Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker

Tor.com, 2020

ASIN:B089FTG8MS

Available: Kindle edition  ( Amazon.com )

When her high school friend Marco’s “weird older brother” Denny dies, Stella offers to help clear out his things. Unbeknownst to her, Denny was a hoarder, and sorting through his things, even in just a few rooms, is a huge challenge, requiring latex gloves to go through his things and a mask to keep out the stench. Starting in the dining room, it is Stella’s job to sort the junk and broken things from the items that might be personal or potentially valuable.

Stella is a pathological liar. She doesn’t know why she does it, but she’s good at it. She lies about her job, her family, where she lives, what she’s done with her life… and she doesn’t get caught. While sorting through items in the basement rec room, such as DVDs, VHS tapes, and cassettes, she finds an old television set built into a cabinet and makes up a creepy kids’ television show from their childhood to ask Marco about, The Uncle Bob Show, only to discover that she didn’t make it up; it’s real, and most of the little kids in town appeared on it at some time, including her and Denny. Marco remembers it, Stella’s mother remembers it, and when she checks, there are records in the archives of the local television station. Stella is unnerved: if she can’t remember the show despite the nightmarish stories Uncle Bob told on his show, what other memories could she be missing?

This is a very short piece on the dangers and nature of storytelling and memory, but so well done. Pinsker doesn’t waste a word in this unsettling tale. While most of the characters are sketches, Denny and his house are vividly recreated, and the realization of how unreliable Stella’s narrative actually is makes the story even creepier. How much of what and who in the  is real and how much is in her head? Readers will have this crawling around their brains well after the last page is turned.

As a final note, it would certainly be interesting to see Pinsker revisit some of the other grown children who appeared on the Uncle Bob Show, in connected novellas. Recommended.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Editor’s note: Two Truths and a Lie is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.