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| One ticket to Hades, please. |
I went into this one pretty skeptical. A short story told through a Kickstarter page sounded, at best, like a quirky experiment prone to gimmicks that would wear thin after a few paragraphs. But somehow, somehow, Carmen Maria Machado not only makes it work, she makes it sing. She uses the Kickstarter page structure (updates, backer tiers, reward descriptions, etc) as a meaningful storytelling engine rather than a novelty. Every section feels intentional and she moves through the constraints of that format with total confidence.
What really surprised me though wasn’t the cleverness of the form. It was how deeply emotional the story becomes despite (or maybe because of) those constraints. Hidden between the tongue-in-cheek project descriptions and campaign updates is a story about the complex relationship between two sisters with a speculative twist: the narrator/older sister launches a Kickstarter campaign to help fund her journey to the Underworld in order to rescue her younger sister who has a tendency to be a reckless, party girl. Apparently Hades is known for throwing some really great parties down there.
Machado lets the emotional weight creep in slowly, almost quietly, until you suddenly realize you are in far deeper than you thought. By the time the story reaches its heartbreaking conclusion, it lands like a punch right to the gut. The kind that knocks the wind out of you even though you saw it coming. It’s rare to find a piece of writing that balances structural playfulness with such genuine emotional resonance, but Machado threads that needle perfectly. This story is a reminder that innovative storytelling doesn’t have to sacrifice heart. In this case, it actually amplifies it.
This was such a refreshing and memorable read. I can’t wait to dive into more of this author's work.
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