What do you get when you mix a father with severe PTSD after barely surviving the Vietnam War, a self-proclaimed clairvoyant mother with anger issues and no filter whatsoever, rivers of booze, an awkward but academically gifted son, and a daughter with a hidden disability and a mile-wide rebellious streak? This is going to get messy. Then throw in a generous helping of domestic violence, some good old-fashioned small-town Southern homophobia, and the kind of dark family secret that makes h...

“Quirky and hilarious but also deep and heartfelt, The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing is an unforgettable and fantastic story about being human. I loved it!”—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The SpellshopAs the laboratory assistant to the brilliant but demanding Doctor, Igor spends his nights robbing graves, stitching together body parts, and ensuring that his master doesn’t electrocute himself (too badly).

You are cordially invited to meet a lake monster and his mom.Trevor's not like most lake monsters. While he loves spending his days building mountain ranges out of the mud on the banks of Lake Eerie, he's bad at swimming and disinterested in fishing.Child psychologist Dr Lena Spyros has a lot of experience helping young people of all descriptions overcome struggles and, realizing Trevor's behaviors and interests put him on the autism spectrum, Dr Spyros helps this laker and h...

Grace White and her brother Robert, overweight and affluent, are desperate to hang onto their respective love interests. Grace's husband Rich is bonking every woman he can talk into bed. Grace is willing to look beyond his affairs if she can just have her marriage back. Robert's law school fling James's interest diminished as Robert's waistline increased, but Robert has never moved on. The only solution? Losing those excess pounds… by any means necessary. And when James finds a supernatura...

Black Shapes in a Darkened Room is a collection of witty, visceral, and darkly imaginative short fiction from the author of the novel The Concrete Sky. Revenge and eroticism, humor and despair, the supernatural and the everyday… Marshall Moore draws new contour lines and makes new connections in this nighttime map of the human soul."Moore's characters all wear bruise-colored glasses… a perspective which can be both odd and exhilarating" —Gemma Files.

A mysterious windfall upends Lena Haze’s almost-comfortable middle-class American life. Her husband Marcus has inherited some prime Hong Kong real estate, a building in Wan Chai – the bustling, gentrifying heart of the city. It comes with a catch, though: the building must not be sold. With financing from local investors, Lena begins overseeing renovations to convert it into a premier boutique hotel. Alone in Hong Kong and a recent arrival, Lena struggles with culture shock, business obsta...

We remember her best as the generous fairy who dresses Cinderella and handles transportation while she's at it. But that's just the most famous fairy godmother's tale. With a little imagination, you'll find that fairy godmothers and godfathers appear in many varied forms. The authors in this anthology have crafted new tales that re-imagine the fairy godmother and her role.A young fairy grapples with imposter syndrome as she takes up her new appointment as godmother. Immortal sister...

Foreword by Jerry L. Wheeler.Things are not going well for Chad Sobran. His mother is gravely ill. His creditors are circling like sharks. And he's being stalked by his violent, homophobic, and obsessive older brother Martin. One night, while drunk at a party, Chad falls off a balcony and breaks his wrist. He comes to in a psych facility, under observation: Martin has convinced the emergency room doctors that the fall was a suicidal jump. In the hospital, Chad meets Jonathan Fairba...

"Showcases the extremes of one of the world's capitals. From ghost stories, to historical thrills, to underworld brutality . . . endlessly fascinating."— CrimeReadsAkashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. In Hong Kong Noir, fourteen of the city's fin...

Tomorrow is coming whether you're ready or not.In Darkness, Delight: Fear the Future delivers twenty-two strikingly original tales of terror from Bram Stoker Award®-winners, bestselling authors, genre stalwarts and rising stars.Includes Emmy-winning, New York Times bestselling author and world-famous magician Penn Jillette's delightfully wicked short story "The Pain Addict," which was adapted for a hit sci-fi anthology television series and...

Never Turn Away is a collection of Marshall Moore's work from the 10 years since his debut novel The Concrete Sky was published. Included are excerpts from that book and his second novel An Ideal for Living, short stories from the collections Black Shapes in a Darkened Room and The Infernal Republic, and the first chapter of his forthcoming novel Bitter Orange. In addition to telling a hell of a story, Moore can crack you up, piss you off, and completely horrify you. If you haven't checked...

Forty-one enthralling stories from the most talented new science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers.MetaStellar is an online publication focusing on science fiction, fantasy, and horror launched in September 2020, founded by a dozen speculative fiction writers, editors, and artists from around the world.Since then, it's published hundreds of short stories by hundreds of writers, both original fiction, reprints, and excerpts. The proceeds from this antholo...