As with most years, there were so many wonderful short stories and novelettes published in 2025 that I feel like I’m only just scratching the surface. I’m still (always) playing catch up, and I know there’s a lot that I missed or haven’t had a chance to read yet. That said, here are my favorites from among what I did manage to read this year. Hopefully you’ll find something new to you that you’ll love too!
Novelettes
In the Splinterlands, the Crows Fly Blind by Siobhan Carroll (Asimov’s January/February) – a story full full of excellent worldbuilding, with a strong voice, exploring complicated family relationships against the backdrop of a dangerous rescue mission.
The Temporary Murder of Thomas Monroe by Tia Tashiro (Clarkesworld, January) – a smoothly written and satisfyingly twisty story of a hit that quickly becomes complicated and a target who doesn’t stay dead.
Never Eaten Vegetables by H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld, January) – an effective and occasionally heartbreaking take on a Cold Equations-style story, where a gestation ship desperately tries to keep 500 embryos alive after they unfreeze ahead of schedule.
We Begin Where Infinity Ends by Somto Ihezue (Clarkesworld, February) – a beautifully written story of friendship and environmental recovery in a post-collapse world.
Symbiotic by Caroline Zhao (Clarkesworld, April) – a dream-like and flowing narrative that looks at the relationship between two characters who are part of the SYMBIOTIC program, feeling what the other feels and losing the boundaries between themselves.
Welcome to Kearney by Gary Kloster (Clarkesworld, July) – a story that explores sentience and the desire for connection as a caretaker for a historical town that seeks to recreate the America of the past comes across an injured droid who is being hunted.
A Tide of Paper by Leah Cypess (Asimov’s, September/October) – a satisfying historical mystery set in Venice where two brothers are drawn into a murder investigation after they stumble across a corpse and one of them begins seeing the dead man’s ghost.
Courtney Lovecraft’s Book of the Dead by Sam J. Miller (Nightmare, October) – effectively framed as a podcast interview with a drag queen and medium going by the name of Courtney Lovecraft, the story explores guilt and responsibility via angry ghosts who are sick of humanity’s bullshit.
The Millay Illusion by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, November/December) – a lovely exploration of the history of magic, and particularly the role of women on the stage, which takes a light touch with the speculative element but uses it effectively as a magician stages a final performance for those who doubted her.
Shadow Jack by C.L. Hellisen (Giganotosaurus, May) – a dark, surreal, and evocative story about a group of boys who serve in a strange religious order, cleaning up after the priests who make regular sacrifices in an attempt to ascend and become gods.
Chickenfoot Soup by Marika Bailey (Lightspeed, January) – a wonderful story that draws on fairy tales and is laced with darkness, following a young woman caught between trying to please her overbearing and cruel mother and trying to protect her young daughter, who ultimately turns to a witch for help.
Faith by Kate Maruyama (Analog, November/December) – a lovely and heartbreaking story about a woman acting as a caretaker for her mother who has Alzheimer’s, and whose research is also key to their survival on Mars, trying to learn as much as she can about how to keep the colony alive while also learning about her mother’s past and their family history before the stories are lost.
Short Stories
Kolumbo 1619: Choose Your Own Adventure by KÁNYIN Olorunnisolo (Khōréō 4.4) – a painful story framed as a choose your own adventure VR experience, where a Black man tries to navigate simply existing in the world where no outcomes are favorable.
Extreme Sports Club for Octogenarians by Kate Lechler (The Deadlands, January) – a touching story about a group of seniors who take up extreme sports, choosing the moment of their deaths and giving them meaning.
Red Leaves by S.E. Porter (Reactor, February) – a story full of lovely and striking imagery where, after his death, a young boy finds his ghost among other ghosts, stuck to a Reverend who lives in the nearby boarding house.
The Demon Metrazol by Ray Nayler (Asimov’s March/April) – a haunting story filled with quiet, queer longing, touching on the inhumane treatment of mental illness in the 1930s.
Cryptid or Your Money Back by Misha Lenau (Asimov’s March/April) – a lovely story about embracing monstrousness as a means of dealing with dysphoria, finding one’s place in the world, and not letting other define you.
A Recipe for Immortality (Serves 2) by Shreejita Majumder (Tales & Feathers) – a time travel story tucked inside a recipe, where a granddaughter taps into the magic of food and the connection provided by cooking to visit her grandmother as a younger woman.
Landline by Kelly Robson (Reactor, March) – a tense and frightening story of a mother desperately trying to get home to her young son during a storm after he calls her while she’s at the airport, saying that the power is out and his daddy is gone.
The Ballad of Easy Deaths by Steve Toase (Three-Lobed Burning Eye, March) – an atmospheric and evocative short story about lost roads and the old gods of the desert who require martyrdom from their followers.
Idle, Inc. by Benjamin Parzybok (Bourbon Penn 35) – a story with a Severance-like vibe about a man who figures out how to steal time from others and horde it for himself.
St. Dymphana’s School for Borderland Girls by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece (Weird Horror #10) – a sensual and eerie story about a group of girls at a religious boarding school who begin falling into ecstatic trances and subsequently disappearing.
Möbius Loop by Samir Sirk Morató (Khōréō 5.1) – a unique twist on a time loop story exploring cycles of violence, as a young boy meets an older version of himself after a spaceship crash-lands in his yard.
Track Eats Track by Avi Burton (Analog, March/April) – a brief but lovely story that packs an emotional punch, about a racer who wants out, while the company who sponsors his implants is intent on forcing him to keep racing.
Concerning the Multiplicity of Children in Central Florida’s Suburbanized Wetlands by Ichabod Cassius Kilroy (Analog, March/April) – a lovely yet painful story about two young siblings facing parental neglect, who each in their own way are haunted by multiple possible versions of the future.
Emily of Emerald Starship by Ng Yi-Sheng (Clarkesworld, June) – a lush reimagining of the play Emily of Emerald Hill, wherein a groom working in a stable falls for a young man whose mother traded her humanity to become a starship and build an empire.
If an Algorithm Can Cast a Shadow by Claire Jia-Wen (Clarkesworld, June) – a heartbreaking story exploring grief and loss, where a mother orders a digital double of her son following his death, trying to understand why he killed himself.
Highway 1, Past Hope by Maria Haskins (The Deadlands, April) – a haunting and gorgeous story about a murdered woman reassembling herself from spare bones to take revenge on her killer and protect another woman threatened by violence.
Because I Held His Name Like a Key by Aimee Ogden (Strange Horizons, June) – an absolutely beautifully-written story that traces the relationship between Alan Turing and a fae lord over several years, delving into questions about the nature of self and conciousness.
Mavka by A.D. Sui (Pseudopod, February) – a dark tale drawing on traditional folklore that explores what it means to survive as a family struggles against the threat of starvation, brutal winter conditions, and occupying soldiers.
The Peculiarities of Hunger by Woody Dismukes (Khōréō 5.2) – a brutal and effective story about a young boy from Brazil, adopted into an American family, who experiences fragments of his past and his heritage as a literal haunting.
Patient Was the Doctor by Victoria N. Shi (Analog, July/August) – a story with a strong emotional core about a psychologist called into a military base to try to gain insight into the mind of a wounded alien.
Every Ghost Story by Natalia Theodoridou (Reactor, August) – a story about grieving and letting go, set at a camp where the attendees undergo exposure therapy to help them deal with the sudden appearance of ghosts among the living.
The Heart is Hungry Above All Things by Avra Margariti (Three-Lobed Burning Eye, July) – a dark and effective story exploring co-dependence, responsibility, jealousy, and complicated family relationships as twin siblings care for their vampire-like brother and keep him fed.
Welcome to Spruceway by Brianne Battye (Augur 8.1) – an apocalyptic tale framed as an audio tour of an abandoned mall where several survivors have holed up, effectively conveying a sense of the world and the horrors that have occurred.
Genius, Borrowed and Brief by Julia Darcey (Analog, September/October) – a subtly eerie story with hints of cosmic horror about a struggling artist who comes across a computer program that creates fractal patterns that suddenly launches him into fame and fortune when he passes them off as his own work.
Whale Fall of Yours by M.M. Olivas (Uncanny, September/October) – a gorgeously written story that feels epic in scope, tracing the protagonist’s relationship with her girlfriend-then-wife, her slingshot mission into the stars, her wife’s cancer and eventual death, and her joining the crew of a starship that encounters a whale-like starbeast.
The Hungry Mouth at the Edge of the Universe and the Goddess Knitting at Home by Renan Bernardo (Reactor, August) – a lovely story about sacrifice and honoring family, where a woman wakes as a ghost on a starship to discover the bodies of her crewmates floating around her and a mysterious creature attacking the bridge.
Closed Doors by Mary Miseon Wu (Khōréō 5.3) – a surreal meditation on identity, belonging, and individuality, where a mysterious phenomenon sweeps across America and people begin joining with each other, forming vast human-shaped monoliths.
The Magnolia Returns by Eden Royce (PodCastle, October) – a lovely story about the magic of food, told through a series of vignettes, all centered around a butcher shop that appears when it’s needed and gives people the perfect dish to soothe their souls.
Magical Girl Antifa War Machine by Esther Alter (Escape Pod, March) – a story with a strong voice about four transfemme friends who touch an artifact, become magical girls, and fight back against fascism, while finding a new balance in their relationship and dealing with the mundane bullshit of daily life.
Slipcraft by Jarune Uwujaren (Fiyah 33) – a bittersweet story about a woman who can take over people’s bodies with a touch, and as a result struggles with relationships that feel real and meaningful, and with her sense of self.
The Nine Crashes of Flight Lieutenant Hilla Quinn by Louise Hughes (Kaleidotrope, Fall 2025) – a sweet story that explores the sense of self as pilot who is adjusting to her new body keeps crashing her ship, her frustration mounting that her movements and reactions times aren’t the same as before.
It Grows Back by Grant Collier (Cast of Wonders, October) – an unsettling and eerie story about a young boy who witnesses an accident at a construction site, which leaves him both literally and figuratively haunted.
Autogas Ferryman by Champ Wongsataynont (Nightmare, September) – a bittersweet story about a taxi driver who sees ghosts and tries to help them find peace, but can’t bring himself to drive the stretch of road where his own mother died.
How to Build a Homecoming Queen: A Guide by a Bad Asian Girl by Tina S. Zhu – a story about expectations and pressure, but also about personal growth, as a young woman builds a homunculus to take her place in classes and with her family obligations so she has more time to pursue her own interests.
