The Missing Girl

The atmosphere and surrealist tone of the stories, especially for The Missing Girl and Nightmare, adds to their creepiness. Love her style, even if, for Nightmare, the ending was abrupt and gave me question marks than answers.

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say “Invisibility” was the theme running through the stories. In the first, so little information about the missing girl could be obtained from the people around her including her own room-mate that it's as if no one paid her any attention; in the second, a child lends a woman the cloak of Invisibility she desires; and in the third, no one notices a woman even when a van is blaring her exact description on the streets of New York and escalating rewards (a yatch, $50k, unlimited travel, etc) are offered for her identification.

These stories don't have the shock twist and horror of The Lottery; the sense of dread is present but mild, and in all three, peters off at the end.

Worth a read if you're keen to become more familiar with Shirley Jackson's works.