Cool Story, Bro: My Favorite Short Stories of 2022
Everything Is True
Ada Hoffmann's author newsletter
It's been a while! I wanted to do this in late December / early January but things kind of got away from me with the Advent calendar and book promo. So, better late than never; I might as well do it now.
I did manage to write a list of my favorite novels from 2022 in December, which is here if you didn't catch it the first time around.
Now, on to short stories!
This year I've been especially drawn to stories about trauma and identity, and most of my favorites from the year share one or both of those themes.
Maria Dong, "In The Beginning of Me, I Was a Bird" (Lightspeed, January)
This is a fascinating story about a woman who, after a mysterious illness caused by seeds from the sky, finds her consciousness transported into the bodies of various animals. And she's not the only one; many people are losing their human form and beginning to hop bodies in this way, a process which is disorienting for the former human as well as stressful for the animal. I love the places that this one goes to regarding identity and connection - I want to say "human connection," but of course it is much more.
Jennifer Hudak, "The Weight of It All" (Lightspeed, September)
A ghost who possesses people, out of an uncontrollable craving for the weight and solidity of physical existence, meets their exact opposite - a living girl, dying from an eating disorder, who wants to be light as the air. The two of them become trapped in a kind of codependent friendship, each powerfully desiring what the other has. This story is wrenching, but I love where it ends - a resolution that has both characters beginning to let go, beginning to seek recovery, without ever falling for the trap of thinking recovery is certain, or that it can or should take place in one single cathartic moment of decision.
Jennifer Hudak, "Spindle House" (The Future Fire, Issue 63)
Three aging witches encounter a fourth crone who is determined to join them rather than accept coercive living conditions with a gaslighting son-in-law. This story is quiet in its domesticity, but vicious in how the witches' home defends itself and its new occupant, cozily wicked in the best and most feminist way.
Juliet Kemp, "At the Lighthouse Out by the Othersea" (Uncanny, July/August)
Felix is the sole crew member of a tiny space station guarding a strange, beautiful, dangerous astronomical phenomenon. When an attractive stranger named Peres arrives who wasn't on the approved list of visitors, they and Felix find they're both running from something - Felix from his social anxiety, and Peres from zir grief.
Isabel J. Kim, “Christopher Mills, Return to Sender" (Fantasy, March)
I wasn't sure I'd get into this one - "the afterlife is a mall" is one of those premises that can be a tough sell for me. but by the end of it I powerfully and painfully related to the dead protagonist - the melancholy stillness of the hell he's been sent to, the apathy that creeps over him, the tragedy in his past that he's avoiding as hard as he can, and the catharsis of the ending.
Ava Margariti, "Little Gardens Everywhere" (GigaNotoSaurus, November)
"A faery changeling and the human who was exchanged for them find each other and have adventures together" is lowkey one of my favorite tropes. Margariti elevates it a notch higher by exploring the trauma of both the human and the changeling and the devotion they've developed to each other while rebelling from the system that harmed them both. But what really makes the story is the way that both characters find another, younger character also stolen and traded by the fae. The encounter, while difficult at first, proves healing for all three of them.
Riley Neither, "Imagine a Thief with Golden Fire in Their Voice" (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, August)
The backstory for this story is chilling - a thief turned wizard, coerced and abused by their glamorous mentor, cursed never to be able to speak about the abuse to anyone, and now pressured, after their mentor's death, to resurrect her. The way that the thief gets out of their predicament is grim, but also wonderful and freeing.
And just one novelette:
Isabel Cañas, "The Law of Take" (GigaNotoSaurus, March)
A romantic space opera full of passion, intrigue, and sacrifice, as a ruthless empress in peril discovers the one thing more important to her than her own survival.
Meanwhile:
On Feb 15, I’ll be reading along with LP Kindred and Jenny Rae Rappaport as part of the Ephemera virtual reading series. The theme is CAMERADERIE!
On Shepherd, Nick Walker included THE OUTSIDE on his list of the 5 best neuroqueer books.