Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

This is our discussion of the story:

"Madeleine” by Amal El-Mohtar

This short story is available to read on-line @Lightspeed.

This story is part of the 2015 Nebula Award nominees short story discussion.

I just read this story online. It is a thoughtful story, but just barely fantasy, IMO.

Not fantasy at all. Very nice, but not fantasy. You might, *might*, be able to make a case for it being magical realism, but those elements of the story also have perfectly valid psychological explanations.

★★★

Madeleine lost her mother to Alzheimer. To cure her depression, she participated in an experimental drug test. Now, she's got lots of flashbacks. Things turn interesting when a new element creeps into her memories in the form of a different girl who she didn't know at all. She starts to talk to the girl and a romance develops.

Psychology? Time travel? Magical realism? I'm unclear about the category for this story, but I loved this openness to interpretation. Besides the literary references to Proust and others, I liked the emotional description how Alzheimer affects caring relatives and the interleaved, vivid descriptions of her flashbacks.