with magical toys and baubles. Despite a fever of 102.3, Fran forces herself to go to school where she encounters her friend, Ophelia Merck. Driving the increasingly ill Fran home, Ophelia wants to help her sick friend. Fran tells her to seek assistance from the summer people. When Ophelia encounters the summer people, she is enchanted by their glittering wealth and shape-shifting home. Eager to escape her life of perpetual servitude, Fran arranges for Ophelia to replace her as a servant to the magical summer people.

In the second story, "I Can See Right Through You," a so-called demon lover contacts Meggie through a Ouija board at a slumber party. Meggie and the demon lover fall in love, and later a "sex tape" is revealed of their exploits. Meggie becomes a tabloid star and funnels that fame into producing a ghost-hunting show called Who's There. In the end, Meggie and the demon lover split up, Meggie disappearing with her human boyfriend, Ray. The authorities suspect the demon lover in Meggie's disappearance.



"Secret Identity" is about fifteen-year-old Billie Flaggart who meets Paul Zell, an older man in a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG. As Billie provided a picture of her older sister, a divorced Algebra teacher, Paul does not know that Billie is underage. Billie takes a bus from Iowa to New York City where she plans to meet Paul at a convention for real-life superheroes. While Billie roams the convention trying to meet Paul, she is perpetually accosted by superheroes who want her to be their new sidekick. The story is written as a letter from Billie to Paul in the wake of their failed tryst.

"Valley of the Girls" concerns wealthy Egyptian parents who hire actors to represent their children on social media to ensure that they don't embarrass their family name and reputation. This leads to teenage girls building pyramids and burial tombs for themselves. The plot centers on a teenage boy who is locked in a tomb by his sister as revenge for humiliating her.

In "Origin Story," Biscuit and Bunnatine are two superheroes who used to be in a romantic relationship with one another. In an abandoned Wizard of Oz theme park, they discuss their past relationship and their anxieties over whether or not their superpowers are strong enough to save the world from evil. As they talk, Bunnatine debates whether to share the knowledge of her secret child with Biscuit.



"The Lesson" follows Thanh and Harper, two young gay men who recently married. They eagerly await the birth of their child via Naomi, a surrogate mother. They argue about the nature of Thanh's relationship with Naomi. They also worry that Naomi will decide to keep the baby. As Thanh and Harper depart to an island for their friend's wedding, Naomi unexpectedly goes into premature labor. The birth is difficult, and the child clings to life.

In "The New Boyfriend," Ainslie, a teenage girl celebrates her birthday. As a gift, she receives a Ghost Boyfriend named Mint. This makes her best friend Immy extraordinarily jealous. In the end, Mint cheats on Ainslie with Immy.

"Two Houses" concerns six astronauts aboard the House of Secrets spacecraft who awake from hyper-sleep in the middle of space. There is a second spacecraft riding alongside them. The six astronauts tell one another ghost stories, including one tale about two houses, one of which is the setting of a series of grisly murders.



The final story, "Light," is about Lindsey whose husband has recently left her. She lives in a world where an increasing number of people fall victim to a disease in which they are stuck in a kind of stasis between sleep and waking. Moreover, scientists have discovered a series of "pocket universes" where people can go on vacation. Out of loneliness, Lindsey lets her brother stay at her home for two years. When a relationship between her brother and a co-worker turns ugly, Lindsey flees into a portal that opens up in the wake of a hurricane.

Kirkus Reviews writes, "Exquisite, cruelly wise and the opposite of reassuring, these stories linger like dreams."