annoyedI mean, the gears were somehow really visible in the story-- all the moments where you (the reader) is supposed to say, "Gosh, that sounds like the narrator's mother was murdered by her dad, and she doesn't realize it because she believes his whole 'alien abduction' craziness," or whatever are really obvious "OOOO, MAYBE IT'S NOT REALLY ALIENS!" moments.... because it was in a science fiction magazine, and obviously a science fiction magazine is not going to go the "no aliens here!" route.
And, indeed, yes, totally aliens.... and not even a twist on what the heroine had been thinking the whole time, which was somehow especially odd. "All my life I believed that there were evil, abducting aliens out there, evilly abducting people!"... and then there totally were.
*sigh*
I mean, couldn't the Mysterious Evil Abductory Forces have turned out to be, I don't know, vampires?
