Books Short Fiction Spotlight Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: July 2025 Stories about loss, love, and about getting back at the assholes who hurt you… By Alex Brown | Published on August 14, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Stories about loss, stories about love, stories about finding someone who understands you, stories about getting back at the assholes who hurt you. My ten favorite short science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories I read in July were all of these things and then some. “The Directorial Eye” by Aliya Whiteley Gilda is a lonely woman with an unquenchable love of classic cinema. One day while watching something in bed, one eye goes blurry and she discovers an uncanny ability to control the actress on her screen. If she can’t make her real life exciting, she’ll make the woman on the screen live out all her wildest dreams. The phenomenon that inspired this story is real: Transient Smartphone Blindness. Basically, you get it by looking at a bright screen in a dark room after a long period of time, but it’s especially noticeable if you, like the protagonist, are lying on your side with one eye blocked by your pillow. I’ve had it a few times and it’s disorienting, although I never saw strange figures in my blurry eye. (Bourbon Penn—July 2025; issue 36) “Dybbuk-Draw” by Devan Barlow Antonia has worked long and hard to earn her new position as Curator for the prestigious Founders Collection at Herilvion Academy. Rumors swirl around the paintings, created by famed artist Jean Herilvion, but when Antonia discovers how he painted his masterpieces and what happened to the muses who inspired them, her ability to help dybbuks cross over becomes unexpectedly useful. An angry, vengeful story, Devan Barlow gives voice to everyone who has been exploited by someone more powerful. It feels especially relevant in a climate where mediocrity has pulled itself onto a pedestal made out of the hard work of others far more talented. (Kaleidotrope—Summer 2025) “Everlasting” by Daniel Oluremi Before they were born, Ọlájídé’s siblings all died before they could make it out of childhood. After she was born, her mother had a ritual performed to keep her alive six times. Over the years, Ọlájídé faced death and walked away, but now Death is ready to collect. A story brimming with sorrow and joy. Death comes for us all. Hopefully when it’s your time, you can look back and know you didn’t take your life for granted. (The Deadlands—Summer 2025; issue 39) “The Final Parting” by Simina Lungu A married couple comes to Dahlia’s shop for help. They want her to contact their dead son. During their consultation appointment, Dahlia listens to the story of how their son died and what their all-consuming grief has done to them since. Just when you think you know how this story will play out, Simina Lungu tosses in a twist that reframes the entire thing. This will tug on your heartstrings and make you want to hug your loved ones. (Perseid Prophecies—Summer 2025; issue 6) “For the Pursuit of the Better” by Chey Rivera “Karaya was eleven-years-old when Baba fused a small metal cage into her skull. He said this would give her the mind of a god, because the cage contained an imprisoned god inside it.” Karaya and Kachi are siblings raised by their father to survive at all costs and protect their homeland against all odds. In spite of everything he did to his children, they came out of it with a better understanding of the world and their place in it. An intriguing, complex story of a pair of siblings who just want to be seen. (Heartlines Spec—Summer 2025; issue 8) “The Fridged Wives Book Club” by Carol Scheina Ever wonder what happens to all those women fridged so a man can have an emotional arc? They come to on “a far-off corner of blank, white-page emptiness” and call themselves the Fridged Wives Book Club. They keep busy while seething over their husbands, who have moved onto other women without a second thought. Our narrator in this funny little first person flash is determined not to waste her story on some careless man. (Flashpoint SF—July 25, 2025) “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells Although this novelette doesn’t directly feature our favorite killer construct, Murderbot’s previous interactions with ART—aka Asshole Research Transport, aka the construct driving the spaceship Perihelion—forms the basis of the plot. It’s set between books 2 and 3, Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol, meaning that while a new reader can enjoy the story, those who have already read that far into the series will get the most out of it. The plot is fairly simple. The crew of Perihelion are transporting folks searching for something on a space station that has recently been taken over in a hostile corporate coup. It’s a new Murderbot Diaries short story; what else do you need to know? (Reactor—July 10, 2025) “Scrimshaw” by Stephen James Author Stephen James is an archaeologist, and that profession is reimagined in this neat story. Our protagonist excavates the ruins of a suburban home, a building that has become “just another skeleton with bones bleached pure by the Great God-Sun, its roof had, at some point in time lost to history, collapsed, struts and floorboards rotted like a cavity, insides decayed to dust under His unflinching glare.” She is able to See into its history, the former occupants, their lives. I felt something similar in the few times I’ve been around ancient sites, places that are thousands of years old and that have been abandoned longer than most nations have existed. It’s overwhelming. James mines that fleeting awe in this story. (Small Wonders—July 2025; issue 25) “Thirteen Swords That Made a Prince: Highlights from the Arms & Armory Collection” by Sharang Biswas The premise is that a museum has put up an exhibit on the Alamgir Dynasty of the Kingdom of Hindustan, a fictional monarchy based on a real historical one, partly sponsored by a descendent of the subject of the exhibit: Prince Nizar. Thirteen of his weapons are on display, and the story unfolds in the caption cards. It’s a romance between two lovers who cannot be together while also being a commentary on how museums and historians often forget queerness is not some new invention. I am a historian and have curated historical exhibits in museum spaces, and this story had me wincing at how common this tendency is in my fields. Sometimes people are just queer. Yes, even the historical ones. (Strange Horizons—July 14, 2025) “We Dwell in Its Many-Chambered Heart” by A.C. Wise Alanna and Tom are trapped in a house. Their names and backgrounds change every day, as does the house shape and interior decor. The only thing that remains the same is that one of them always murders the other. But what if one of them tried to do something different? A.C. Wise writes this house as an almost sentient, seething entity, with Alanna and Tom as the insects caught in the maw of a Venus fly trap. This story exactly fits this publication; it’s weird, it’s horror, it’s weird horror. (Weird Horror—Summer/Fall 2025; issue 11) [end-mark] The post Must Read Short Speculative Fiction: July 2025 appeared first on Reactor.