by Neal Shusterman
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. Short Stories.
Explore a world where bats block out the sun, where soup is a trap for your soul, or where the life-force of a glacier can bring back the dead. Journey to a place where the wind can be captured, time can be crafted into infinite attic space, or a hot tub can house an ancient monster. And revisit the Arc of the Scythe universe for two all-new tales of gleaning.
A short story collection by one of my favorite "evil genius" authors? Yes, please!
In the introduction, Shusterman discusses how he grew up enjoying the short stories of Isaac Asimov (I,
Robot, the Foundation series,
etc.). This collection (featuring some new stories and many previously published in other anthologies) would fit in perfectly among the likes of Asimov, Richard
Matheson, Orson Scott Card, and The Twilight Zone. He moves through different genres with ease, spinning
clever tales of a pizza delivery to the underworld, an unconventional presidential campaign, an elite boarding school for severely phobic youth, time-traveling lightning storms, a colony ship voyaging to a distant world, circus zombies, a self-aware (and surprisingly compassionate) firearm, lost luggage, and
one of the best worst(?)(best???) puns you’ll ever
read. This is a great place to begin if you have never tried Neal Shusterman’s
books before, as his witty and thoughtful writing style is on full display. If you’re already a fan, it’s a pleasure to see how much fun
he can have on a smaller scale (not to mention the always appreciated Arc of a
Scythe bonus stories, plus an extra treat to tide you over until the prequel novels arrive).
To sum it up: Butterball. Trust me, it's worth it, ha ha ha.
If you like Mindworks, you might also like:
by Trang Thanh Tran
Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2025. 262 pages. Fantasy.
Since the hurricane, the town of Mercy, Louisiana has been overtaken by a strange red algae bloom. Noon and her mother have carved out a life in the wreckage, trawling for the mutated wildlife that lurks in the water and trading it to the corrupt harbormaster. When she's focused on survival, Noon doesn't have to cope with what happened to her at the Cove or the monster itching at her skin. Mercy has never been a safe place, but it's getting worse. People are disappearing, and the only clues as to why are whispers of underwater shadows and warnings to never answer the knocks at night. When the harbormaster demands she capture the creature that's been drowning residents, Noon finds a reluctant ally in his daughter Covey. And as the next storm approaches, the two set off to find what's haunting Mercy. After all, Noon is no stranger to monsters . . .
by Kelly Link
Viking, 2008. 389 pages. Short Stories.
Nine short stories ranging from fantasy to horror to sci-fi, in which nothing is what it seems, and everything deserves a second look. From the multiple award-winning "The Faery Handbag," in which a teenager's grandmother carries an entire village (or is it a man-eating dog?) in her handbag, to the near-future of "The Surfer," whose narrator (a soccer-playing skeptic) waits with a planeload of refugees for the aliens to arrive, Link's stories are funny and full of unexpected insights and skewed perspectives on the world.
by M.T. Anderson
Candlewick Press, 2002. 237 pages. Science Fiction.
For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party during spring break and play around with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who knows something about what it's like to live without the feed--and about resisting its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires.
-LAH
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