Favorite Short Speculative Fiction of 2025

Here is a list of the top short fiction collections I read this year. Some are newly published; some are just new to me.

Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha

 If you like eerie fiction that mixes science fiction or fantasy with weird twists or horror elements, if you like themes involving family and memory, power and dread and meaning, you’ll love Thomas Ha’s new short story collection as much as I did. Standouts include:

• “The Sort,” about a father trying to keep his telepathic son safe from those who have labeled him different;
• “Window Boy,” about a child learning to follow his parent’s footsteps –closing off his heart and turning away a friend in need — to survive in a dark world with monsters;
• “Where Old Travelers Go,” a classic yarn about a cranky, busy-body neighbor who goes up against an old, ancient evil; and
• “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video,” which ruminates on how stories with complicated, unsatisfying, and messy endings stick with you far longer specifically because of their lack of tidiness.

Of all the writers I discovered this year, Ha is my new favorite.

The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans

This book is so good that after I finished reading it, I immediately turned to the beginning and started again, this time with a pen to underline my favorite sections. It’s one of those unicorn collections that manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking, at one moment sarcastic, then sexy, then painful, then profound. 

The title novella takes place in an alternative version of our present day when, faced with a crisis of truth after years of “fake news,” a government department is tasked with correcting inaccurate historical records.

But my favorite of all was the short story Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain, about an off-the-rails wedding weekend and an unexpected friendship that forms between two rival women – a story about loss, broken relationships and how sometimes the most dangerous man you know is the one you trust most.

The Best Weird Fiction of the Year curated by Michael Kelly

I usually try to read at least one ‘best of’ collection each year and I’m glad I shook things up this time by reaching for this inaugural volume of weird fiction instead of my usual fantasy or science fiction.

Perhaps it’s the surreal moment we are all living through, but there’s something about the wild, untidy nature of this genre that reflects my own feelings of unease and delivers a certain catharsis in exploring worlds where the ordinary is bizarre and the bizarre ordinary.  

The Impossible Resurrection of Grief by Octavia Cade

This short novella is set in the near future amid ecological collapse. In it, a scientist investigates The Grief, a depression caused by the loss of the natural world, after the deadly disease claims a friend. The prose was beautiful and haunting, and the story raised so many important questions about the future we face.