Introduction "Crisis Actors," co-authored by Maddison Stoff and Corey Jae White and published in Strange Horizons in January 2025, represents a significant entry in contemporary speculative fiction's engagement with surveillance…
Strange Horizons, 20 January 2025 In a dystopian near-future America, the Department for a Safe America employs “Watchers” who monitor surveillance feeds across the country, flagging suspicious activity to law…
Introduction In The Dream Hotel (2025), Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami delivers a chillingly prescient exploration of the intersection between technology, state surveillance, and the human subconscious. Building on her…
Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi is a noir detective novel set in a French colonial city in West Africa during the dry Harmattan season. Plot Overview Boubacar, a down-on-his-luck "chercher"…
Introduction Thomas Ha's "The Patron," published in The Sunday Morning Transport in March 2025, represents a significant contribution to contemporary speculative fiction's exploration of technological mediation in human relationships. Ha,…
The Sunday Morning Transport, March 2025 Thomas Ha’s “The Patron” presents a haunting exploration of commodified human connection through a gig economy service called “the program,” where people hire others…
Nightmare Magazine, May 2025 Nadia suffers from a severe bedbug infestation in her duplex apartment, but despite months of searching, she cannot find a single specimen to show her landlord…
Nightmare Magazine, August 2025 Hannah Gessen, a thirteen-year-old only child, arrives at Colden Hills Music Camp feeling out of place and unwanted. The camp is poorly maintained, mosquito-infested, and surprisingly…
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, September 2025, Issue #443 This metafictional fantasy story follows an unnamed book thief who infiltrates the legendary Goblin Library in the city of Palmary on a dangerous…
Introduction Erin Brown’s “Garden of the Bloodpotter,” published in Psychopomp Magazine in September 2025, represents a significant contribution to contemporary dark fantasy literature, particularly within the tradition of feminist revisionist…