Tag: recommended reading

I recently posted about my favorite novellas of the year, and now it’s time to turn my attention to collections. This felt like an especially strong year for short fiction collections, and I’ve already been lucky enough to read a few coming out next year that make me think 2026 will be equally stellar. There are still posts on novels, anthologies, and stand-alone short fiction on the way, but in the meantime, what have you read this year and loved?

Haunted Ecologies by Corey Farrenkopf

As the title implies, there’s a focus on ecological and environmental horror in this collection. As a result, a strong sense of place suffuses the stories, whether atmospheric and moody or desolate and melancholy, whether smelling of the sea or the deep, piney woods. Other themes that echo across the collection include family, difficult relationships, and people trying to do the best they can to understand each other, even amidst horrors. The collection overall is incredibly strong, but there were a few pieces in particular that stood out. Mother’s Wolves centers on a daughter searching for proof that wolves have returned to Maine while looking for her mother, who disappeared while studying them. Translations for a Dead Sea sees a woman living alone in a cottage on Cape Cod, finishing a translation of an epic poem discovered by her father, which draws monstrous creatures from the sea, but may also provide hope against something worse. Dredging the Bay is the story of a man who recovers trash from the ocean and discovers half a body in a washing machine, leading him to learn of a terrifying local practice of sacrificing people to the sea.

A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde

This is a gorgeous and lyrical collection that provides a wonderful sampling of Wilde’s work across fantasy, science fiction, and horror. As with Farrenkopf’s collection, there are themes of ecology and the environment at play here, along with various other themes that recur from story to story. It’s wonderful to see these works brought together and the way, when collected, they are in conversation with each other. There are stories exploring bodily autonomy and freedom, who gets considered a person and who gets overlooked, and who has access to healthcare. This, in turn, speaks to the stories about transformation, bodies changing forms, and people changing themselves through technology, explored through the lenses of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Some stories crackle with anger, others are meditative, and yet others deploy subtle humor, showcasing Wilde’s range.

The House of Illusionists by Vanessa Fogg

The stories in this collection tend to the mythical and the magical and many of them suggest worlds that extend far beyond the page. The stories throughout are beautifully written, often suffused by melancholy, but offering hope as well. A few in particular stood out. Wild Ones is a heartbreaking story about youth and age as a mother tries to keep her daughter from being stolen by the wild hunt. The Wave is an excellent exploration of seeking an adrenaline high and the difference between real and virtual experiences as a group of surfers take on a massive wave while mind-casting, allowing audiences to experience thrills vicariously. The Message is a bittersweet story about the desire for connection and communication as Sarah shares messages and stories with her best friend who she is in love with but has never met in person, while scientists try to decipher an alien communication which may not even be meant for humans. Wings is a gorgeously written story of a princess who marries a poet against her mother’s wishes, causing her mother to curse the poet to transform into a series of animals so he can never speak again. One Midsummer’s Eve considers what it means to be a myth and being caught in cycles of history as a boy who will one day become the demon prince and destroy his people out of grief for his lost love returns to the garden where it all began with the hope that this cycle will be a happy one.

Teenage Girls Can Be Demons by Hailey Piper

Simply growing up and surviving your teenage years can be a horror, a fact which Piper highlights in this excellent collections that perfectly blends the mundane and the supernatural. Why We Explode looks at the way boys silence girls, as girls explode with unspoken words until one of them learns to fight back. Thagomizer is an effective exploration of fear and guilt as, after burying her son, a mother drives back home haunted by memories and seeing what appears to be her son’s favorite dinosaur stalking her through the trees. The Last Leaf on the Ursine Tree centers on a complicated mother-daughter relationship in a world where periods call hungry bears to follow around the person menstruating, delving into the idea of being a parent and being expected to prioritize others above yourself. Hopscotch is a pleasantly eerie story about a mysterious child who challenges the kids in the neighborhood to a game that causes one of them to disappear. Magic Girl Child Crusade Squad is a satisfying examination of the magic girl trope, what it means to be a perpetual warrior, what happens when you don’t believe in the fight anymore, and what happens to a magical girl when in your day-to-day life people think you’re a boy and not a girl. My absolute favorite story in the collection is the original novelette, The Many Sins of Clara Greenstone. The nuns who run St. Mary’s Home for Girls are cruel, doling out vicious punishments and there are even rumors that they fed one of the girls to the dark thing in the attic. Then Clara Greenstone arrives, a girl in appearance, but possibly a fae trickster or demon in reality, causing chaos for the nuns, but providing the other girls with hope.

Uncertain Sons by Thomas Ha

Thomas Ha has been absolutely killing it in the short fiction realm over the last several years, so it’s no surprise his debut collection is outstanding. He has a talent for stories that drip with uneasiness, are evocative, and often suggest much worse things just out of sight and beyond the margins of the page. Many of the stories I’d read when they were originally published, but it was a pleasure to revisit them. The collection also includes a new novelette, Uncertain Sons. Like many of Ha’s stories, it weaves cosmic horror through a story about family as the Young Bikeman sets out to destroy the thing that killed his father, bringing his father’s disembodied head along for the ride. The descriptions are rich and unsettling, and Ha makes effective use of voice and shifts in perspective throughout, adding both further uncertainty and depth to the tale.

Tell Me Yours I’ll Tell You Mine by Kristina Ten

Like Hailey Piper’s collection, many of the stories in Ten’s collection explore the horrors of growing up. They straddle literary, cosmic horror, dark fantasy, and everything in-between. The Dizzy Room and The Curing both explore the uneasy space of childhood and trying to define yourself, especially as a child of immigrant parents and ESL learner. Bunny Ears is a dark and unsettling tale centered around a ghost story told at summer camp about the bunny-ear kids whose parents never picked them up, who subsequently went feral and still inhabit the woods. Mel for Melissa focuses on mundane horror rather than the supernatural, and it’s one of those most chilling stories in the collection. It does a wonderful job with structure, circling around the central horror of what happened to the protagonist’s best friend Mel when they were in high school. It’s an excellent piece of body horror that delves into trauma, the way women’s bodies in particular are viewed, and the brutality athletes endure in order to win.

The Greatest Fight of Sunny Granada and Other Stories by Kenneth Yu

This slim collection covers a lot of ground and includes speculative and non-speculative stories, humor, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The title piece, which opens the collection, is quite sweet and carries real emotional weight. Sunny Granada is an interspecies fighter, recruited to be the face of a new league. After he’s knocked out in a fight, his life flashes before his eyes, but the memories unlock they key to beating his opponent. Operation Bleach is a chilling look at internalized racism and racist beauty standards, effectively told through a series of case studies and interviews. A new product called Porselna turns Pinoy people white, with a new version promised that will alter height, features, and eye color. Blending In is the least speculative story in the collection, but one of the most emotional and highly effective. The narrator’s older brother and his best friend Ronel are basketball stars. Ronel’s father has been threatened for telling the truth about corrupt local politicians on his radio show, leading the politician to plant drugs on Ronel. When Ronel’s father tries to defend him, both he and his son are killed in the ensuing fight. The relationship between the two brothers and between the two families are both lovely, and the story provides a nice look at playing the long game and how small actions can have a huge impact in seeking justice.

Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell

Published by Neon Hemlock, this collection is gorgeous inside and out, with lovely sprayed edges and consistently beautiful fiction. Caldwell has a real talent for creating worlds that feel fully realized and like they have a life beyond the page. In fact, there are several stories that call back to and reference each other, or feature the same characters. For example, the stories which bookend the collection – Femme and Sundance and Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride – are directly linked. The narrator and his boyfriend seek a favor from Miz Boudreaux in the first and face the consequences of the deal they made in the last as she returns after her death to ask them to do a favor for her in return. Similarly, The Beekeeper’s Garden and Counting Her Petals, feature the same character at different points in her life – as a child, lured into a magical garden and enchanted by a woman who wants to keep her like a living doll, and as an adult as she follows her girlfriend into a virtual world and tries to bring her home. Many of the stories have a fairy tale-like feel, and Serving Fish in particular is a take on an animal transformation story. A young drag queen meets a magical, wish-granting fish as a young child, and calls on the fish again later in life to become something more than human.

As I continue to gather links to eligibility posts and recommended reading lists, it seems like the perfect time to share some of my own favorites reads from the year. I’m still frantically trying to catch up, as always, and I may update the post at some point. There are also other posts forthcoming dedicated to collections, anthologies, novels, and short fiction. Maybe there’ll even be a post for games and media, we’ll see how ambitious I get. For now though, novellas!

Alakazam by Mia Dalia

PS Publishing has carved out the perfect niche for itself with limited edition collections, novels, and anthologies that are lovely as physical objects in addition to being excellent reads. Right off, I feel the need to mention Alakazam’s cover art, which is reminiscent of Stephen Gammell’s unforgettable illustrations for the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. The piece is a collaboration between Dalia and Michael Marshall Smith, and it’s incredibly eye-catching. The novella follows two friends who become fascinated with a house once belonging to the Amazing Archibald, a magician whose tricks no one ever figured out, who mysteriously disappeared after his retirement. The present-day sections are interwoven with Archibald’s own story – a man with secrets, carrying a deep sadness within himself. It’s soaked in a sense of place, and captures quiet desperation, faded glory, and the feeling of magic perfectly, making for a story that is both haunted and haunting.

The Cosmic Color by T.T. Madden

Speaking of carving out niches, Neon Hemlock has made its mark with novellas, anthologies, and collections, consistently publishing multiple excellent titles each year. Eric is an Instar pilot, a mech-like, partially biological creature designed to fight the Imago, humans transformed by amber – a fuel source that powers the Instars, but can also turn people into insect-like or reptilian creatures. He’s uncertain about his role and the rightness of fighting the Imago, and experiences dysmorphia both inside and outside his Instar. He isn’t sure who and what he’s supposed to be; he just knows doesn’t feel like himself. Stories about mechs are frequently used to explore identity, and The Cosmic Color is a particularly effective example of the sub-genre, looking at how the sense of self can be tied to a person’s physicality, while also looking at both race and gender. The novella also touches on violence and how humans are often more comfortable responding with aggression to something they don’t understand, while also looking at humans being used as cogs in the military machine.

The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas

This is another Neon Hemlock title featuring mechs, but in a very different context. Here, they artifacts being studied by the protagonist, Laxman – a nerdy academic whose boyfriend just happens to be the most famous superhero in the world. The voice of the novella is a lot of fun, perfectly mixing snark with academic citations, while the plot mixes up superheroes, ancient mechs, and alternate history. The characters are fantastic, and the relationships between them are very nicely done, showing both Laxman’s and Ezra’s insecurities and the ways they each feel insufficient at times, but also showing their deep love for each other and their ability to be open and honest and not allow those insecurities to drive them apart. There’s a strong sense of history and the feeling of a living, breathing world that extends beyond the page, accomplishing a lot at novella length while never feeling rushed.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

This is a gorgeous, fairy tale-like novella that draws inspiration from classic murder ballads and revels in the magic of language. Ysabel and Esther are sister who live on the border of faerie. Their family has always cared for the willows there, singing to them in appropriate seasons and making baskets from their branches. Esther’s lover, Rin, is one of the fae. They visit infrequently and never stay long, which is less than Esther wants from the relationship. Meanwhile, the neighboring farmer is courting her, and trying to pressure her into a relationship, which ultimately leads things to take a dark turn.

Don’t Sleep with the Dead by Nghi Vo

This novella is a sequel to Vo’s novel The Chosen and the Beautiful, which itself reimagines The Great Gatsby, placing the characters from Fitzgerald’s classic novel in a world of magic in a way that makes it feel like that’s where they’ve always belonged. The story picks up several years after the events of the novel, with the dead returning and Nick believing he’s seen Gatsby’s ghost, or perhaps Gatsby himself. The world is richly imagined and beautifully written, blending fae magic and Hell with the world of the Great Gatsby, and doing a wonderful job portraying a character haunted by his past both literally and figuratively.

No One to Hold the Distant Dead by K.L. Schroeder

The novella starts off with visceral and immersive descriptions as Inga is beamed into a receptacle body on the distant planet of Nordenmark, there to help a community in crisis and on the verge of ecological collapse. There are gaps in her memory, and she’s having trouble adjusting to the new body, which feels like it’s dying from the moment she arrives. An air of loss permeates the novella, with the planet being on the brink of failure and the sense that not much can be done to save it. As a press, Psychopomp focuses on stories about death, and No One to Hold the Distant Dead puts a unique spin on the theme with the idea of mourning an entire planet. It’s a thoughtful and caring look at death and finding hope and meaning in a bleak situation.

Quantum Ghosts by Nancy Kress

Published over two issues of Asimov’s Magazine, starting with the May/June 2025 issue, this novella is full of great worldbuilding and characters. It’s tightly plotted, weaving together multiple narrative threads and points of view. Rob Dayson is the younger brother of Cabot Dayson, a senator killed in an attack on the Capitol Building over 20 years ago. Rob is now a senator in his own right, hoping to introduce new experimental quantum implants to the population. Kenda is a young woman caring for her younger sister Caity after their mother’s death, forced to live next to a quantum upload center, leaving their apartment haunted by quantum ghosts. Kress does a wonderful job of ramping up the tension across the two parts of the novella, and along with being a satisfying speculative story, the novella does a good job exploring themes such as who has access to technology, the erosion of public trust, misinformation, and conspiracy theories, among others.

Murder on the Eris Express by Beth Goder

It’s hard to resist a locked room mystery set in space, and Beth Goder’s novella, published in Analog Magazine, is an excellent example of the subgenre. Mo is an AI aboard a ship; after an argument with the captain, she wakes to find hours of her memory missing and the captain dead. The four passengers aboard are all suspects with potential motives and secrets they’re trying to hide. Since Mo has always dreamed of being a detective, she’s thrilled at the opportunity, and sets out to solve the case. The story has a fun voice, great characters, and provides a satisfying mystery to boot.

The Chronolithographer’s Assistant by Suzanne Palmer

This novella, published in Asimov’s Magazine, puts a unique spin on the time travel genre. Thomas comes from a family of fishermen, but he’s terrified of the water. Instead of going into the family business, he gets a job as an assistant to a local artist. Mrs. Hammond is eccentric, often says things that make no sense to Thomas, and her age seems to shift occasionally, but he enjoys the work. However, after making his first print of his own, Thomas opens the door to discover winter in the midst of July. Mrs. Hammond reveals that her press causes her entire cottage to travel in time, and they’ve ended up 400 years in the past, before their town even existed. Ultimately, it’s a sweet novella, and there’s a nice arc for several of the character, especially Thomas as he digs into the roots of his fear of water and finds a way to overcome it. Art as a means of time travel is also a fun concept, and overall, it’s a lovely story.

Tell Me Yours, I’ll Tell You Mine by Kristina Ten is the author’s debut short fiction collection, which will be published by Stillhouse Press in October. I’ve been a fan of Kristina’s short fiction for a while, and it was wonderful getting to experience so many stories all together, discovering many for the first time and seeing the thematic threads that connect them. It’s a gorgeous-looking collection as well. The cover and jacket design are by Camille Koslo who did a fantastic job giving it a subtly eerie vibe, which perfectly suits the stories inside.

“The Dizzy Room” was one of the few stories I’d read before, and it pairs nicely with “The Curing”, which immediately follows it in the collection. Both stories explore the uneasy space of childhood and the struggle to define oneself, especially as a child of immigrant parents and an ESL learner. “The Dizzy Room” focuses on the protagonist using language learning games to catch up with the rest of the class, only the Dizzy Game seems intent on teaching her another language entirely, bringing in a nice hint of cosmic horror. “The Curing” follows a group of middle school students who don’t fit into any of the other cliques, who learn to make copies of themselves by applying glue to their skin and then peeling it off when it dries. The copies, which they refer to as spirit people, take on lives of their own, eventually becoming better-liked and smoother versions of the originals, touching on themes of erasing oneself in order to assimilate.

“Approved Methods of Love Divination in the First-Rate City of Dushagorod” carries forward the idea of children’s games, specifically fortune telling devices and counting games that are meant to predict the name of the person you will marry. Ten does a wonderful job of suggesting horror around the edges of the story, with the need to repopulate after a devastating war, and the story’s ending underscoring that darkness even further as Sofia finally learns about her destined mate. “Bunny Ears” is another unsettling story that starts out relatively innocently and leans increasingly into its darkness as it progresses. Hannah’s parents send her to a sleepaway camp for a week where she overhears a story about the bunny-ear kids who were abandoned by their parents, went feral, and still live in the surrounding woods.

Liminality, transformation, and body horror – particularly as it relates to women, standards of beauty, and reproductive rights – are all themes that echo throughout the second half of the collection. “Last Letter First” is a story of two women bonding on an intergalactic bus ride as they travel to get modifications that are illegal on Earth – one to have an abortion and one to have her uterus removed. The story occurs in the liminal space of a bus between the stars, while also centering on a temporary friendship as the women share bits of themselves along the way. Each anticipates an act of transformation at the end of their journey, which will give them a great measure of control over their bodies, though ultimately it is a different act of transformation that occurs.

“Mel for Melissa” is framed as a confessional narrative as Kat writes letters to her therapist that circle around the horror of what happened to her friend Mel when they were in high school. Their volleyball coach obsessively tracked each players’ weight, causing them all to torture themselves with diet and exercise, while re-exerting control over their lives with risky behavior, and cutting and burning themselves, all before Mel takes things to an even greater extreme. The story does a wonderful job in its exploration of trauma, the way women’s bodies are viewed, and the brutality athletes endure for the sake of winning. “The Flood, the Tumble, the Talons, the Trick” blends body horror and fantasy. When a dragon washes up in a man’s basement during a flood, he takes her captive and forces cards beneath her scales in order to cheat his friends during their regular poker games. The story is brutal, but also full of gorgeous writing and striking imagery as it explores the idea of beauty as useful, and women as commodities and property existing for the benefit of others, rather than beings in an of themselves.

“The Advocate” makes a woman’s battle against doctors into a literal joust, with information as her armor, taking on the idea of doctors dismissing women’s pain specifically and not listening to their patients in general. “Adjective” plays with form, using a Mad Libs style narrative to tell the story of an immigrant dealing with microaggressions at work. The format highlights depressing commonalities – anyone could slot in the specifics of their own experience with microaggressions – but there are also character-specific details that make the story personal.

Overall, the collection is lovely and the thought and care put into the order of the stories, considering the way they speak to each other, shines through. The exploration of liminal states and liminal spaces is effective, and it resonates in the characters, themes, settings, and tone. There’s a perfect blend of literary and speculative fiction across the tales, and Ten does a wonderful job of pacing, adding new depth and layers of darkness as each story unfolds, making the stories themselves into shifting things that transform even as the reader experiences them. Similarly, the characters populating the stories are people who don’t fit in, kids of immigrant families who don’t belong fully to either world, and pre-teens who are between ages, all making choices to control their own destiny but often in eerie and unsettling ways that set them further apart from those around them. This is definitely a collection to put on your radar. Keep an eye out for it when it comes out in October, or better yet, pre-order it now.

Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology edited by Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett, and Craig Laurance Gidney will be published by Essential Dreams Press in July 2025. The anthology includes all original fiction, and as the name implies, each story is inspired by the work of Tanith Lee. Also included are an introduction and afterword, sharing personal stories about Tanith Lee. As part of their bios, each author also includes a bit about their connection to Lee’s work, adding further context and emotional resonance to the stories.

Overall, it’s a strong anthology, with a nice mix of fantasy, science fiction, and dreamy slip-stream stories that cross genres. A few stood out as favorites, and are highlighted here.

“Makers” by C.L. Hellisen gets the anthology off to a good start with a fairytale-like piece full of visceral descriptions. Ru can breathe life into the creations they make out of clay and dirt, a magic which is forbidden. They are sent to a nunnery as a servant, where they meet Olen, falling for her. They also meet the bear god, who challenges them to live their truth, inspiring them to travel to make a new life for themself. The story nicely inverts some expected tropes as it looks at different kinds of courage and the idea of destiny.

“On Her Head a Crown of Stars” by Rocio Rincon Fernandez is a surreal story about a woman whose friend turns into a living saint after an encounter with a unicorn and is sent out to fight a monster, which she then tries to befriend. The story captures a great voice, and is full of striking imagery.

“Data Ghost” by Martha Wells is one of the more science fictional pieces in the anthology. After encountering a ghost station, Deni’s two crew mates are lured away by a mysterious signal, necessitating a rescue. The implant in their head, which their family forced on them, protects them, ultimately leading them to re-evaluate their uneasy relationship with the technology. There are some nice touches of horror alongside the science fiction, making for an atmospheric and effectively eerie story.

“Moons Over Sea” by C.S.E. Cooney features the author’s typical gorgeous prose and distinctive voice. Five foundling children set out to discover the truth about their various birth parents with their adoptive mothers’ blessings. Embrae, the only sister among the group, knows she is born of a sea demon – one who has always refused to have anything to do with her. Instead of seeking her own answers, she decides to secretly help her brothers on their quests. The literally cheeky ending works well, and the humor pairs nicely with a touching depiction of chosen family and love.

“Zugunruhe” by KT Wagner is another visceral story that takes inspiration from fairy tales. Branta and several of her flock have had their skins stolen, trapping them in human form in a tower where they are experimented on by a group of humans who seem to be seeking a cure for an unknown illness. While imprisoned, she develops a relationship with a man she believes to be a fellow prisoner, ultimately learning he is affiliated with her captors. The post-apocalyptic setting adds a new dimension to the fairy tale narrative, and the story does a good job of exploring complicated relationships, love, trust, loyalty, and grief.

“Death Valley ’71” by Amelia Mangan explores the classic triad of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, opening with the narrator meeting a girl in prison who believes her boyfriend is a kind of prophet-like figure with access to alternate dimensions. She tells the narrator about a phone booth in a desert where voices from that other plane can be heard. When the narrator meets up with a rock star of her own, they burn bright across the desert and find the phone booth. After a drug overdose, she ultimately sacrifices him in an attempt to access that other dimension and its gods. There are nice hints of cosmic horror threaded throughout this one, and the language and imagery are striking.

Roll for Love by M.K. England is a charming YA romance that celebrates queer, nerdy joy, friendship, and centers on characters finding themselves and finding their community. Following her grandfather’s death, Harper and her mother move into his house, where Harper spent her summers growing up, learning carpentry and woodworking in her grandfather’s workshop, and crushing hard on Ollie, the girl next door. Now in her senior year, coming back to Clintville feels very different. Harper is leaving behind a group of friends in Portland, and her relationship with her mother is strained. Her mother has all but shut down in her grief after losing her father, and barely talks to Harper other than to insist that she attend a four-year-college, which is not in Harper’s plans. Despite fearing that her senior year will be terrible, Harper reconnects with Ollie, and along with her friends, who are all queer and nerdy as well, forms a D&D group. They begin fixing up Harper’s grandfather’s barn together, dubbing it the Gay Barn, and Harper plans for her future with trade classes and launching her own business.

England does a wonderful job of balancing warmth and joy with just the right amount of angst and conflict, and keeps everything rooted in the characters, so the stakes are grounded and personal. The chapters alternate between Ollie and Harper’s viewpoints as they sort through their feelings for each other, and try to figure out their places in the world. Ollie isn’t entirely comfortable being out as bi in Clintville, and feels a pull between the traditional life that she feels is expected of her, and wanting to be part of a thriving, queer community. Harper sees room for both, and tries to help Ollie in her journey without pressuring her, while also trying to prove to her mother that a traditional four-year-college is not the only viable path to a successful career.

While the relationships get messy and complicated, the characters communicate with each other honestly, and there’s a focus on talking things out and being respectful and supportive. While D&D is a large part of the story, a deep knowledge of the game isn’t required in order to enjoy the book. Again, the story is largely character driven, and the characters themselves are compelling and easy to root for – people you want to see find success and happiness. There are fun nods for people who are D&D fans, and I personally appreciated the focus on wild magic in the campaign itself, and all the chaos that can ensue from that.

Overall, it’s a fun read, sweet and joyful without being saccharine. It’s emotional, but in a cathartic way, and it provides a nice counterbalance to the current news cycle and the general grim state of the world.

Will This Be a Problem? is an anthology series and magazine dedicated to publishing a wide range of speculative fiction by African and African diaspora writers. Will This Be a Problem? The Anthology Issue V is edited by Somto Ihezue and Olivia Kidula and features stunning cover art by Peter Marco. The editors were kind enough to send me a review copy.

Overall, this is a strong anthology. The worldbuilding and characters in the first few stories felt rich and layered. Many of them felt like fragments of larger works, but were still satisfying in and of themselves. Throughout the anthology, there were a handful of stories that stood out, which I want to highlight.

“The Market of Memories” by Azara Tswanya effectively explores class and the allocation of resources. The technology to potentially cure Alzheimer’s is developed, however it ends up being used to harvest memories from the economically disadvantaged to sell to bored rich people. The story is poignant and the characters well-rounded and relatable.

“Acceptance” by Khaya Maseko is a lyrical and poetic piece with a fluid voice and sense of time that examines the idea of revolution and violent resistance as the only solution to increasingly oppressive systems that target vulnerable populations.

In a similar vein, “The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin” by Shingai Kagunda is evocative in its look at the ongoing effects of colonization, as leaders are turned against their own people, and those in power continually oppress those below them. As with Maseko’s story, there is a form of revolution and violent resistance, but in this case language is the weapon turned back against the oppressors as the main character invites a manifestation evil into herself and learns to control it.

“Mr. Original Swag” by Victor Forna has a great voice and features a deal with the devil scenario as the narrator warns against trusting Mr. Swag, recounting his own experience, then shifting the narrative to reveal that all is not as it seems.

“Why Donkeys Have 44 Teeth” by Peter Nena closes out the anthology on a pleasantly creepy note. A young boy named Jack has repeated dreams of a donkey with human-like hands tapping on his window, calling to him to come out and play. Children in his neighborhood have disappeared, and thanks to his sister urging him to consider why donkeys have so many teeth if they are herbivores, he becomes convinced that his dream isn’t a dream and that the donkey is to blame. The story is full of visceral imagery, and there’s a sense of deeper mythology behind the tale that works quite well.

Often times with short fiction, I feel even more like I’m just scratching the surface when it comes to a given year. That may just be my imagination, but each issue, collection, and anthology I miss contains multiple stories, and new venues for short fiction are popping up all the time. No matter how valiantly I try, I just can’t read it all. That said, here are some of the short stories and novelettes that stood out to me the most from what I did read this year.

Early Adopter by Zack Be published in the January/February issue of Asimov’s is a bittersweet exploration of how technology isn’t a magic solution and sometimes may only make existing problems worse.

Shadow Films by Ben Peek published in the January issue of Lightspeed is a subtly eerie novelette about a man who receives mysterious scripts in the mail, leading him to believe he may be part of a dangerous conspiracy.

Nothing of Value by Aimee Ogden published in the January issue of Clarkesworld is a heartbreaking story that looks at the Ship of Theseus thought experiment as the main character travels back home to visit an old lover after a years using skip technology, which creates a copy and destroys the original, and while memories can be reintegrated, it’s also possible to leave memories behind.

The Handmaiden Alchemist by Marie Vibbert published in the January/February issue of Analog is an excellent story seething with quiet rage as Margot pursues her interest in alchemy, while fending off a creepy would-be suitor, despite it not being a suitable interest for a young lady in the 16th century.

The Blue Glow by Lisa Hosokawa published in khōréō is a gorgeous and painful story of a young suicide bomber returning to his deeply haunted village after his bomb fails to detonate.

Do Houses Dream of Scraping the Sky by Jana Bianchi published in the January/February issue of Uncanny is a beautifully written story of grief and healing as a grandchild packs up their grandmother’s house after her death and finds the house in mourning too.

Buddy Raymond’s No-Bullshit Guide to Drone Hunting by Gillian Secord published in Diabolical Plots is set in a near-future where the US is at war with Canada and drones regularly hunt folks down, unless you follow Buddy’s handy pamphlet for staying alive. The story adopts a light, folksy tone and packs an emotional gut punch, all in just a few thousand words.

Turtles to the Sea by Sandra McDonald published in the March/April issue of Asimov’s is a novelette that tells the intertwined stories of several members of a single family over multiple years, whose lives are inextricably linked with time travel and the sea.

Just You and Me Now by KT Bryski published in the February issue of Apex is a tense and unsettling story about a boy forced to go on a camping trip whose family members begin disappearing one by one after a stranger shows up at their campsite.

The Man in the Moon is a Lady by Ian Baaske published in the March/April issue of Asimov’s is a novelette with a strong voice that interweaves multiple story threads to create a dream-like tale of a lone female astronomer surrounded by male colleagues who invents a device that allows her to observe intelligent life on the moon.

There’s Nothing in the Attic by Faith Merino published in the March/April issue of Asimov’s is a satisfying time-loop story that draws on elements of the Gothic as the women in a family become convinced their house is haunted and use quantum science to prove their theory right, while the man of the house grows increasingly paranoid and controlling as a result.

A Brief Oral History of El Zopilote Dock by Alaya Dawn Johnson published in the March issue of Clarkesworld is a novelette set in a frighteningly plausible near-future Texas where the prison system has essentially brought back slavery, centering on two women helping folks to escape along the Underground River.

Swarm C1048 – Ethological Field Report: Canus Lupus Familiaris “6” by F.E. Choe published in he March issue of Clarkesworld is a brief gut-punch of a story, told from the perspective of collective alien swarm observing a post-collapse Earth, and coming upon a litter of puppies, one of which they become particularly attached to and follow throughout her life.

Median by Kelly Robson published at Reactor is a tense story of a woman stranded on a highway median, who begins receiving strange phone calls begging her for help even as she fails to find anyone willing to help her out of her own terrifying situation.

First Girls by Jessica Luke García published in the March issue of Nightmare is an effective flash piece that interrogates the function and stereotypes filled by the first girls to die in a slasher tale.

Our Very Best Selves! by Fatima Taqvi published in the March issue of Nightmare is a dark and unsettling story that does a wonderful job of hinting at horrible things happening just off the page, as a gaslighting and controlling husband brings his wife back to some semblance of life following a car crash.

The Lark Ascending by Eleanna Castroianni published in the April issue of Clarkesworld is a lovely and painful story of a bot left behind when its owner is taken away as a traitor, trying to communicate with its former owner’s daughter.

There are three children jumping over a can outside a bodega by Mark Galarrita published in the April issue of Nightmare is a brief but effective story about an influencer who treats people as commodities for consumption and fodder for his social media feed, with a satisfying dash of cosmic horror at the end.

Blackjack by Veronica Schanoes published at Reactor is a story about complicated family relationships and different flavors of love as Josie finds herself haunted by the ghost of her no-good ex-husband who comes to her asking for help escaping from a demon.

Those Who Smuggle Themselves into Slivermoon by Varsha Dinesh published at Strange Horizons is a gorgeously written novelette about class, access to opportunity, and an economic system designed to uphold the status quo where even the basic human right of having a body is reserved for those who can pay.

Twenty-Four Hours by H.H. Pak published in the June issue of Clarkesworld is the heartbreaking story of a mother who codes a virtual version of her deceased daughter so she can spend a last twenty-four hours with her.

Between Home and a House on Fire by A.T. Greenblatt published at Reactor is a novelette that explores the aftermath of a chosen one saving a portal fantasy world, exploring sacrifice and how much is “enough” when the portal fantasy world in question is always in need of saving.

The Maiden Voyage of the Piranha Belle by L.M. Guay published in khōréō is a lushly written story that explores colonizer mentality and the kind of rich asshole tourists who view the entire world as existing only to entertain them.

doorbell dot mov by Jennifer R. Donohue published in The Deadlands effectively explores survivor’s guilt in an eerie story of a protagonist plagued the ghost of their friends, who died in a car crash on the way back from a concert they were also supposed to attend.

Flipped by Leah Cypess published in the July/August issue of Asimov’s is an effective parallel world story, centering on Becka who finds herself dating the hottest boy in her class who has slipped over from an alternate universe where they’re together, but soon finds herself worrying that Jake is trying to turn her into that other version of herself.

Joanna’s Bodies by Eugenia Triantafyllou published by Psychopomp is a novelette exploring guilt and toxic relationships as Eleni finds herself forced to constantly find new bodies for her best friend Joanna to inhabit (and use up) after accidentally summoning her back from the dead.

The Fisherman’s Wife’s Son by Matthew Finn published in the March issue of Bourbon Penn is a surreal and twisty story about a man with prehensile, squid-like genitals, who is pursued by sinister doctors who claim to want to help him, while his reclusive neighbor writes manga about him that imagines him as a superhero, with art and life imitating and informing each other.

The Best Version of Yourself by Grant Collier published in the July issue of Clarkesworld is a lovely and bittersweet novelette that explores the concept of happiness and what it means to be human as a woman who refuses to augment her brain with nanites that can alter a person’s mood and make it so they never have to feel pain grapples with her mother’s decision to do so.

All Her Rows of Teeth by Jordan Kurella published in 3-Lobed Burning Eye is a story with a strong voice, following Caleb through his toxic relationship with his friend Allyssandra, who once again puts him in the path of danger when she decides to go hunting for the Vice Shark, a mythical creature that feeds on hedonism, but grants any wish if you can catch it.

Painted Surfaces by Guan Un published in the August issue of Nightmare is a flash piece about a man who discovers his wife is a monster, and decides he’s perfectly willing to stay silent regarding her appetites, therefore making himself complicit in her crimes.

Cicadas, and Their Skins by Avra Margariti published at Strange Horizons is a gorgeous and bloody story of transformation as a young woman who everyone in the village believes to be a witch teaches the other teenagers in the village how to slip out of their skins and become animals for a while.

The Five Rules of Spirit Binding by Sunil the Undying (Edited by Farah, Age 13) by M. Banerjee-Sholars published in Augur 7.1 is a lovely story about loss and healing, as Farah discovers a treatise on summoning spirits, but takes a compassionate approach both to the Yaksha she accidentally summons and the original author of the text.

Broken by Laura Williams McCaffery published in the September issue of Clarkesworld effectively uses reverse chronology to unfold the story of a woman whose life is not at all what she believes it to be.

Wiremother by Laura Mauro published in the September issue of The Dark evokes the story of Rapunzel in moody piece about Helena, who lives alone in a crumbling house with a nightmarish creature of wires and sharp angles and glass that has taken on the role of her mother and insists on isolating her and controlling her every move all in the supposed name of love.

High Performer by Jason Pangalinan published in khōréō is a fun story with a light voice and a serious, underlying exploration of identity, free will, and how we perceive ourselves versus how others perceive us, as Peace encounters Leon, who transforms into whatever someone wishes for in his presence, while kicking a rock and wishing she could kick her laptop instead.

The Circumambulation by James Van Pelt published in the September/October issue of Analog is an effective alien invasion story, which keeps the alien invasion in the background and centers on a couple caught in a crumbling marriage as the world falls apart around them.

The V*mpire by P.H. Lee published at Reactor is a brutal look at toxic online culture. Alex is coming to terms with being a trans girl, trying to explore her identity in the safe space of a tumblr fan group, but she falls under the sway of a vampire who accuses her of vampophobia, growing increasingly abusive and manipulative as he isolates her from her friends and eventually murders her mother, all while convincing her she is the horrible and hateful one and that everything happening to and around her is her fault.

Because Flora Had Existed. And Because I Had Loved Her by Anna Martino published at Samovar is a lovely and twisty story about a man unmoored in time, who must constantly redefine his relationship to the woman he loves as he encounters her at different points along her timeline.

The Slide by Oliver Stifel published in the November issue of Clarkesworld is a visceral story of a rally racer who is being pressured to win the World Cup, which examines government propaganda and the cost of war.

The House That Stands Over Your Grave by Kyle Piper published by Pseudopod manages to be simultaneously tense, creepy, and melancholy, examining guilt, loss, and loneliness as Lew lets the new kid in town convince him to accompany her to the local haunted house.

A Stranger Knocks by Tananarive Due published at Strange Horizons is a novelette that explores the age of silent film, specifically “race pictures” made for Black audiences and starring Black actors. A young couple house-sitting for a friend receive a visit from a compelling stranger who offers them a job driving him to different theaters, realizing only too late that he’s using his films to hypnotize and prey on his audiences.

One Becomes Two by A.D. Sui published in Augur 7.3 is a subtly creepy and atmospheric story about a couple researching a mysterious substance at a remote station in Greenland, which is causing strange behavior in the local wildlife. When one half of the couple shares that they are no longer invested in the marriage, the other proposes an unsettling solution to bring their relationship back in synch.

Climbing the Mountains of Me by Phoebe Barton published in Kaleidotrope is a sweet story about a woman who grows to vast sizes when she allows herself, but who usually tries to keep herself small despite the pain it causes her for fear of being judged by others.

Logoptera by Diana Dima published in Augur 7.3 is a gorgeous and heartbreaking story of a young woman who attends a college where everyone else speaks in wingless words, while her speech manifests as insects. The story is a painful examination of the idea of assimilation and giving up pieces of oneself in order to “fit in” and be accepted.

Spread the Word by Delilah Dawson published at Apex is a chilling and effective story that follows Will as he moves to a new town with his mother, but quickly discovers that the violence that plagued his old life appears to have followed him and is now spreading like an infection.

Pelt by Steven Archer published at Strange Horizons is a gorgeous and heartbreaking story about complicated family relationships and learning to see each other truly, as Louis, who dances under the name Luz, and whose skin occasionally molts – a physical manifestation of his emotional pain, a trait shared by the women in his family – agrees to return home for a visit, despite being estranged from his father and his mother never accepting him.

Sangronas! Un Lista de Terror by M.M. Olivas published in Uncanny is a beautifully written and occasionally brutal story of four girls who are harpy-like creatures, forced to hide their identities and live by certain rules in order to keep themselves safe.

The Painted Skin and the Final Stroke by Zhu Yixuan is a story full of gorgeous and lyrical prose, following two mechanical demons, one of whom asks the other to paint a soul for her so she can live on as a ghost as humans do, the two forming a beautiful relationship and learning to see each other more truly along the way.

A Lullaby of Anguish by Marie Croke published at Apex is a brutal and effective story of two sisters who took photographs of mer-creatures as children, each coping with their guilt in their own way as they are forced to reconcile with the pain they caused now that they are adults.

If This Flesh Were Thought by Matt McHugh published in the November/December issue of Analog is a procedural elevated by charming characters, where Officer Marie Dombroski investigates a murder seemingly carried out by a proxy body alongside a lawyer who uses a robotic proxy body of his own.

Derail by E. Catherine Tobler published in Bourbon Penn is an absolutely gorgeous story set in the author’s circus universe about loving someone you know you’ll have to say goodbye to, learning to let go, and learning to believe in the impossible.

Season of Weddings by Sharang Biswas published in Lightspeed is a charming story about Nate (aka Thanatos, god of death) trying to get over his ex, Thor, as he attends a series of weddings and carries out his work of ushering souls to the afterlife.

The Last Life of a Time-Traveling Cat by A.P. Golub published in Zooscape is a brief but heartbreaking story about a cat traveling through time to reunite with the revolutionary who rescued him as a kitten.

Once again, it feels like I’m only scratching the surface with this list, but I hope it helps you find something new-to-you to read and love!