Jessica by Laura DeLuca

I can't let Halloween come and go without curling up with a scary short story and this is the one that came to my attention this year. The blurb promised me a mysterious lady in white come back to exact revenge on the male race...or just one man? Hm... I had to read and find out more.
Poor Wilbur. :(

Wilbur is dateless and in college, on his way to a dance. He's shocked when a beautiful girl pays attention to him, dances with him, then asks him to walk with her... As they look over the lake, arms around each other, she begins to tell him a story.

In the 1890s, the college finally accepted women...but the male students weren't pleased to be outshone by females. After all, a woman's place was in the home. Out of three women, two ran away. They couldn't take it, but one woman could. She faced them, did better than them, studied hard, avoided trouble. She was going to be a doctor!

A fantastic feminist. I'd like to say that at this point, usually a character telling another character a story would  bother me, but it was actually done in a showing, not telling way, because I could see that college girl in my mind's eye sitting there studying hard, gazing at the lake...

And what happens next turns into a century of revenge.

Will she take pity on poor Wilbur? After all, he's mistreated to...

A short story with vivid descriptions and a intriguing back story. There was a spot in the beginning that made me laugh out loud and a a couple spots that made my spine tingle. Great combination.

My only quibble: I wish Wilbur had been a jerk instead of a mistreated outcast himself. Would have seemed more fitting to me. Four stars. This was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.