There are so many great things about this story, I don't even know where to start. I guess, in no particular order....
1. Thank you, Alex and the whole PP team, for putting in the work to track down rights for this one.
2. The full-cast reading was great! I especially loved Tina Connolly as Anne, and generally how all the various letters and newspaper clippings were read by different voices. Had a nice, immersive effect.
3. I think what I love about this story as a piece of horror is how it's a story about systematic rape and violence against women that captures why this is friggin' terrifying no matter what your gender is. For men, the fear is being betrayed by your own biological programming, having it hijacked and reprogrammed to murder women you love *BECAUSE* you love them. It seems in this story that the more intense positive feelings a guy has for his female family members, the more powerfully it gets converted into mindless bloodlust (which is why cross-dressing and being anonymous kinda sorta works for Anne at the end). It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch Alan come to the realization that he was the most dangerous thing in the world to his family, and that he couldn't trust himself to see them without hurting them. And even worse when his daughter goes looking for him in a fit of teenage rebellion, not understanding her father wouldn't be able to keep himself from hurting her.
For women, the scary thing about this story is the way the world reacts to the mass murder of women throughout the piece. It's best summed up in this bit here:
The weird part is that no one seems to be doing anything, as if it's just too big. Selina Peters has been printing some acid comments, like: When one man kills his wife you call murder, but when enough do it we call it a life-style.
For me, this was even more scary than all the dudes of the world becoming rapist-murderers all at once, because it hits a little closer to reality: the way violence against women is so widespread and common that it's practically a non-story. I'm reminded of the #YesAllWomen conversation on Twitter, where women shared personal stories about harassment and violence, and how even just posting to that hashtag was enough to get you a free bonus rape threat from random dudes who feel completely comfortable behaving this way in public. And yet, Twitter as a company still considers rape threats a non-issue, not something to ban an account over. Violence against women isn't crime, it's a "life style", if you will.
4. Usually I loathe the "Surprise, It's Aliens!" plot twist, but this was so well-executed that it got a slow clap from me. I love how Tiptree brings the whole story back around to the fact that all life on Earth is ultimately related, and that anything we do to another species is hypothetically something that could happen to humans, under the right circumstances. Tiptree's stories often explore the theme of biological determinism, but I think this is one of her finest on the subject. (I also love "A Momentary Taste of Being", which is much much longer, but if you want more sick Tiptree sci-horror, I recommend it).