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Study 162 - All She Said Was Yes (Patreon)

Published:
2026-04-02 20:58:10
Edited:
2026-04-02 20:59:02
Imported:
2026-04
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We're kicking off a month of Shirley Jackson stories with All She Said Was Yes, a suburban take on the Cassandra complex from her collection Dark Tales. Boats, bad neighbors and psychics - IT'S AMAZING!

Special thanks to our reader Heather Klinke!

Next up: The Beautiful Stranger and Home

Comments

Doc Singles

It's Always a joy when Heather Klinke reads! Which is ironic considering the material she's given.

S Jayne Bradley

I kept thinking about Vicki saying twice to not go on a boat. In the same way you tell someone not to think about a white elephant they will think about a white elephant, what if she knew telling them not to go on a boat would put it in their mind to go on a boat. And what if she put it in her parents mind to go out that night.

Mooncubus

There was one time where I was talking to my ex (we were together at the time) about someone who was on the same discord mod team as me. Really wasn't saying good things about them but it was fine because it was just us right? Well no, they shared the convo with someone in the server that was having issues with said person and then that person showed it to the other mods. So suddenly I was looking like the asshole badmouthing this person and my whole team saw it. One of the most embarrassing situations I've ever been in.

G. Gorgo

The narrator's loathing towards Vicki for being fat and awkward strikes me as all too real, rather than something she's engaging in unconsciously to distance herself emotionally. It's a pretty normal attitude in real life, but it's also a behavior that shows up in at least one other Jackson work (The Road through the Wall). In that book, it's a snooty suburban woman who loathes her awkward daughter, so it's a similar dynamic.

witchhousemedia

Per wikipedia: "When Shirley was a teenager, her weight fluctuated, resulting in a lack of confidence that she would struggle with throughout her life." I also know that weight loss pills contributed to some health issues and agoraphobia later on... I think some of this is a peek at how she felt folks were looking at her. Speculation, of course - some of this was in my notes for the show but I ended up dropping it (except it probably caused that McDonald's / neighbor joke). -CF

Jason Thompson

The real question about thinking bad thoughts about others is, can you really think it and not show it? Or will your contempt or nervousness or bad intentions slip out in your body language and tone of voice even if you’re trying hard to hide it? The ability to be two-faced probably varies from person to person.

James Anthony

Anyone else wondering whether the kid had just overheard all that stuff? The husband had maybe spoken about shoving his wife off a boat in earshot, the lawyer had perhaps been indiscrete when talking about an insurance scam, she'd paroted her grandfather's warnings about crashing the car if they didn't slow down. We don't know, but it feels like it fits the information we have

Pete Williams

Once again Shirley Jackson has left me feeling weird and kind of sad about humanity.

Stacey Cahan

I'm a late-diagnosed autistic woman and in the last several years since getting my dx, I've found myself revisiting things that made me feel certain ways in the past, and realizing the WHY of it all from a new perspective. When I first read this story, I didn't like the way Vicki was treated but thought it was just because the narrator was kind of a bitch. Now, I see a lot of my younger self in Vicki: socially punished for failing to follow the unspoken social rules to which women (particularly women at the time the story was written) were expected to adhere; perceived as ugly and fat (which could easily also just be failure to perform the "right" kind of femininity)... ...as for the Cassandra-like prophetic curse, it's painfully similar to what happens when folks with high pattern recognition (like many autistic people have) are disbelieved and disregarded. I shouldn't make an armchair, post-mortem diagnosis with zero qualifications, but I will anyway. Because it sure feels as though, along with the narrator from "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" (another story that changed significantly on re-read) Shirley Jackson had some perspective on how autism might show up in women and girls in the 50s and 60s - especially when their needs were ignored or forced to be masked or sublimated.

Pete Williams

That's very interesting. I've often wondered how much of herself she put in her stories. Quite a few have nasty petty judgemental female characters. In fact I'm not sure I've read one that doesn't. I say this is a fan, by the way. I think the Haunting of Hill House is one the best books I've ever read.

G. Gorgo

Thank you for the context, I really appreciate it!

Jim Cannon

Did anyone else think it was kind of messed up for the friends of the deceased couple to not step in and look after Vicki? Just left it to the neighbors? Especially if the narrator is paying out of pocket to entertain and feed these people, that seems like terrible friends. And that maybe the narrator isn't as horrible as she appears to be because of how she describes herself and her feelings, because she is stepping in to look after the kid and all these strangers. OTOH, if the narrator IS as horrible as she appears to be because of her rich inner life, perhaps the cruise is the ironic comeuppance she deserves.

H.P. SauceCraft

Great story and I loved the questions it provoked. Does it really matter if we are acting on social scripts or our true feelings of altruism? Maybe not when the results are pro-social and for the greater good but what happens when our cultural conditioning leads us down darker avenues? When we are unable or unwilling to consider others perspective and are just puttering along on moral auto pilot. Knowing what we feel but never why we feel it. What if our culture for whatever reason has normalized cruelty, can we even recognize it when within it? I feel this is a sister piece to The Lottery in that it kinda needles at the same question. Boy, Shirley sure could write.

KateSherrod

I was not expecting a shout out to Tove Ditlevsen on this or any show but Chad is absolutely right to bring her up in this context! Both she and Aunt Shirley are goddesses at psychological tension and resentment. I've only read Ditlevsen's Copenhagen Trilogy but it/they are some of the most harrowing books I've ever encountered, without one bit of supernatural or thriller/adventure content. It's just our narrator-character's experiences and how she reacts to them (spoiler: never very well)... and now I've just talked myself into reading them again very soon. Meanwhile, Viva Aunt Shirley! Even her fun little Momcore books (Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages) are goddess-tier -- but the only short of hers I've ever read before was "The Lottery." So glad you're making me change that. Great episode as always, fellas!

Rafe Ball

If anyone wants to read this one, it's in the Vogue archives - if you go to https://archive.vogue.com/issue/19621101/print you can select the pages with the story (142, 143, 169, 171, 174, 175) and print them as a PDF (or select "Print Selected" then cancel the print and they should display in your browser)

Aaron Eskenazi

Awesome episode. The discussion about the protagonist struggling with her thoughts vs. her actions made me think of Vicky, who faces a similar dilemma. She can see the future and has “thoughts” about what will happen, but because of the nature of those visions, and because she’s a child, she’s limited in what actions she can actually take. Where the protagonist can choose her actions, even when they conflict with her thoughts, Vicky doesn’t really have that luxury. Her visions and reality are tightly linked, and she lacks the agency to meaningfully change the outcome, which makes that thought/action divide feel even more constrained.

Jeff

I am so glad you guys are putting the spotlight back onto Shirley Jackson, who is quite possibly my all-time favorite writer. I don't think she's given enough credit for her enormous contributions to weird fiction, when she is in fact one of the true masters of the form. So gimme all the Jackson you can dish out, I'm more than ready for it!

Jason of the K

Someone needs to add a little epilogue to this story where the backstory to Vickie is that while ice skating, she collided with another boy, named Johnny Smith, and both fall and hit their heads, thus entering....The Dead Zone :P

GG2025

The thoughts vs actions dilemma echoes a 2,000-year-old debate in Christianity about faith and works. I’ve always thought actions that affect other people (or animals, plants, or heck any element of our environment) far outweigh the impact of a few synapses firing in our little noggins invisible to others. So while the narrator is caustic and even cruel in her thoughts, she is duty-bound and charitable in her works. Ka-Ching! For the apostle James and I, that’s good for one free pass to a happy afterlife. Plus, she drowned on a fun-filled cruise instead of dying in a nuclear war! What can you do?

It's a Ghost.

The narrator is judgmental and selfish but also does seem to be concerned about Vicky not crying and does do what she thinks "she’s supposed to do" in a tough situation, which I think is good. But because she ultimately was selfish, judgmental, and interiorly self-involved, she did not really listen to Vicky and take her seriously, and in turn, she went on a cruise (aka a fancy boat) with her husband where she presumably died. Also, it was made clear that Vicky's parents were focused on a fancy lifestyle and perhaps keeping up with the Jones's and not stopping to listen to Vicky and take her seriously. And, in turn, they too suffered the consequences.

Science Doctor, PhD

At first while reading, I was thinking that a lot of the commentary about internal selfish thoughts matched with external unselfish actions didn't quite fit because we were talking about a child whose parents have both just died. But, reflecting on it, I think I feel differently (broadly at least, not necessarily for this story). I teach these days, but in the past I have been a nurse and paramedic (both on an ambulance and in an ER setting). We are seeing people at some of the worst, if not 'the' worst days of their lives. However, over time, folks do have an erosion of empathy that can lead to them being jaded and becoming frustrated with their patients, even the ones who are not doing anything externally "bad." Chad's comment about being annoyed with some kids he taught also comes across as similar. The patient can be doing nothing "wrong" exactly, but the circumstances are frustrating. You often feel bad about those feelings in the moment, or after, which unfortunately can accelerate those feelings, which is one of the things that can contribute to burnout. These circumstances are obviously distinct from the narrator's, but I do think they can contribute to the idea that we can do the right thing while being frustrated about having to do so.

David Halstead

How did Vicky's parents never pick up on her ability for premonition? Also, did anyone else pick up on how Vicky's room was described as bare bones despite how the narrator keeps saying they were well off? Were they actually poor, and the narrator fixated on these wine glasses they had? I think it's suspicious that there's this "everyone knows everyone's business" attitude, it's clear the narrator never knew what was really going on.

Steven Moore

I would have questions; What kind of boat? Sail boat, speed boat or maybe tug boat? Or was it a ship? I think it would be fitting if she read in the little red book her family was killed by a demon possessed gravy boat.

It's a Ghost.

My interpretation was that Vicky's parents were focused on themselves, money, and affluence, not Vicky, which explains her bare bones room.