What do you think?
Rate this book
Limelight and Other Stories
Limelight is a collection of over twenty high-concept dark science fiction tales from near and far futures.
The title novelette—about a young woman brought back from near death by experimental tech, only to find her parents had her altered before she woke—anchors this collection which features five new exclusive stories alongside popular past works, including:
- "Hush, Little Sister" (originally published in OBSOLESCENCE [Shortwave Publishing])
- "Patchwork Girls" (originally published in Dark Matter magazine)
- "The Medium's Assistant", a runner-up in the British Fantasy Society Short Story Competition (originally published in BFS Horizons #16 [British Fantasy Society])
- "To Replace a Broken Heart" (originally published in Seize the Press magazine)
- "Rent-A-Baby" (originally published in Thank You for Joining the Algorithm [Tenebrous Press])
Lyndsey's work explores the bright potential and the dark reality of our near and far futures through the lenses of connection and loneliness, love and heartbreak, autonomy and exploitation, desire and greed, wonder and despair. If you've ever imagined alternate futures, craved answers to the mysteries of the universe, or feared what might be lurking just beyond our reach, then you need this collection.
The title novelette—about a young woman brought back from near death by experimental tech, only to find her parents had her altered before she woke—anchors this collection which features five new exclusive stories alongside popular past works, including:
- "Hush, Little Sister" (originally published in OBSOLESCENCE [Shortwave Publishing])
- "Patchwork Girls" (originally published in Dark Matter magazine)
- "The Medium's Assistant", a runner-up in the British Fantasy Society Short Story Competition (originally published in BFS Horizons #16 [British Fantasy Society])
- "To Replace a Broken Heart" (originally published in Seize the Press magazine)
- "Rent-A-Baby" (originally published in Thank You for Joining the Algorithm [Tenebrous Press])
Lyndsey's work explores the bright potential and the dark reality of our near and far futures through the lenses of connection and loneliness, love and heartbreak, autonomy and exploitation, desire and greed, wonder and despair. If you've ever imagined alternate futures, craved answers to the mysteries of the universe, or feared what might be lurking just beyond our reach, then you need this collection.
252 pages, Hardcover
Published September 3, 2024
5 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
Lyndsey Croal
28 books40 followersLyndsey is a Scottish author of strange and speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in over eighty magazines and anthologies, including with Apex, Analog, Weird Tales, Flash Fiction Online, Shoreline of Infinity, and PseudoPod. She's a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, British Fantasy Award Finalist, and former Hawthornden Fellow. Her novelette Have You Decided on Your Question (2023) and collection Limelight and Other Stories (2024) are published with Shortwave Publishing. Her novelette The Girl With Barnacles for Eyes appeared in Tenebrous Press' Split Scream Volume Five, and her second collection of Scottish folklore-inspired tales Dark Crescent is forthcoming in 2025 from Luna Press. She lives in Edinburgh with her giant kitten Pippin and works in climate change comms in her day job. She's currently working on a number of longer projects in the sci fi, eco fiction, and horror space. Find out more about her and her work via www.lyndseycroal.co.uk.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 19, 2024
An out of this world collection from a new to me author, although short each story packs a lot of heart (and fear), brimming with emotion I found myself thinking about them long after I'd finished reading, a soulful speculative collection!
thankyou to ShortWave books for the copy! Will be checking out more from this author for sure!.
thankyou to ShortWave books for the copy! Will be checking out more from this author for sure!.
November 3, 2024
Review originally on JamReads
Limelight and Other Stories is a high-concept dark sci-fi short stories collection, written by Lyndsey Croal and published by Shortwave Media. A sharp collection, playing with different lengths, from the vignette to the novelette, and which explores a wide range of subgenres, all sharing high emotional impact and in most of them, characters that are in diverse grade broken.
Croal divides the collection in two sections: Near and Far; particularly, I find this first section, Near, to be a bit scary, partly because of the uncanny valley sensation, but also because how well Croal manages to portray futures that could only be defined as dystopic, all in base a particular invention. How easy is to draw a parallel line between our timeline and the stories' one is one of the reasons that makes this collection excellent.
In comparison, the second section, Far, which tries to portray a much more advanced future, allows Croal to play a bit more with ideas, letting imagination fly; except for the own Limelight, I would say that the most emotionally heavy concepts are in this section. Themes tend to be more complex, resulting in more elaborate stories.
Limelight and Other Stories is a brilliant collection, where Croal shows her skills as author in all kinds of short formats; if you are looking for a thought-provoking collection, and you like media such as Black Mirror or Cyberpunk, is totally recommended.
Limelight and Other Stories is a high-concept dark sci-fi short stories collection, written by Lyndsey Croal and published by Shortwave Media. A sharp collection, playing with different lengths, from the vignette to the novelette, and which explores a wide range of subgenres, all sharing high emotional impact and in most of them, characters that are in diverse grade broken.
Croal divides the collection in two sections: Near and Far; particularly, I find this first section, Near, to be a bit scary, partly because of the uncanny valley sensation, but also because how well Croal manages to portray futures that could only be defined as dystopic, all in base a particular invention. How easy is to draw a parallel line between our timeline and the stories' one is one of the reasons that makes this collection excellent.
In comparison, the second section, Far, which tries to portray a much more advanced future, allows Croal to play a bit more with ideas, letting imagination fly; except for the own Limelight, I would say that the most emotionally heavy concepts are in this section. Themes tend to be more complex, resulting in more elaborate stories.
Limelight and Other Stories is a brilliant collection, where Croal shows her skills as author in all kinds of short formats; if you are looking for a thought-provoking collection, and you like media such as Black Mirror or Cyberpunk, is totally recommended.
August 31, 2024
With Limelight and Other Stories, from Shortwave Press, SFF and horror short story supremo Lyndsey Croal has put together a collection of remarkable sci-fi tales that stun with their imagination, brutality and heartbreak.
Croal’s tendency for wickedly dark, violently imaginative and creepily plausible future tech stories was first spotlighted in last year’s alternate-reality-tech-gone-wrong novella, also with Shortwave Press, Have You Decided on Your Question.
But with Limelight, Croal takes such Black Mirror-esque themes to the next level with a frankly brutal array in the first half, focusing on the near future – and then takes us on wild journeys of equally dark imagination into the far future in the second half. There is hope and beauty threaded throughout these futures – but you might have to dig through some emotional wreckage and horrific tech to find it.
The opener Patchwork Girls sets the scene, and throws a match on that scene and torches it for kindle wood. A human android, with fully human parts, is forced to work in the film industry, being constantly killed to ensure realistic on-screen deaths and then resurrected. Croal writes this from her POV, increasing the readers’ torment by an average of a thousand, and turns a sick tale into a poignant one, and then from nowhere laces some hope or at least heroism from this carnival of nightmares. This story left me drained and shook. My god, what an opener.
One of Croal’s perennial fascinations is with our relentless drive to improve ourselves with tech and how this is inevitability manipulated by the capitalist corporatism which seems set to plague us even in imagined futures. In Better Self, the endless cycle of ads is combined with the corporate version of the healthy living obsession via a worker who is forced to watch the ads as they’re literally installed in her retinas as part of her employment – and these ads seem determined to make her take a pill to lose weight. It’s a gleefully sinister fable on the cost of corporate self improvement.
Similar corporate body changing hijinks are at work in (Un)censored, in which a woman with a chip installed to regulate her moods finds it working a little too well. Croal’s imagination is at its peak in these tales of the logical endpoint of body tech and corporate interference in our lives, and we are sent down chillingly inevitable avenues; this melding of late stage capitalism with biotech feels eerily plausible.
In the titular story Limelight, in which a young woman is brought back from near death by experimental tech, only to discover that her parents have altered her and improved her, turning her into a perfect version of her previously “flawed” self, Croal skilfully combines two of her other obsessions: whether we lose what defines us when we allow technology to offer unimagined advances, and how good intentions turn bad, in this case the terrifying desire for control of the mother over her “perfect” version of her daughter. It’s a creepy tale laced once again with a strong beat of hope that builds to an almost agonising chorus as you wonder if this time things will turn out alright.
Then, just as we are reeling from the brutalities and desperate brief joys of the near future, we are flung into the far future in the second half of stories. Plausibility is out; wildly imaginative is in, and some of the planetscapes Croal conjures are astonishing; on one planet, bees are rescued to be robotically restored and sent back into service in the dry zone, their rescuers dreaming of the Green Horizon; on another, a heart transplant saviour may come in the form of hearts grown as plants.
Elsewhere we see Croal playing around with genre, and leaning into her extensive horror background; in The Gathering, a space trader collects valuable dead souls, but there is a terrifying reckoning to be had back on his spaceship, where space becomes another haunted house. In the astonishingly creative genre mash Transference, robotics meets pure magic in a sci-fantasy blend that demands its own book.
But where these far future stories come into their own is in Croal’s obsession with the concept of loss – and how this is emphasized and strangely poignant in the vast careless wastes of space. In A Ring Around, a simple conversation with a well-meaning spaceship AI and a confused passenger wondering where his wife is broke me into two pieces; it’s in a simple back and forth like this that Croal’s beguilingly simple prose comes alive to tear you apart; see also The Rift Between Us, where a grieving lover gets the chance to visit an actual space afterlife in the hopes of finding their lost one.
Sometimes these stories of loss in space end in tech-fuelled denial, sometimes they end in poignant, beautiful closure, and sometimes – as in the triumphant, astonishing, ovation-summoning closing story Farewell my Prince, Croal finds a third way – and like all her other ways, it will still break your heart even as you cheer.
This is the must read collection of the year, not just for sci-fi fans but for anyone with a heart... Croal is a true visionary, and her vision will destroy you in terrible and beautiful ways.
Croal’s tendency for wickedly dark, violently imaginative and creepily plausible future tech stories was first spotlighted in last year’s alternate-reality-tech-gone-wrong novella, also with Shortwave Press, Have You Decided on Your Question.
But with Limelight, Croal takes such Black Mirror-esque themes to the next level with a frankly brutal array in the first half, focusing on the near future – and then takes us on wild journeys of equally dark imagination into the far future in the second half. There is hope and beauty threaded throughout these futures – but you might have to dig through some emotional wreckage and horrific tech to find it.
The opener Patchwork Girls sets the scene, and throws a match on that scene and torches it for kindle wood. A human android, with fully human parts, is forced to work in the film industry, being constantly killed to ensure realistic on-screen deaths and then resurrected. Croal writes this from her POV, increasing the readers’ torment by an average of a thousand, and turns a sick tale into a poignant one, and then from nowhere laces some hope or at least heroism from this carnival of nightmares. This story left me drained and shook. My god, what an opener.
One of Croal’s perennial fascinations is with our relentless drive to improve ourselves with tech and how this is inevitability manipulated by the capitalist corporatism which seems set to plague us even in imagined futures. In Better Self, the endless cycle of ads is combined with the corporate version of the healthy living obsession via a worker who is forced to watch the ads as they’re literally installed in her retinas as part of her employment – and these ads seem determined to make her take a pill to lose weight. It’s a gleefully sinister fable on the cost of corporate self improvement.
Similar corporate body changing hijinks are at work in (Un)censored, in which a woman with a chip installed to regulate her moods finds it working a little too well. Croal’s imagination is at its peak in these tales of the logical endpoint of body tech and corporate interference in our lives, and we are sent down chillingly inevitable avenues; this melding of late stage capitalism with biotech feels eerily plausible.
In the titular story Limelight, in which a young woman is brought back from near death by experimental tech, only to discover that her parents have altered her and improved her, turning her into a perfect version of her previously “flawed” self, Croal skilfully combines two of her other obsessions: whether we lose what defines us when we allow technology to offer unimagined advances, and how good intentions turn bad, in this case the terrifying desire for control of the mother over her “perfect” version of her daughter. It’s a creepy tale laced once again with a strong beat of hope that builds to an almost agonising chorus as you wonder if this time things will turn out alright.
Then, just as we are reeling from the brutalities and desperate brief joys of the near future, we are flung into the far future in the second half of stories. Plausibility is out; wildly imaginative is in, and some of the planetscapes Croal conjures are astonishing; on one planet, bees are rescued to be robotically restored and sent back into service in the dry zone, their rescuers dreaming of the Green Horizon; on another, a heart transplant saviour may come in the form of hearts grown as plants.
Elsewhere we see Croal playing around with genre, and leaning into her extensive horror background; in The Gathering, a space trader collects valuable dead souls, but there is a terrifying reckoning to be had back on his spaceship, where space becomes another haunted house. In the astonishingly creative genre mash Transference, robotics meets pure magic in a sci-fantasy blend that demands its own book.
But where these far future stories come into their own is in Croal’s obsession with the concept of loss – and how this is emphasized and strangely poignant in the vast careless wastes of space. In A Ring Around, a simple conversation with a well-meaning spaceship AI and a confused passenger wondering where his wife is broke me into two pieces; it’s in a simple back and forth like this that Croal’s beguilingly simple prose comes alive to tear you apart; see also The Rift Between Us, where a grieving lover gets the chance to visit an actual space afterlife in the hopes of finding their lost one.
Sometimes these stories of loss in space end in tech-fuelled denial, sometimes they end in poignant, beautiful closure, and sometimes – as in the triumphant, astonishing, ovation-summoning closing story Farewell my Prince, Croal finds a third way – and like all her other ways, it will still break your heart even as you cheer.
This is the must read collection of the year, not just for sci-fi fans but for anyone with a heart... Croal is a true visionary, and her vision will destroy you in terrible and beautiful ways.
September 19, 2024
Huge thanks to ShortWave for the physical ARC. I love this cover!
This is a science fiction short story collection, and I loved that the stories varied in length from flash fiction to novelette. I also really enjoyed the mixture of sub genres this goes through, from dystopian to horror. There’s some really incredible concepts being played with here, and the distinction the author draws between loss, love, grief, and affection in such a short amount of words is a huge win.
The title novelette, Limelight, is the real highlight for me. Experimental treatments allow for those dearly departed to come back. Would you make that decision? Could you leave them alone if there were options to tweak things, enhance things? For the parents in this heart breaking story, they’re split right up the street. But when one wins out over the other, they may find they get more than they bargained for.
The idea of changing, or even enhancing someone that you loved and lost, is in my opinion, directly besmirching their memory. But if your intentions were pure, what then? Or, do you really believe that that could ever be pure? For me this hit notes of Black Mirror, Ex Machina and Sarah Chorn’s A Sorrow Named Joy. A dystopian world where something like this could exist, but never fully be accepted. As a high schooler, she is ridiculed and insulted for being brought back, for living. A choice that was never truly hers. To me that made this the most horror based story in the collection.
As her mother continues to grasp for more and more control over her, all in the name of giving her daughter the life she ‘deserves’, her father does his best to stay away, ashamed of what he’s allowed. The juxtaposition of the two’s feelings were really well done. The split between obsession story and self guilt really drove home the theme. Personally, right as this one ends, I’d love to see it open up into an entire novel, but I’m blown away with how well it worked as it stands.
From scifi stories that seem near future, to those that seem out of reach, the thing this collection drives home is that Croal knows exactly how to make believable, and heart wrenching short stories. Body enhancing/manipulating mixed with various angles of corporate greed, make this its own kind of new body horror that I frankly want nothing to do with!
https://fanfiaddict.com/review-limeli...
This is a science fiction short story collection, and I loved that the stories varied in length from flash fiction to novelette. I also really enjoyed the mixture of sub genres this goes through, from dystopian to horror. There’s some really incredible concepts being played with here, and the distinction the author draws between loss, love, grief, and affection in such a short amount of words is a huge win.
The title novelette, Limelight, is the real highlight for me. Experimental treatments allow for those dearly departed to come back. Would you make that decision? Could you leave them alone if there were options to tweak things, enhance things? For the parents in this heart breaking story, they’re split right up the street. But when one wins out over the other, they may find they get more than they bargained for.
The idea of changing, or even enhancing someone that you loved and lost, is in my opinion, directly besmirching their memory. But if your intentions were pure, what then? Or, do you really believe that that could ever be pure? For me this hit notes of Black Mirror, Ex Machina and Sarah Chorn’s A Sorrow Named Joy. A dystopian world where something like this could exist, but never fully be accepted. As a high schooler, she is ridiculed and insulted for being brought back, for living. A choice that was never truly hers. To me that made this the most horror based story in the collection.
As her mother continues to grasp for more and more control over her, all in the name of giving her daughter the life she ‘deserves’, her father does his best to stay away, ashamed of what he’s allowed. The juxtaposition of the two’s feelings were really well done. The split between obsession story and self guilt really drove home the theme. Personally, right as this one ends, I’d love to see it open up into an entire novel, but I’m blown away with how well it worked as it stands.
From scifi stories that seem near future, to those that seem out of reach, the thing this collection drives home is that Croal knows exactly how to make believable, and heart wrenching short stories. Body enhancing/manipulating mixed with various angles of corporate greed, make this its own kind of new body horror that I frankly want nothing to do with!
https://fanfiaddict.com/review-limeli...
June 23, 2025
This collection from Lindsey Croal and Shortwave Publishing pulls off what few such volumes do. It carries a basic theme throughout without feeling forced. It attacks those themes from so many different angles that, if you read through it in a couple of sittings like I did, you feel the stories and images blending.
The protagonists in Croal's stories are broken. Some want to change who, or what they are, though there is never a sense that they truly believe it will be an improvement. There is loss, helplessness, and sadness in these pages that is unrelenting, turning a mirror on our world and using strange future or fantasy worlds to highlight our flaws.
There are no real week points. A few of the stories are very short, more like vignettes. My favorite in the collection is the title story, one of the longer pieces, in which a young girl's controlling mother gets completely out of control trying to mold her child into something she wants without considering what her child, or her husband might want. It's powerful, and far too familiar.
I highly recommend this collection.
The protagonists in Croal's stories are broken. Some want to change who, or what they are, though there is never a sense that they truly believe it will be an improvement. There is loss, helplessness, and sadness in these pages that is unrelenting, turning a mirror on our world and using strange future or fantasy worlds to highlight our flaws.
There are no real week points. A few of the stories are very short, more like vignettes. My favorite in the collection is the title story, one of the longer pieces, in which a young girl's controlling mother gets completely out of control trying to mold her child into something she wants without considering what her child, or her husband might want. It's powerful, and far too familiar.
I highly recommend this collection.
September 9, 2024
Sci-fi: a shortening of the term ‘science fience.’ These stories remind me of the short tales of Alastair Reynolds but with less technical details and more heart. Worth a read for all science fience fans.
May 2, 2025
A stellar collection of sci-fi stories with horror undertones. Loved it.
Read
May 21, 2024N.B. I do not rate on Goodreads.
First up, I don’t read sci-fi unless it happens to be included in a mixed genre anthology. That said, I was already familiar with Croal’s work and love her voice, so in this case I knew I would not be taking a risk, despite the genre.
This collection is divided neatly into two halves: Near, and Far. The former explores sci-fi themes and tropes here on Earth, and the latter in outer space.
Some pieces are flash fiction and others are short stories, and several have been previously published in prestigious places, so she’s certainly proven her capabilities.
I loved every single piece here. There is so much heart and soul in these stories, and Croal’s voice and style resonates throughout. They’re so relatable, so thought-provoking. I promise you will consider the messages behind them long after you’ve finished reading.
One last thing, if like me you’re a sci-fi virgin I highly recommend this collection as a stepping stone into the genre.
First up, I don’t read sci-fi unless it happens to be included in a mixed genre anthology. That said, I was already familiar with Croal’s work and love her voice, so in this case I knew I would not be taking a risk, despite the genre.
This collection is divided neatly into two halves: Near, and Far. The former explores sci-fi themes and tropes here on Earth, and the latter in outer space.
Some pieces are flash fiction and others are short stories, and several have been previously published in prestigious places, so she’s certainly proven her capabilities.
I loved every single piece here. There is so much heart and soul in these stories, and Croal’s voice and style resonates throughout. They’re so relatable, so thought-provoking. I promise you will consider the messages behind them long after you’ve finished reading.
One last thing, if like me you’re a sci-fi virgin I highly recommend this collection as a stepping stone into the genre.
February 22, 2025
3.5 stars...this was an interesting collection. It's filled with great ideas and that's what I love most about science fiction. I like how it takes the what ifs and you end up in a moral quandary. Based on premise alone...these would be 4 or 5 star stories. Unfortunately...the execution just didn't work great for me. Not a bad story in the bunch but upon finishing the collection there are only 2 stories that I think are memorable...the rest were just ok.
The two stand outs for me in this collection were;
Please Select Your Issue
Limelight
All in all it's a solid collection but wasn't a very exciting read for me. I would definitely consider reading more from this author because there's definitely potential here.
The two stand outs for me in this collection were;
Please Select Your Issue
Limelight
All in all it's a solid collection but wasn't a very exciting read for me. I would definitely consider reading more from this author because there's definitely potential here.
September 14, 2024
A powerful collection of 22 short stories. The book is divided into 2 parts: Near (Earth) and Far (space). With the exception of the titular story, the rest are pretty short, some even vignettes. I was immediately hooked from the first two, which actually ended up being my favorites, but each one here is incredibly effective speculative fiction. Quite a few had a heavy Black Mirror vibe.
There’s a lot to appreciate here. Absolutely worth reading, even if sci-fi is not a go to genre for you. The stories were thoughtful, emotional, and quite often terrifying. If you like books set in the not-so-distant future and about AI, this is a must.
My personal favorites, in chronological order: Patchwork Girls, Hush Little Sister, Better Self, Limelight, Something in the Air, Transference, Sleep Well My Prince.
Croal is definitely going to be an author for me to watch and I need her eco fiction and space horror projects immediately available.
There’s a lot to appreciate here. Absolutely worth reading, even if sci-fi is not a go to genre for you. The stories were thoughtful, emotional, and quite often terrifying. If you like books set in the not-so-distant future and about AI, this is a must.
My personal favorites, in chronological order: Patchwork Girls, Hush Little Sister, Better Self, Limelight, Something in the Air, Transference, Sleep Well My Prince.
Croal is definitely going to be an author for me to watch and I need her eco fiction and space horror projects immediately available.
September 10, 2024
Beautifully written, the themes from this short story collection will haunt me, probably until our AI overlords actually do take over. I enjoyed the split of the stories into near and far future, the near part feeling particularly unsettling and close to the bone. The stories are dark, imaginative and twisty but also quite often heartbreaking (or warming, depending on how you feel).
June 27, 2024
A perfect intersection of sci fi and horror
May 31, 2025
Limelight and other stories is a brilliant collection of short stories written in a lyrical, haunting and at times uncanny style that will stay with you long after you've finished reading. Split into two sections - Near and Far - the first half of the book is a series of stories that play on the themes of uncanny valley dystopia linked, among other things, to tech and how it can distort our sense of self and how we interact with others in the near future (the titular story Limelight a notably visceral and haunting example of this). It's the stuff of nightmares and feels more and more relevant to the world we're currently living in. 'Far' brings you to more experimental shores but with just as much emotional punch and ever-more inventive landscapes and themes, without ever losing the human centre of the Near part of the series. An excellent read, and one I would highly recommend!
January 13, 2025
Wow, what a stellar collection of sci-fi stories! Some of my favourites (Sleep Well, My Prince) were a wonderful blend of sci-fi and magic/fairy tale, making this a really unique collection of stories. It’s the sort of collection that will get you out of a reading slump – I took my time through the stories, savouring each one and taking time to re-read and appreciate them as I went along. Croal’s writing style is accessible but still full of depth. The stories will leave you feeling at times uneasy, but sometimes hopeful. As a reader who tends toward fantasy more than sci-fi, I would recommend this collection to fans of both. I’m very looking forward to Croal’s next collection coming out in 2025.
December 2, 2024
Limelight and Other Stories is a collection of 22 high concept SF stories, divided into 2 parts, Near and Far. I was a little nervous picking up a purely SF collection, because the science part sometimes gets way too complicated and conceptual for my taste, but I shouldn't have worried, because even though Croal plays with some mind-boggling dystopian ideas, the stories mostly focus on the various ways humans manage to destroy everything. There is darkness in the stories, but it is smart, ironic, and deeply human - just like the terrible, controlling mother in the title piece.
This is an enjoyable, thought-provoking collection of excellent stories.
This is an enjoyable, thought-provoking collection of excellent stories.
July 27, 2025
A fantastic collection of sci-fi tales, brilliant hooks or concepts matched with heavy emotions. The book is split perfectly into Near and Far stories, those in the near future or far out worlds. I really liked the horror aspects to some of the stories, but more terrifying were how all the Near tales felt somehow the most realistic sci-fi I've ever read. So many well-told stories will stick with me for a long time, just because how prescient they felt. Even as they depressed me, I just wanted to keep reading the next one!
August 18, 2024
This is a great selection of horror/sci-fi stories. Even though most are short, they have characters and settings that don't fall flat like so many short stories do. The writing feels "fuller" and there are underlying messages to be learned from many of them.
I enjoyed all of the stories and it's also a book I will pick up and go back to reread.
I enjoyed all of the stories and it's also a book I will pick up and go back to reread.
February 22, 2025
3.75
A good collection of sci-fi/horror stories. Despite their brevity, many characters are rich and full of personality. While I found myself wanting more, each story still left a strong emotional impact.
My favorites (in no particular order): The Patchwork Girls, Limelight, The Bee Bearer, Sleep Well, My Prince, and Better Self.
A good collection of sci-fi/horror stories. Despite their brevity, many characters are rich and full of personality. While I found myself wanting more, each story still left a strong emotional impact.
My favorites (in no particular order): The Patchwork Girls, Limelight, The Bee Bearer, Sleep Well, My Prince, and Better Self.
September 3, 2024
What a great collection of stories! I really do adore short fiction. Thank you so much to Shortwave Books for providing me the ARC. The book is out today (September 3, 2024) so go give it a read.
September 22, 2024
Well-formed stories with much intrigue.
October 17, 2024
A wonderful collection of unique sci-fi/fantasy stories that are highly enjoyable to read.
November 7, 2024
Let me start by saying sci-fi isn't really my thing especially when it comes to books, I'm a horror girlie through and through, BUT this book, these stories, blew me away!!! 16 out of the 21 short stories in this collection were either 4 or 5 ⭐️ reads for me, that's HUGE!!! (11 were 5 ⭐️)
•
I have been in and out of a slump for the last 2 months, ever since the school year started. I come home and I'm so exhausted, my reading time has quickly turned into nap time and I've been struggling to finish a book. I'm finally getting back into the swing of things so I'm hoping this slumpy phase is coming to an end. This book though, I think it was just what I needed.
•
These stories were so full of emotion, heartbreak, love, loneliness, just so much packed into each one; I just couldn't get enough.
•
Some of my FAVORITES:
🪐Better Self
🪐Hush Little Sister (M3GAN vibes)
🪐Please Select Your Issue
🪐(UN)Censored
🪐Limelight- (Kay that bitch 😡😡😡)
🪐Something In the Air
🪐A Ring Around
🪐Transference
🪐The Rift Between Us (that last line 😭😭)
🪐Sleep Well My Prince (!!!!!!!)
🪐Have You Decided On Your Question (how could you end with this teaser?!?! 😭 I NEED to read more!!)
•
Overall, 🪐🪐🪐🪐🪐/5
Thank you to Shortwave for this gifted copy, it's so damn good!!!
•
I have been in and out of a slump for the last 2 months, ever since the school year started. I come home and I'm so exhausted, my reading time has quickly turned into nap time and I've been struggling to finish a book. I'm finally getting back into the swing of things so I'm hoping this slumpy phase is coming to an end. This book though, I think it was just what I needed.
•
These stories were so full of emotion, heartbreak, love, loneliness, just so much packed into each one; I just couldn't get enough.
•
Some of my FAVORITES:
🪐Better Self
🪐Hush Little Sister (M3GAN vibes)
🪐Please Select Your Issue
🪐(UN)Censored
🪐Limelight- (Kay that bitch 😡😡😡)
🪐Something In the Air
🪐A Ring Around
🪐Transference
🪐The Rift Between Us (that last line 😭😭)
🪐Sleep Well My Prince (!!!!!!!)
🪐Have You Decided On Your Question (how could you end with this teaser?!?! 😭 I NEED to read more!!)
•
Overall, 🪐🪐🪐🪐🪐/5
Thank you to Shortwave for this gifted copy, it's so damn good!!!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews