2024 Recommended Short Stories
I tried to read a wide variety of science fiction and horror stories last year (with a fairy-dust sprinkling of fantasy), but of course I never have nearly as much time as I’d like. These are stories I read in 2024 and had the presence of mind to put in a spreadsheet called “Recommended.” It seems I was drawn to end of the world themes (I wonder why…), transformations, and interesting worldbuilding in epistolary and found formats. I’ve tried to mark these with genres, though some exist in the margins (SF = sci-fi, H = horror, F = fantasy). In no particular order, here are some things that excited or delighted my brain…
“A Move to a New Country” by Dan Musgrave (Reckoning 8, SF)
https://reckoning.press/a-move-to-a-new-country/
*see footnotes for Osage pronunciations“Your Posh Revelries Will be Claimed by My Currents” by Michael Boulerice (Cosmic Horror Monthly #47, H)
https://cosmichorrormonthly.com/store/issue-47/“After Stasis” by R.T. Ester (IZ Digital, SF)
https://interzone.digital/after-stasis/“Pig House” by Kay Vaindal (Seize the Press issue 9, SF)
https://www.seizethepress.com/2024/02/10/pig-house-stp9/“The Tomb of the Forgotten Soldier” by Mwanabibi Sikamo (FIYAH #31: Disability issue, F)
https://fiyahlitmag.com/issues/issue-31-disability/“The Tangle (Did Not Kill Kitsault)” by K. A. Wiggins (Strange Horizons, July 2024, H)
http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-tangle-did-not-kill-kitsault/“The Blind Cannot Judge Me, For They Cannot See I’m Good Inside” by Rain Corbyn (Skull & Laurel issue 1, H)
https://store.tenebrousprsess.com/products/the-skull-laurel-issue-001-print“Halogen Sky” by Wendy N. Wagner (Apex, Oct 17 2024, H)
https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-magazine/post/halogen-sky“A Theory of Missing Affections” by Renan Bernardo (Clarkesworld #216, SF)
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/bernardo_09_24/“Last Landing” by Ende Mac (Fusion Fragment no. 20, SF)
https://www.fusionfragment.com/issue-20/“Let Her Collect Stamps” by Juniper White (Apex, Dec 2024, F)
https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-magazine/post/issue-147“To the Wolves” by Sasha Brown (Weird Horror, Fall 2024, H)
https://www.weirdhorrormagazine.com/to-the-wolves“This is How We Stay Alive” by L. Chan (Metaphorosis, Jan-Mar 2024, SF)
https://magazine.metaphorosis.com/story/2024/this-is-how-we-stay-alive-l-chan/“Dream Logs After One End of the World” by Jennifer Jeanne McArdle (Cosmorama, June 2024, SF)
https://cosmorama.site/fiction/dream-logs-after-one-end-of-the-world“The Complete Expiration Records of Nebu Inc. Colony KE-4–01” by Noah Lemelson (Interzone #300, SF)
https://interzone.press/iz-300/“Momentary Brightness” by Robert Helfst (Gamut, issue 10, H)
https://houseofgamut.com/gamut-magazine/momentary-brightness/“Level One: Blowtorch” by Jared Oliver Adams (Diabolical Plots #109A, SF)
https://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-109a-level-one-blowtorch-by-jared-oliver-adams/“The Abandoned” by Jack Klausner (The Dark, June 2024)
https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/the-abandoned/“After Angels” By Richard Ford Burley (Haven Spec, December 2023, SF/F)
https://www.havenspec.com/after-angels“Dualhaven” by C.H. Pearce (The Off-season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird, H)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-off-season-marissa-van-uden/1146449352“Imaginary Playthings: Culpability and The Real in Derelict Games” by Joe Koch (Cursed Morsels: Film Reviews, H)
https://www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/zinebundle1digital/22?cs=true&cst=custom“Rest for the Weary” by Camden Rose (Decapitate vol. 1, F/H)
https://www.thirdestateart.org/decap-volume-one/camden-rose“This Place Will be the Death of Us” by Joelle Killian (Cosmic Horror Monthly #52, H)
https://cosmichorrormonthly.com/store/issue-52/“Rise of the Hive” by Lex Chamberlin (RADON issue 8, SF)
https://www.radonjournal.com/issue8/rise-of-the-hive“Boundless Senior Living Employee Script: Family Visitation” by Elis Montgomery (Cursed Morsels: Tech Bro Terrors, SF/H)
https://www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/cursed-morsels-zine-bundle-issues-6-10-digital/30?cs=true&cst=custom“What Things We Find in the Forest” by Abigail Kemske (The Dark, December 2024, H)
https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/what-things-we-find-in-the-forest/“This Little War of Ours” by Arden Baker (Escape Pod #959)
https://escapepod.org/2024/09/19/escape-pod-959-this-little-war-of-ours/#more-15060“The Look of Seconds” by Melissa Ren (WYLDBLOOD, July 2024, SF)
https://wyldblood.com/the-look-of-seconds/“The Case of the Worm at the Silent Disco” by A.D. Sui (Shortwave Magazine, SF)
https://shortwavepublishing.com/magazine/the-case-of-the-worm-at-the-silent-disco-a-short-story-by-a-d-sui/“Scatter” by Caleb Weinhardt (Broken Antler #4, H)
https://www.brokenantlermag.com/issue-four-fiction/scatter-by-caleb-weinhardt“Auxiliary, Supplementary, Inessential” by Christi Nogle (Apex, August 2024, SF)
https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-magazine/post/auxiliary-supplementary-inessential“Taken In” by Ria Hill (Fraidy Cat Quarterly no. 2, H)
https://fraidycatpress.com/product/fraidy-cat-quarterly-volume-2-preorder-includes-ebook/“Where the Water Came From” by Jeff Hewitt (Reckoning 8)
https://reckoning.press/where-the-water-came-from/“Cost of Living” by Cormack Baldwin (Cursed Morsels: Landlord Lairs, H)
https://www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/zinebundle1digital/22?cs=true&cst=custom“In the Museum of Unseen Places” by Marsh Hlavka (Kaleidotrope, SF)
https://kaleidotrope.net/archives-2/spring-2024/in-the-museum-of-unseen-places-by-marsh-hlavka/“Any Good Sacrifice” by C. J. Subko (Small Wonders, Nov 2024, F)
https://smallwondersmag.com/piece/any-good-sacrifice/“We Are Not Yet Healed” by Avra Margariti (The Off-season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird, H)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-off-season-marissa-van-uden/1146449352“The Four Bill Club” by Donald McCarthy (MYTHAXIS issue 35, SF)
https://mythaxis.co.uk/issue-35/the-four-bill-club.html“Fragments of Maeve” by Miel MacRae (Archive of the Odd, issue 4, F)
https://archiveoftheodd.bigcartel.com/product/physical-archive-of-the-odd-issue-4-please-see-attached“Hapax Lizardman” by JD DeLuzio (Flash Point SF, May 17, 2024, SF)
https://flashpointsf.com/2024/05/17/hapax-lizardman/“Cartesiana” by Abigail Guerrero (Skull & Laurel issue 1, SF/H)
https://store.tenebrousprsess.com/products/the-skull-laurel-issue-001-print“Crossroads Diner Blues, 1937” by Myna Chang (Centaur, Summer 2024)
https://centaurlit.com/crossroads-diner-blues-1937-by-myna-chang/“Limerence” by Samir Sirk Morató (Flash Fiction Online, March 2024, F/H)
https://www.flashfictiononline.com/article/limerence/“Whatever It Brought in Tow” by Daniel David Froid (King Ludd’s Rag 18)
https://malarkeybooks.com/store/klr18-19“What Is Conjured Shall Vanish” by Akis Linardos (Apex, July 2024, F)
https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-magazine/post/what-is-conjured-shall-vanish“In the Year 2067 I Will Be 95 Years Old” by Sage Tyrtle (Reckoning, issue 8, SF)
https://reckoning.press/in-the-year-2067-i-will-be-95-years-old/“The Eternal Torch” by Jonathan Olfert (Translunar Travelers Lounge, F)
https://translunartravelerslounge.com/2024/02/15/the-eternal-torch-by-jonathan-olfert/“Richard Nixon and the Princess of the Crows” by P.H. Lee (Lightspeed, May 2024, F)
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/richard-nixon-and-the-princess-of-the-crows/“Purification” by Andrew Kozma (ergot., March 2024)
https://www.ergot.press/authors/Andrew_Kozma/Purification“To Rise Again” by Kelsea Yu (Apex, June 25, 2024, SF/F)
https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-magazine/post/to-rise-again“Claim the Dead” by Avi Burton (Kaleidotrope, Winter 2024, H)
https://kaleidotrope.net/winter-2024/claim-the-dead-by-avi-burton/“Sixling” by Xian Mao (Rattus Futura, SF)
https://payhip.com/b/BqLW3“In the Dim Before Dawn” by Arwyn Sherman (Rattus Futura, SF)
https://payhip.com/b/BqLW3“The World Ended There” by Alberto Chimal, translated by Julia Rios (Why Didn’t You Just Leave? H)
https://www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/why-didn-t-you-just-leave-ebook/26?cs=true&cst=custom“Anagen” by Rhiannon Rasmussen (Why Didn’t You Just Leave? H)
https://www.cursedmorselspress.com/product/why-didn-t-you-just-leave-ebook/26?cs=true&cst=custom
*Notes: There are of course more stories I enjoyed, which were doomed by circumstance and ADHD to not make it into Excel. Some authors ended up on my spreadsheet multiple times, but the list was getting unwieldy for one blog post (SO much good stuff out there these days!), so I picked one story from each in those cases. Thank you reading!
