★★★★☆ A long short story

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day

Seanan McGuire

Short stories are different from novels. Some very good novelists (naming no names) are almost incapable of writing a good story. But others write extraordinary stories: W Somerset Maugham, Theodore Sturgeon, and Roger Zelazny come to mind. To that list I add Seanan McGuire. She has written hundreds of stories. Many of them she gives away for free -- see her website. Authors frequently complain that short stories don't pay well, but the best short story writers apparently can't help themselves. They write stories like they breathe and eat.

The reason I mention this is that, despite its novella length, Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day feels to me like a short story. It has that kind of single-pointed dramatic unity. In fact, I read it in one sitting, a Sunday afternoon and evening.

Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day is a ghost story. McGuire has written a lot of ghost stories. Many of her short stories are ghost stories, the ghost Mary Dunlavy is a key character in her Incryptid series, and the entire Ghost Roads series of three novels consists of stories about ghost girl Rose Marshall. With some exceptions, McGuire's ghosts are benign. They are able to do most of the things living people can do. For instance, Jenna, the ghost whose story Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day is, works at a diner and answers phones at a suicide prevention hotline.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day. It was a gleam of beauty and uplift on a dull summer day.

One thing to add: if you've not read McGuire, Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day would be a great way to sample her work. It is standalone, not depending on any of her other work, and as I already said, can be read in a single sitting.

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