Well, we’re nearly halfway through 2025, but I’ve just finished reading Ellen Datlow’s 2024 collection of the best horror short stories published in 2023, or in other words: The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen. Ellen Datlow is one of the most celebrated editors and anthologists in the horror genre, and I have particularly enjoyed her themed horror anthologies like Haunted Nights and The Devil and the Deep. Short story anthologies are a wonderful way to discover new writers and plumb the diversity of a given subject or genre. But “best of the year” anthologies have the added benefit of highlighting particular trends or preoccupations that emerge in any particular year. The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen, is the perfect example of this. Continue reading Review of The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen
Month: April 2025
Review of Murder by Memory—Cozy Sci-fi
The “cozy” label for subgenres has been tossed around a lot lately, ever since the success of Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes series kicked off a fervor for “cozy fantasy” and discourse began over what other genres might get in on the hype. But Olivia Waite takes the term right back to its roots by simply transposing the tropes and trappings of the original cozy genre—cozy mystery—onto a science fiction setting. I’ve found for several years now that Olivia Waite’s historical romance novels (like The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows and The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics) make for perfect comfort reading. So though Murder by Memory is her first foray into both sci-fi and mystery, I believe, it’s no surprise that she would find her home amongst the cozy. This bite-sized novella (it’s barely one hundred pages) came out last month and appears to be the first in a series, so I look forward to seeing cozy sci-fi become a growing trend. Continue reading Review of Murder by Memory—Cozy Sci-fi