I’ve spent a bit of this month traveling and a bit snowed in with the kids, so my short fiction reading has been a little down from my usual. Does that mean I have nothing to recommend? (I always ask this, and the answer is always “no”). It may be a light round-up, but the highs are extremely high.

Short Fiction

This month, it’s literally all favorites. Is that because I’ve lost all my powers of discernment? No (hopefully). I read lots of stories this month, it’s just that my favorites were disproportionately slanted toward the miscellany over my regular magazine reading. There are lots of others I liked in my Clarkesworld/GigaNotoSaurus review and my Magazine Minis, plus Dan Peacock’s “Take Flight” that’s definitely worth counting among the favorites.

January Favorites

• Story Kit (2011 short story) by Kij Johnson. I’ve got a soft spot for experimental formats designed to delve into difficult emotions (have I recommended “Day Ten Thousand” lately?), and “Story Kit” is exactly that, a metafictional exploration of an author trying over and over again to process feelings of anger and betrayal through storytelling. The author named this as one of her own most underrated stories, and I can see why she thought so highly of it.
• The Patron (2025 short story) by Thomas Ha. Thomas Ha wrote a weird, creepy parenthood story. Try to contain your shock. Equally unsurprising? It’s really good. This one leans a bit harder into the ambiguity than I prefer, but the vibes of someone hired to pretend to be a father? And who begins to develop genuine affection for the child? But isn’t quite sure who hired him? It’s unsettling and engrossing.
• The Soundtrack of My Afterlife (2026 novelette) by P.A. Cornell. This is the centerpiece of the debut issue of Adventitious (releases February 1, 2026), and I can see why. It’s a touching story of growing up, told from the perspective of the ghost inhabiting the red Mustang that watches their charge go from child to teenager to full-grown adult–and never stops being opinionated about where to set the radio dial. It’s a story made up of a series of moments in a life rather than anything with a true driving plot arc, but the moments are wonderfully portrayed and come together for a powerful ending.

Novels and Novellas

Reviews Posted

• The Dream Hotel (2025 novel) by Laila Lalami. I don’t often read speculative litfic, but this one is just about perfect, both for the way it explores the implications of an algorithm-driven justice system and the way it delves into the psychology of a woman caught in the system with no clear path to escape. My favorite 2025 publication by a wide margin.
• We Who Are About To. . . (1977 novel) by Joanna Russ. A feminist subversion of Golden Age sci-fi, this has some tremendous passages but may have been sharper with a little trimming.
• The Raven Scholar (2025 novel) by Antonia Hodgson. The opening of an epic fantasy trilogy that feels inspired less by Tolkien and more by dystopian death game novels. It’s a wild ride that can be a ton of fun if you’re willing to not look too closely at certain elements.
• Sublimation (2026 novel) by Isabel J. Kim. My most-anticipated novel of 2026 does some fantastic work exploring the complicated collection of might-have-beens in the wake of immigration. And if it’s all tied in with a technothriller? Well, it’s still well worth the read.
• The Dark Is Rising (1973 novel) by Susan Cooper. A classic middle-grade fantasy tale that’s quite simplistic from a plot perspective but gets by on outstanding atmosphere.

Other January Reads

• Tress of the Emerald Sea (2023 novel) by Brandon Sanderson. It’s Sanderson doing The Princess Bride, with a whimsical adventure narrative that still manages to delve into a magic system and tie in to the Cosmere. Very different than his usual, and a lot of fun. Full review to come.
• The Cellar Below the Cellar (2026 novella) by Ivy Grimes. A tale that’s difficult to categorize, marketed both as folk horror (though it’s scarier for the characters than the reader) and an adult coming-of-age. Ultimately, it’s a small-scale story of a woman sorting through an apocalyptic event while living with a grandmother who seems to already know all about it. Intriguing, to say the least. Full review to come.
• Daughter of the Forest (1999 novel) by Juliet Marillier. A fantasy romance that’s also a fairy-tale retelling, and despite neither of those being at all within my wheelhouse, I was utterly engrossed. Full review to come.
• Outlaw Planet (2025 novel) by M.R. Carey. A Civil War/Western/zombie(?) story? Again, not at all within my wheelhouse, though there’s an overarching sci-fi plot that I did find compelling. It’s far from my usual, but plenty entertaining nonetheless. Full review to come.