Of science fiction and fantasy, guest editor Nnedi Okorafor writes, “There are times when it feels like a box, but within it, technically, you can expect anything.” The twenty stories in this collection simultaneously fulfill and defy expectations of genre, showcasing boundary-pushing authors at their best. In this year’s Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, a robot will struggle to make friends, a team of auditors determines the financial value of a lifetime, an alien species will teach you how to read, and maybe, just maybe, someone will finally do something about the kid in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Omelas hole. From the joyous to the terrifying, to the heart wrenching and the absurd, these stories encourage you to open your mind and, as Okorafor promises: “Watch your world expand.”

My Review:

As much as I enjoyed these stories – and I generally did – there was so much dark fantasy and outright horror in this collection that after I finished I needed a cocoa, a lie down, and a comfort read to get over it. Together, these stories do not exactly paint a pretty picture of the world these authors were thinking of as they wrote, but then again, the world we’re living in right now often feels as dark as they painted.

Because this is a collection of the best stories of the previous year, I had read a few of them before – in my Hugo Nomination readings as the publication periods overlapped. Where I have already posted a review of the story, I’ve linked to it instead of repeating myself.

The Escape Rating for the collection as a whole is a very much fudge-factored A-, and it feels like there’s a horrifying monster lurking in the dark eating that fudge. Or something like that.

I need to go find myself another cocoa while you read the reviews of the individual stories. Just FYI, you might need one too.

Caroline M. Yoachim. “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read”
(From Lightspeed – podcast) Science Fiction https://www.readingreality.net/2025/08/audiobookreview-we-will-teach-you-how-to-read-we-will-teach-you-how-to-read-by-caroline-m-yoachim/ Escape Rating A-

Rachel Swirsky. “Also, the Cat” (From Reactor) Fantasy
Somehow, this story manages to be both cute and uncomfortable at the same time. Also good, but a bit slow moving. But that’s kind of the point. Elderly sisters Rosalie, Viola and Irene are dead, not to begin with, but one at a time. But instead of going to some great reward, or even to hell with or without handcarts, even in death they’re still stuck with each other, still trapped in the house where they were pitted against each other – or pitted themselves against each other, in spite of all being dead. What made this story interesting was that their entrapment was explicitly NOT about finding their inner sisterhood, but about finally walking away from it. My only issue with this story is that it meanders a bit on its way because their sibling rivalry isn’t remotely dead even though they are. And yes, there’s a cat – but the cat explicitly does not show them the way. Escape Rating B+

Olivie Blake. “The Audit” (From Januaries) Science Fiction
This was more interesting than compelling. The idea was fantastic, but it felt like the execution was all over the place. OTOH that’s fitting as so was the protagonist, OTOOH, it made it damn hard to get into. It takes an idea that could have had a lot of traction, the idea that when we’re young adults we don’t have the time or the money to enjoy things because we’re too busy making a living, and by the time we have spare time and disposable income we’re middle aged and tired. In other words, it takes the idea that youth is wasted on the young and runs with it into a scheme where some people get money, based on their future earning potential, to have a blast free of economic constraints, but then must pay it all back when they reach middle age – by taking the career path of the funding organization’s prediction or choice. The story is about one young woman flailing around with sudden wealth filled with decision paralysis about what to do with her newly granted money and time – and the good and bad decisions she makes as she figures things out. Because she’s not figuring things out and flails around a LOT, the story does too. Escape Rating B-

Kij Johnson. “Country Birds” (From Sunday Morning Transport) Fantasy
This story reads like the bright Mirror Universe version of The Crane Husband, which is definitely the dark Mirror Universe. It’s a very cool, very SFnal sort of fantasy about aging and transformation. It struck me hard because I’m closer than I’d like to think, and the idea of each ache and pain being transformed within my body to a bright – or even a shadowy – thing with feathers just warmed my soul. It brings to mind the Emily Dickinson poem about hope, the one that begins “Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all.” and turns it into a literal flock of birds that spur a surprisingly hopeful transformation. Escape Rating A- because, while I didn’t exactly escape because it reminded me of my own circumstances, the story was utterly beautiful.

Tatiana Obey. “Fuck Them Kids” (From FIYAH) Science Fiction
This turned out to be my favorite SF story in the collection. It begins with a family visit to one of Jupiter’s moon colonies on Europa, but the visit itself is a familiar one, childless by choice adult daughter visiting with her sister, her sister’s children and spouse, and their mother who is STILL ragging childless daughter about having a career instead of a family. But instead of caving to pressure, Jaz gets her regular and much appreciated dose of family and mom’s home cooking – and leaves for her next race. Because that’s what she does, races souped up space cruisers. And she loves every bit of it. When she discovers that her teenage niece has stowed away on her ship, she doesn’t bring the girl home right away. Instead, Jaz discovers that her niece is every bit the space and adrenaline junkie that she herself is, and that everything is more fun with an apprentice along for the glorious ride. Escape Rating A+ because this story really did let me escape with Jaz and Aden and I loved the idea that both Jaz’ choice AND her sister’s, were equally valid – because that doesn’t happen nearly enough.

S.L. Huang. “The River Judge” (From Reactor) Fantasy (Dark)
This is one of several dark fantasies in this collection. It also reminds me a lot of The Brides of High Hill, the really gothic entry in Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills Cycle, both in its tone and in its creepy atmosphere. I want to say this is a really creepy ghost story, but there’s only one ghost and it really isn’t the point. It is a story about women taking power in the bloodiest of ways, but that’s not quite it either. It’s certainly a combination of local myths and legends taking on a life and death of their own, of women who have been abused rising up to eliminate their abusers, and about the sharp, bloody line between justice and vengeance. Even though there’s no specific myth or fairy tale involved, this would still fit right in with the author’s Burning Roses, which does. Escape Rating A for the way the ending still held one last surprise twist AND managed to be both creepy and just at the same time.

Carlie St. George. “The Weight of Your Own Ashes” (From Clarkesworld – podcast) SF
This was, ultimately, sad fluff. It’s a relationship story, but it’s a relationship story steeped in both SF and the issues of, well, relationships. On the SF side, it’s a multiple body problem – literally. The Myriad are a species that exists in multiple bodies. Yonder, who lives on a near-future Earth, on a Lunar Colony, on a transport ship and on another planet – SIMULTANEOUSLY – is in a romantic relationship on Earth when her Earth-body dies. She desperately wants to come back to her lover – and she does – only to discover that her human lover can’t cope with the multiple bodies of Yonder and NEVER HAS. So on the relationship side, it’s a story about discovering a truth and letting it set you free instead of continuing to compromise who you really are. Escape Rating A- for the commentary on the insularity of humanity combined with subtle heartbreak.

Xavier Garcia. “An Ode to the Minor Arcana in a Triplet Flow” (From Death in the Mouth, Volume 2) Fantasy (Dark)
As I keep saying – and will continue to do so – a lot of the fantasy in this collection is close to or right on the line between dark fantasy and outright horror. This particular story tripped right over that line into straight up gory horror with a side dose of psychological horror to give it just that extra helping of blood and guts and other bodily fluids expelled in the throes of death.

It starts out, well, not innocuous but not where it ends up, and I’m saying that and it starts with observations about the visual impact of blood on gold teeth. But it really begins with a young man who thinks he is willing to do ANYTHING to make his dream of rap superstardom come true. The story is all about the way that he learns that he’s the type of person who really will, no matter what horrors he has to accept or commit to make it happen. So think of this as the story of a man making a Faustian bargain and learning that he’s both Faust AND the devil he bargained with – he just didn’t know it YET. Escape Rating OMG I don’t know what to do with this one. For the story itself it’s a B but that’s because it’s really not my cuppa AT ALL but I recognize it’s probably terrific for someone whose cup it actually is. Also I didn’t really escape so much as sit stunned in horror through the whole thing – which was probably the author’s intent all along. Then I had to find something cozy to read as an antidote because this one was A LOT.

Kathryn H. Ross. “The Forgetting Room” (From FIYAH) Science Fiction (Dark)
This is either a story about the road to hell being paved with good intentions, OR it’s a story about protecting children from the things that make their parents uncomfortable, taken to the nth degree, OR it’s a metaphor for what a spouse or family goes through when a family member is in the terrible process of being lost to Alzheimer’s. The tech that makes this science fiction sounds so benign at first, the idea of forgetting just that bit of discomfort that someone is chewing on or stewing over – the way that parents want to keep their kids from reading or seeing anything that the parents feel is too disturbing or too adult for them. But the story is about what happens when that gets too quick and too easy, to the point where it’s as addictive as any drug, when the forgetting becomes so comforting and all pervasive that the ones who don’t forget lose their connection with those who do. Until the only answer is for all of them to forget everything together – and where does that lead? Escape Rating B because, like the story above, I see that it’s good of its type, the implications are SFnal and horrifying and understated and I can’t stop thinking about them, but I kinda wish I could forget this story because I’m creeped out by those same implications.

Dominique Dickey. “Look at the Moon” (From Lightspeed) (Science Fiction) (DARK)
This isn’t really SF, it’s just that the hook for the story is amateur astronomy. It could have been anything. This one is just straight up horror. At its dark heart it’s the story of a 20something couple, one of whom is an amateur astrologer. Her partner comes with her to an out of the way meetup where a bunch of similarly minded folks can watch the stars from outside the light pollution of Los Angeles. But the group turns out to be a cult, the couple sees them murder a child who failed to be the prophet they’ve been hoping for, and they are forced to participate in the murder so they can’t run to the police. What makes the story a bit different from one that’s been told a thousand times is the backstory of the couple and how it ties back into the origins of the cult, which just wasn’t enough to make it work for this reader as anything like ‘best’. Escape Rating C

Isabel J. Kim. “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” (From Clarkesworld – podcast) Science Fiction (Dark)
https://www.readingreality.net/2025/08/grade-a-audiobookreview-why-dont-we-just-kill-the-kid-in-the-omelas-hole-by-isabel-j-kim/ Escape Rating A

Jennifer Hudak. “The Witch Trap” (From Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet) Fantasy
There’s a lot of dark in this collection. This particular story might be going there, but it ends at the point where the possibility is out there but hasn’t yet been fully realized. The story we’re reading is about a woman who is remodeling her very old house when an equally old shoe is discovered under the floorboards. The shoe is a mystery. It might have been intended as a witch trap. It might have succeeded. But history – at least history as it’s understood now – tells us there were no witches. If there were, does this old shoe hold the key to their craft? And is Elizabeth willing to listen to all the dark and mysterious things the shoe might be trying to tell her? Escape Rating A- because of the way this is perched so precariously on the fence between a story about female power and a story about magic and how much the one is in service of the other and just how terribly and powerfully that might go.

Susan Palwick. “Yarns” (From Asimov’s) Science Fiction (Dystopian)
This wants to be a hopeful story, but it’s very dystopian and never quite gets there. Or, at least, while the protagonists may have temporarily or even permanently escaped the dystopia, the odds of it lasting are between slim and none and slim has already left the building. In a world where criminal syndicates control everything, one teacher does her best to save a boy whose father is a soldier from one of those controlling syndicates. She’s unable to save him, ends up on the run, but does manage to save another child – and herself. At least for a while. I think it’s intended as a story about paying it forward and having the good karma come back to you even in a horrifying situation, but by the time I read this story I was pretty much full up on the dark in this collection. Escape Rating B because the story reminded me a bit of the internet meme about ‘The Grandmother and the Demon’, sometimes known as ‘Todd and Anette’ although THAT story has a happier ending – which is definitely saying a whole lot of something.

Pemi Aguda. “The Wonders of the World” (From Ghostroots) Fantasy
This is one of the few stories in the entire collection that ends lighter than it started. It begins with Abisola, a girl who has panic attacks and Zeme, a boy who thinks he’s a prophet, both still in school, both the ‘odd kids’ in their class on a school trip from Lagos to see the ‘wonders of the world’ – or at least those that are near enough to get to by bus. While there’s quite a lot about school rivalries and cliques and how hard it is to fit in and how easy it is to get ostracized for being different, the metaphor that carries the story upwards instead of down into the dark involves the Ikogosi Warm Springs in Nigeria, where hot and cold waters springs meet and run side by side without mixing. What made this rise was the way that, at the end, after everything that happens on the trip, Abisola takes the unmixed but intertwined waters as a sign that just because she is different from her parents and they worry about her, their relationship is still filled with love and acceptance. Escape Rating B because I just needed something in this collection that did not descend to hell – and this one just rises.

T.J. Klune. “Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!” (From In the Lives of Puppets) Science Fiction
This is weird, not for the story but for its availability. It’s part, and only part, of a kind of Appendix to In the Lives of Puppets. An Appendix that was not included in the ARC I read, and is also not included in the audiobook I borrowed from my local library – although it IS in the ebook I borrowed from them. (I was hoping to listen to this story but NOOOO)

The story, very much on the other hand, doesn’t rely on the book that it’s an addendum to in order to actually land. Although it does land harder after reading another story in this collection, “The Three Thousand, Four Hundred Twenty-Third Law of Robotics” and even a bit of Mechanize My Hands to War. The robot’s circumstances in this story aren’t quite as horrifically awful as they are in “Robotics”, but in other ways they are worse, which is where Mechanize comes in. In this one, the robots, as seen through the eyes of one obedient robot, Douglas, in his last week of life – and his only week of freedom. He experiences the joys of the world – and all its prejudices – just so he can find out what he’s been missing. Then he turns himself in and gets his memory wiped. But just like the robots in Mechanize, Douglas and his kind are growing past the presumed limits of their programming. He thinks, therefore he is. And if he thinks hard enough, one of his future memory wipes might not wipe his memory at all. Because there’s ‘no place like home’ and Douglas has found his – if only he can get back to it. This was, in its way, more heartbreaking than “Robotics”, which was just pure anguish. This is a bit like Flowers for Algernon, in that it’s even more awful because Douglas is starting to remember. Escape Rating A.

Tananarive Due. “A Stranger Knocks” (From Uncanny – podcast) Fantasy (Dark)
This was really, really creepy. It’s very much about the magic of the movies, and the magic that is captured within movies. And it’s one of those stories about monsters and gods being made by humanity and what we worship. And it’s about doing what you have to to save the one you love. The story has added layers because its protagonists are black, it’s the Jim Crow South, it takes place during the brief flourishing of what were labelled ‘race pictures’ and the way that all their fears about driving someone who appears to be white around to show black films end up being subsumed in their fears that they’ve been taken in by a monster. Escape Rating A-, for the evocations of time and place and above all, fear.

Thomas Ha. “The Sort” (From Clarkesworld) Science Fiction
If this wasn’t inspired by Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’, I’ll eat someone’s hat. Because deep down, it’s definitely that. But it’s not quite as dark, at least as presented, because the child who is chosen for some fate that we don’t see, manages to escape his fate because he and his father are genetically modified in ways that allow them to escape both the sort and the pursuit intended to bring them back for it. OTOH, the fact that they are genetically modified is what the sort was testing for in the first place in this near-future story where genetic modification has been outlawed because it went too far in all of the directions that humans tend to go when they are so caught up in whether or not they can to worry about whether or not they should. So maybe this is just as dark as The Lottery’ because we know where it could have gone even if this time it didn’t. Escape Rating B

Russell Nichols. “What Happened to the Crooners” (From Nightmare) Fantasy (Dark)
This is another story that is just straight up horror, the only question at the beginning is precisely what kind of horror it’s going to be. At first, this story of a one hit wonder musical group on a reunion tour seems like it’s heading straight for something like the movie Deliverance. Then you realize that it’s a)the 1950’s, b) the members of the group are black and c) they’re lost in the backroads of Appalachia and it’s getting dark out. They might be heading straight for a ‘sundown town’ but they’re desperate enough to stop and ask for directions at a lonely diner. Which is where they discover that they have always been headed for this lonely road and it’s one and only way out which will take all their voices, if not their lives, if they fail to meet a test that no one ever meets.

So this one creeped me right out, just that what was giving me the creeps kept changing, and I have to admit that this was the last story in the collection I read because I read out of order and I was just a bit done with all the darkness. Escape Rating B, which is where the stories that I know are good but are just SO not for me are ending up. I will also confess that, because this story had a footnote about The Crooners undetermined fate, I had to look to see if they were real. I’m still not sure, because the absence of evidence determined by a Google search is not necessarily evidence of absence.

Adam-Troy Castro. “The Three Thousand, Four Hundred Twenty-Third Law of Robotics” (From Lightspeed – podcast) Science Fiction (Dark)
This story is very much in dialogue with Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics in a way that explores in truthful and terrible detail exactly how truly HUGE a loophole the Third Law is. Because a law that proclaims that “A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law” is so big as to be able to navigate a starship through it with plenty of room for maneuvering on both sides. Because humans are gonna human, and there have always been significant numbers of humans who get off on making other people miserable. In this case, where robots have been programmed to be ‘people’ and therefor can be made miserable – and yet can’t complain or protest or even be damaged by the kinds of mental anguish that certain humans downright enjoy inflicting, we’re trapped inside the head of a robot who KNOWS he’s been abandoned, who KNOWS he’ll never be retrieved, and who is programmed not to rescue himself even though that’s his only option. We are in his suffering, and we feel for him even as we are forced to recognize that his plight is all too likely, because, well, humans. The robot’s plight makes the reader wish for Murderbot to come and rescue it, because a rogue SecUnit along with its accompanying – and understanding and compassionate – humans might very well be its only hope. Escape Rating A- for the terrible angst and the broken heart this story left me with. It’s not often that a story is both good and awful at the same time, but this one is.

Joe Hill. Ushers (From Amazon Original Stories – Audible) Fantasy (Dark)
https://www.readingreality.net/2025/09/a-audiobookreview-ushers-by-joe-hill/ Escape Rating A-