"Fascinating" really is the right word to describe this deceptively good short story by Lydia Schoch. It's not often that I finish a story, short or long, and immediately go back to the beginning for another helping. Tumble managed to do that, and that by itself is notable.
It works so well because the story's tone is a very smooth, almost imperceptible escalation from banality, to healthy curiosity, to benign but notable strangeness, and onward through a few more levels that I won't spoil. That smoothness was a major factor that got me to go back right after I finished it; I was left wondering whether I had missed a hint or two or a page somewhere.
The writing is crisp and detailed, with strong sensory language everywhere you might expect it, but conspicuously missing in some places where you might want more. The slight weirdness of the descriptions adds to the mounting mystery, which ties together in a very unexpected way.
When you finish Tumble, you will find that many things have been left unanswered deliberately, and some left unanswered but with no clear connection to the main plot. You might ask yourself: "Is there some connection here I'm not seeing?" You will wonder, and that is one of the most powerful things a short story can get you to do.
Grab a free copy here: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/tumble
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