Revenge is the theme du jour for my ten favorite science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories I read last month. Most (but not all) of the stories in this spotlight are about what you’ll do to get revenge, what you do when you get it, and what comes after the dust has settled. A little god murder here, some necromancy there, and some brain swapping for good measure.
“Bite by Bite and Lie by Lie” by Malda Marlys
This story feels much bigger than its very short length. A woman lives “in a land replete with small gods and smaller miracles.” After earning the favor of a god of war, she and her descendants eat him alive. Because war never ends, they must keep consuming him, which alters both them and him. A joyfully violent tale. No matter how powerful someone may seem, they can always be taken down. (Small Wonders—April 2025; issue 22)
“Highway 1, Past Hope” by Maria Haskins
Did someone say revenge? “Layla rises like a breath in winter from the hollow beneath the black cottonwoods beside the river, shrugging off the blanket of dirt and leaves and centipedes she slept beneath.” After her murder, Layla puts herself together and goes hunting. At the same time Penni, a woman with an abusive partner, gets stranded on the side of the road. Their lives (deaths?) intersect in blood and bones. I loved the structure of it, with long paragraphs broken up by short sentences. It keeps the reader disoriented, like taking a deep breath and holding it, then gasping in surprise. (The Deadlands—Spring 2025; issue 38)
“Luscious Lake” by Erin Brown
Written like a marketing brochure or instruction guide, Erin Brown takes readers to Lucious Lake. The lake is in the middle of a jungle, surrounded by dangerous, poisonous creatures. As treacherous as the journey to the lake is, what you must do to yourself when you get there is even harder. Brown writes prose lush with description and sharp in its subtext. How much of yourself are you willing to destroy to get what you want? (Baffling Magazine—April 2025; issue 19)
“Mandrake Experiment” by Toshiya Kamei
With the future of humanity looking bleak, Yuri and Patience decided to reinvent the species. Our chances of survival as the environment continues to collapse thins with each insect that dies. Ayame may be our way out. She is “the first Mandrake in history,” a sort of human-plant hybrid. This story is bittersweet, one full of sadness tinged with hope. A beautiful story about sacrifice, love, and what a parent will do to give their child the best possible future. (The Skull & Laurel—April 2025; issue 3)
“Moonrise” by Bethany C. Morrow
Liz and Everly have been best friends for ages. For years they were resigned to communicating via messages, mostly meme, gifs, and jokes. One ongoing joke they ran with was how one day all Black women were going to take off to the moon and leave the Earth to its troubles. When Liz and Everly finally get to spend some time together IRL, their in-joke finally comes true…in a fashion. We demand so much from Black women. Every election, every social crisis, every everything, it’s Black women who must steer the ship even as they are derided for not doing more. Bethany C. Morrow gives them some damn peace for once. (FIYAH Literary Magazine—Spring 2025; issue 34)
“No One Dies of Longing” by Anjali Sachdeva
“A garden is a joy, but also a labor.” Our narrator is a servant gardener for a wealthy, powerful man, Mr. Qadir. In the hands of our narrator, the garden thrives, not least of which is because she’s a witch. Not that he knows that, of course. Mr. Qadir keeps his servants trapped by withholding their passports, but that doesn’t bother the witch. She has plans for him. I love a good revenge story, especially ones involving bad men and the women who force them to face the consequences of their actions. (Strange Horizons—April 7, 2025)
“Order Update” by Olajesutofunmi Akinyemi
Olajesutofunmi Akinyemi constructs this as a series of emails between an associate at the organization Wives Against Oringa and Adebayo, a terrible husband who deserves everything he’s about to get. The company claims good wives are being infected by Oringas, “red-haired humanoids with eyes at the bottom of their square heads and a mouth at the top.” They send Adebayo a kit to help him destroy the Oringas and turn his wife back into a docile, submissive woman. Things don’t work out the way he expects. This was a fun surprise! The ending had me cackling. (Omenana Magazine—March 31, 2025; issue 31)
“The Unfactory” by Derrick Boden
Our unnamed narrator’s job is unmaking people, places, animals, things, anything and everything. Their boss offers them a project, and they go about unmaking it. First, a pizzeria, gone and with it the good life the woman who owned it had. At first the jobs seem random and inexplicable. Then our narrator discovers a pattern. They are very good at their job in the “unfactory,” which comes in handy toward the end. A sinister story with an inventive premise. (Diabolical Plots—April 2, 2025; issue 122A)
The revenge our narrator exacts happens before the story begins. A classmate brings a gun to school and kills several people. In her rage, her gift of necromancy erupts. She stops him from killing anyone else, and now she has to live with the repercussions of that. She may have gotten her revenge, but people are still dead. Lyndsey Silveira asks us what comes after revenge? What do you build in its wake? (Cast of Wonders—April 12, 2025; issue 636)
“The Witch-Doctor’s Revenge” by Nuzo Onoh
Let’s end this with a little revenge on colonizers (I may or may not be listening to the Sinners soundtrack as I type this). Mr. Bassey is a teacher for the Catholic Church. He’s sent by Father O’Brien to open a new primary school, mostly because he’s African and speaks Igbo and so serves as a bridge between the villagers and the colonizers. He’s bought into the white man’s promises of privilege and is eager to bring “civilization” to the “urchins.” A dead witch-doctor isn’t having it. Nuzo Onoh is known as the Queen of African Horror, and this story makes it clear why. It’s gory, chilling, and an act of defiance, all rolled into one. (Nightmare Magazine—April 2025; issue 151)