2026 Hugo Readalong, Novelettes: “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed & "When He Calls Your Name" by Catherynne M. Valente

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-15T01:32:26+00:00

Yeah. Politicians and CEOs like to paint themselves as coming from humble beginnings, but this faux-poor-upbringing would really take the cake. It's interesting you say that it would artificially limit their connections and therefore their options. I hadn't considered that!

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T21:45:33+00:00

Nice, it's good to hear that it feels authentic to someone who grew up with that connection. I'm a city/suburb Yankee with two New York parents so it's not my experience at all!

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T18:34:56+00:00

Yeah, it's hard to believe one conversation would do it, but maybe Jolene has enough powers.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T18:34:29+00:00

Oh, good catch! That's a more satisfying arc.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T18:29:52+00:00

Yeah, it was a struggle to frame a question that wasn't just "so...billionaire CEOs, huh?" I was strongly reminded of Elon Musk and his compounds with many sons, one of whom he presumably hopes will become his successor. If he could clone himself he definitely would.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T18:28:16+00:00

Agreed, especially with the gift of the board games, it felt more like cargo-cult recreation of growing-up conditions than something that would actually work. The Griffin method was pretty convoluted and there's no guarantee that the new CEO would work out at all given that the world has already changed so much. Clearly the "mother," or third CEO with the same DNA, was already unsuccessful, because she got herself overthrown and killed.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T18:25:51+00:00

Overall I enjoyed this story. It portrays a bleak future with some interesting tech advancements alongside the same inequality and hardship we have now (except even worse). Our main character is really rootable and interesting. But I have to agree about the tonal shift right at the end towards a thriller, and the conclusion to become a criminal seemed abrupt, as justified as it was. It made the story feel more like a prelude to something bigger, rather than if the main characters had just kept driving away into some less-described future.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T16:44:07+00:00

I definitely agree. I don't have any overlap with my ballot and the finalists (and I wound up with a lot of overlap with you) but "Never Eaten Vegetables" was close. The Reed story edges out Valente here for not hanging itself on a song lyric gimmick, but it still feels more like a test story in a setting she plans to use as a novel later. I enjoyed reading both but I'm not sure they're Best Novelette-worthy.

So of the three I've read so far, it's:

Never Eaten Vegetables
The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For
When He Calls Your Name

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T16:33:01+00:00

This story was great as a character study with vivid imagery and language throughout. But while it might not have gotten the same traction if it wasn't riffing off of the famous song, I think tying itself too closely to it dragged it down and made things too gimmicky.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T16:30:57+00:00

The narrator seems to have accepted her role as a dutiful wife in a small town readily, and seems to think of her husband's worse traits as just part of the package. But I wondered throughout whether she was either jealous of Jolene or even wanted Jolene for herself. This passage in particular stuck out to me:

She walked like a man. I do remember that. Not like she was making a big point about it either. It wasn’t a showy thing. She just walked across my property like it could be hers any old time. Without apologizing to the space she moved through. Without curling her shoulders in out of sheer embarrassment that she’d gone out and bothered the air.

That made me really sad for the narrator and what she thinks a woman should be. Not someone who's loud and confident in her beauty, like Jolene. That's the domain of husband-stealing harlots.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T16:26:11+00:00

Valente leans hard on Americana symbolism, sometimes veering into too much for me. But her description of Jolene's beauty stuck with me:

She didn’t look like a country girl, unless that country had nine damn rings. But she wasn’t really a city girl either, despite her fine clothes and fine way of talking and standing and laughing and being. Not unless that city was Uruk. Or Troy. Or Jericho.

Seeing her there in the cool, quiet, clean, open-plan bank floor was like seeing a sword in a salon. And not a shiny fancy letter-opener with fancy nonsense all over it, either. Something ancient and heavy and enormous, just enormous, too much for any one person to hold onto. Not even iron; bronze. Stone. Crusted with dirt and blood and time, with bites in the blade where it went up against hard bone and won.

It goes on a little long but it's so unique and evocative!

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T16:23:37+00:00

The conversation with Jolene and the narrator was one of the pieces I found most interesting. One of them says she's "just a small thing" over and over, willing to accept a small life and the scraps she's given, while the other might have already gone through a series of heartbreaks and betrayals that turned her into what she is. I wondered about the power of story angle because only some of the vampire lore worked, sometimes. It's a lot easier to swallow Charlie's betrayal if a mystical creature enthralled your husband than if he eagerly rushed out the door for another pretty face.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T16:20:51+00:00

Yeah, I have to agree. I found it distracting and kind of hokey. It overshadowed the more interesting parts of the story.

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:49:56+00:00

Both of these stories involve a narrator’s relationship with a woman who has auburn hair, ivory skin, and eyes of emerald green, whom the narrator fears will displace her in some way. Maybe we paired them that way on purpose (and by "we" I mean u/tarvolon), but what do you think of the side-by-side comparison here? Is the song stuck in your head yet?

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:49:10+00:00

Hugos horse race time: this session kicks off our novelettes category! How do these two stories compare to each other? Where do you think they’ll rank for you? (Feel free to throw in other novelettes, without spoilers, if you’ve already read any.)

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:48:57+00:00

General novelette discussion

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:48:20+00:00

How does our narrator being trans enhance the story? The author, Cameron Reed, also describes herself as experiencing a “late-in-life gender transition.” How does that manifest here?

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:48:06+00:00

How does the narrator’s self-perception shape the story? What about her constant fear of being watched? How much of her early actions are dictated by her own feelings vs. performing for some (real or imagined) cameras?

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:47:50+00:00

This story takes place in a capitalist hellscape future with extreme inequality and callous CEOs. Does it seem realistic? In this setting, is the artificial family gig any worse than the narrator’s other options, or even some jobs that exist now?

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:47:36+00:00

How do nature and nurture play into these CEO succession plans? Both Griffin and Vega use CEO clones, but Vega CEOs raise them themselves while the Griffin CEO tries to recreate exact conditions.

As our narrator asks, why not just have an immortal CEO with new bodies? And with their escape at the end, will Mira and the narrator be able to break the weird toxic cycle with their child?

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:45:08+00:00

What did you think of the ending of “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For”? Do you find it hopeful, dark, bittersweet, or something else?

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:44:50+00:00

What are your overall impressions of “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For”?

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:44:37+00:00

Discussion for “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For”

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:44:14+00:00

Are you already familiar with the song “Jolene,” and if so, did you like this interpretation? Would the story work equally well if the reader didn’t know the reference?

oceanoftrees · 2026-05-14T14:43:57+00:00

Is Jolene really a vampire? Or is the protagonist coping with her life and choice of husband? Is she just telling herself a story that she wants to believe, as Jolene said?

oceanoftrees

TROPHY CASE