Get in Trouble

When her dad leaves her alone for a few weeks, Fran introduces her childhood friend Ophelia to the "summer people," mysterious neighbors whom she is tasked to care for.Link, K. (2016). Get in Trouble. New York, NY: Random House.

Years after starring together in an iconic vampire movie, Will joins ex-lover Meggie's ghost-hunting show as they investigate a vanished nudist colony.

15-year-old Billie Faggart arrives at a hotel to meet Paul Zell, an older man she met online while concealing her identity. While waiting for him to arrive, she meets the attendees of the double-booked superhero and dentist conventions.

In order to maintain discretion, wealthy families have assigned actors to take their children's public places during their adolescence. When the narrator falls in love with the actress playing his sister, dire consequences follow.

Superheroes Biscuit and Bunnatine discuss their shared past in an abandoned Wizard of Oz-themed amusement park. As more of their relationship is revealed, Bunnatine struggles to tell Biscuit the last secret she has kept.

Thanh and Harper are attending a surreal out-of-state wedding when their surrogate goes into premature labor.

Jealous high school student Immy begins a relationship with her best friend's limited-edition Ghost Boyfriend.

Six deep space astronauts wake up to celebrate a birthday party. During the celebration, they find themselves telling ghost stories and remembering their sister ship, which vanished in front of them years before.

Two years after her husband leaves her for a pocket universe, Lindsey is living with her twin brother, who she grew from her own shadow as a child.

In regards to the title, Link stated in an interview with Wired that the characters "were all people with poor impulse control" that were usually around trouble, so she felt the title best fit the situations the characters are around.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2015/02/geeks-guide-kelly-link/|title=Geek's Guide to the Galaxy: Why Any TV Show Is Better With Vampires|last=Galaxy|first=Geek's Guide to the|date=2015-02-07|magazine=Wired|access-date=2019-04-10|language=en-US|issn=1059-1028}}

In an interview with The Masters Review, Link explains that when writing she often thinks about the conventions of storytelling, which allows her to mix so many different genres within her stories. For her writing, there is no "real" or unreal" elements when developing stories.{{Cite web|url=https://mastersreview.com/interview-kelly-link/|title=Interview: Kelly Link|date=2016-05-16|website=The Masters Review|language=en|access-date=2019-04-10}} Link has also stated that her stories are not written to fit specific themes and that many of her stories were written for different editors for previous publications. For this book, there was no specific time frame for her to complete her stories, and states that "The New Boyfriend" and "The Summer People" both took about a week to write, whereas "I Can See Right Through You" took longer than a year.{{Cite web|url=https://electricliterature.com/interview-kelly-link-author-of-get-in-trouble/|title=INTERVIEW: Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble|date=2015-02-06|website=Electric Literature|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-10}}

The collections received generally positive reviews. According to Book Marks, the book received a "rave" consensus, based on eighteen critics: sixteen "rave" and two "positive".{{Cite web |title=Get in Trouble|url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/get-in-trouble/|access-date=16 January 2024 |website=Book Marks}} In the May/June 2015 issue of Bookmarks, the book was scored four out of five.{{Cite web |title=Get in Trouble|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Book+of+Love.-a0811485771|access-date=14 January 2023 |website=Bookmarks}}

From The New York Times, author Scarlett Thomas wrote that "Link's stories are never fully realist, but they are always beautifully written" and commends her ability to get readers to reflect and focus on "the small stuff of life."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/books/review/kelly-links-get-in-trouble.html|title=Kelly Link's 'Get in Trouble'|last=Thomas|first=Scarlett|date=2015-02-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-04-10|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} A critic from Kirkus Reviews compared it to the Grimm Brothers and stated, "Exquisite, cruelly wise and the opposite of reassuring, these stories linger like dreams..."{{Cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kelly-link/get-in-trouble/|title=GET IN TROUBLE by Kelly Link {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en}} Publishers Weekly wrote "Link's characters, driven by yearning and obsession, not only get in trouble but seek trouble out—to spectacular effect."{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8041-7968-3|title=Get in Trouble|date=2014-09-14|website=Publishers Weekly|access-date=2019-03-10}}

The Daily Star, naming the collection's "The Summer People" as "Short Story of the Month", hailed Link's writing as "ageless" and "boundless", and for serving as a reminder of "how special and peculiar modern literature can be."{{Cite web|last=Bari|first=Mehrul|date=May 20, 2021|title=Kelly Link's 'The Summer People' and an escape from writer's block|url=https://www.thedailystar.net/book-reviews/news/kelly-links-summer-people-and-escape-writers-block-2095437|access-date=2021-06-20|website=The Daily Star|language=en}}

The book was a finalist for two awards in 2016: the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the Indies Choice Book Award in the "Book of the Year - Adult Fiction" category.

The story "The Summer People" won the 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards for best novelette.

{{Reflist}}

Category:2016 short story collections

Category:Random House books

Category:American short story collections