The Belle of the Ball

by Stephen Graham Jones

In a future where people can travel back in time and do anything they want without consequences, one disgruntled young man decides to visit his parents two years earlier.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Time Travel, Indigenous

27 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 12, 2025

About the author

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author thirty-five or so books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in.

Reviews

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 2 out of 5]

An angry young man who would like to kill a lot of people travels back in time and visits his parents.


I do like how the time travel is used here, with the past being fixed. So you can go back in time, but the past itself doesn’t seem to allow travelers to change it. The wrong kind of people seem to think there’s a weakness in the system and try to exploit it. That’s a good concept. Though I find it hard to care about the main character because he is so unlikeable. The twist is good, but it’s a bit open to interpretation. This seems done on purpose though.


I’m sorry, but I think I just needed some more explanation to understand and appreciate this one more. Though it's well written and I did enjoy the time travel concept and the twist.

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story from Stephen Graham Jones, published by Tor.Com and available free.

Set in the future when time travel is available, but set up in a way that the traveller can't alter the past. People are using it to go back in time and reap vengeance, killing people they have grudge against, but because it happens in a different reality stream it is real, but doesn't effect reality.

When the protagonist goes back he is surprised what he discovers - but it is a short story so no more plot outlining.

Very quick and fairly simple, a basic 3 star read.

[♥Milica♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love time travel and the ideas explored here, plus that ending!! I wish it was a bit longer though.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short time travel tail that packs a punch. Somehow makes the idea of murdering your parents acceptable, even mundane. Did not see that coming :)

[Mangrii · Rating 3 out of 5]

¿Y si pudieras viajar en el tiempo al pasado y no hubiera consecuencias en el presente ni en el futuro?

Muy curiosa esta exploración del viaje en el tiempo de Stephen Graham Jones✨

Puedes leerla gratis (en inglés) en Reactor: https://reactormag.com/the-belle-of-t...

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting short story that blended sci-fi and horror. It successfully balanced the genuine tension of horror stories with the cool ideas and concepts of sci-fi stories. The story’s real achievement is how it successfully shifted tone. A character who initially seems monstrous becomes surprisingly sympathetic once you understand what he’s actually facing. That shift gave the tale genuine heart, even if it was tinged with melancholy. This was my first try with Stephen Graham Jones and it is definitely a success as I was left pondering this one after finishing it. Which is the sign of a good short story for sure.

The set-up was pretty cool. In this future world folks could (possibly) go back in time for a day and do whatever they wanted with no consequences to the “real” timeline when they returned to it. The set-up was pure slasher/horror with the implication our time traveler was going back in time to kill his parents. It never quite played out as simple as that and the story managed to pack some good emotional weight before ending on the classic sci-fi and horror twist!

The tale had fun on a few levels with its fake vs real time travel premise and the parallels to dementia/Alzheimer as well as the horror vs emotional trauma themes. I’m sure I missed half of what Jones was intending, but I found what I did take in fairly clever and thought provoking and it was all wrapped in a tale with a decent emotional core.

The ambiguous twist ending could have come with that Twilight Zone exit music for sure. I’d be interested to learn what interpretation folks are leaning into for it be it the horror/slasher vibe, the was it ever real dementia parallels, or the stages of grief vibe? I’m leaning towards the last one but expect most folks will favour the earlier interpretations.

All in all a good short story. The first time I’ve done a short story in ages and it has reminded me how effective they can be. This was my first try with Stephen Graham Jones but I definitely might give one of his full horror books a go in the future.

Rating: 4.5 stars.

Audio Note: Used the ElevenReader text-to-speech app to listen to this one. Used the Titan (conversational young) voice. Seemed solid enough.

[Lorin (paperbackbish) · Rating 5 out of 5]

How dare you make me feel feelings this early in the morning, Stephen.

[Radwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love time travel stories, and that ending, messed me up man!

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never dug SGJ's short works as much as his novels, and this holds to that mold. It's an odd little story, but I have the same problem with it that I do with the Purge films: the underlying assumption that given an opportunity to do anything with no consequences, people en masse would choose murder and mayhem. I definitely understand why a disillusioned young man would THINK he wanted to choose those things (and why he might ultimately end up not choosing them) but the idea that these time travel Purge nights are commonplace just seems wildly unlikely to me.

Good, spooky, ending though.

[Alex Sarll]

"Gray know probably nobody’s messing with things. All the things broken in his world can’t be traced back to this or that despot living or dying, or some random butterfly either flapping its wings or getting stepped on before it could—they’re just the result of, you know, humans humaning, shooting their own feet every second or third step, then limping ahead to do it again, any and all lessons woefully unlearned. How the species has made it far enough to come up with time-travel tech, much less commercialize it, is the biggest mystery of all to Gray."
If time travel operates by the hypothesis where you can't actually travel into and change your own past, because travelling back branches a new timeline, then wouldn't a lot of people just treat that as one more way to be awful without consequences? Except maybe if someone who wasn't a total sociopath did that, he might realise in time (hah) that what happens can still matter even if it's in a timeline that's ostensibly going nowhere. I know people, who should know better, who insist that there's nothing to the third Deadpool film beyond nods and in-jokes, and maybe next time I should point them at this, which is addressing very similar themes in less pyrotechnical ways.

[Skunke · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 out of 5.

Really nothing special.
While I thought the concept was extremely cool, I wish more was done with it, like, Stephen Graham Jones could have written a little anthology, "Tales from Fakeland" where he had maybe 8-9 different stories of people time traveling and doing different things. There was just so much potential in this idea, and I wish it was used for something bigger.

But, since this book was free, I highly recommend it. Graham Jones has a really good style, I just wish it was longer and, yeah, I kinda forgot what happened the second I put it down. Still, if you don't know if Stephen Graham Jones's style is for you, give this a try and focus only on the writing.

I usually give a "if this book was a song" but since this is a short story, I won't do it here.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tend to love or dislike Jone’s books- and this very short story was one I really enjoyed. It makes you think about personal morals and criminality.
What would you do if you could go back into a simulation in your life where there are no consequences? Would you be curious to know what it was like to commit murder or uncover secrets? 🤔

[coty ☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i was not aware that stephen graham jones was capable of dropping a pkd-esque short story; that's my bad for ever doubting him.

brief but so overwhelming. sharp and incisive; it's amazing how much character he puts into only 5,000 words. this surprisingly makes a fitting companion story to 3 days, 9 months, 27 years by john scalzi; very fortuitous that two of the best writers have dropped such similar, yet strikingly different in terms of tone, stories so close together. both have such an amazing depth of worldbuilding, but scalzi's story feels just a little more hopeful in a way; belle of the ball is devastating. a masterclass in short fiction. i'm in awe.

[Jeffrey W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat story. Not his best, probably one I would lose in the shuffle were it in a collection. But it’s a cool look at time travel from my favorite mind in horror. Definitely would like to seem him do a deeper dive into the subject. This felt like an hors d'oeuvre.

[Es · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept was intriguing but why on earth did the main character have the desire to kill? The story doesn't really give an explanation for it. It seems that the only reason is to bait and switch the reader's expectations of the story's direction.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO READ ALOUD 😭

[unstable.books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh Stephen, why must you hurt us so?

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://reactormag.com/the-belle-of-t...

[Pratyasha Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Really enjoyed the author's take on time travel, and loved how the story progressed.
Not sure if I am on board with the twist in the end, but it was a fun read.

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very pleased that I read this after the Scalzi short story, as it follows on nicely from many of the ideas around time travel that are raised in that book. The multi verse theory of split time streams is one that I do really like, and this offers a great take on it, where the idea of the multi verse theory comes from seeing no impact of what is done in the past on the present the travellers return to. There is some great mess from your head writing in there - is it a trick, a simulation, what is real?

The idea of travelling back to wreak havoc on those that you feel have wronged you is quite horrific - is murder any less just because you don't have to see the ramifications of the choice in your present? And if you are travelling to a different time stream to do whatever it is that you wish to do, then returning within 24 hours, no one ever knows the real consequences of what has been done. That in itself should be enough to pause and reconsider...

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Belle of the Ball by Stephen Graham Jones is a Tor original short. You can read this story for free on the Tor.com site https://reactormag.com/the-belle-of-t...

In a future where people can travel back in time and do anything they want without consequences, one disgruntled young man decides to visit his parents two years earlier.

My ongoing quest to get current with the Tor short stories.

It all feels real. It feels like there might be actual consequences.
That’s what Gray’s paying for.

I can't resist a time travel story!

4 Stars

[Thia Reads A Lot]

3.0*

A man pays with (stolen?) credits to go back in time to murder his parents in a commercialized fool-proof time machine. After sharpening the garden shears, he has a change of heart. He goes back but is pretty sure he isn't back to the real world anyway. He visits his parents and spends the night there, sure he is hearing his time-travelling self installing the tent outside.

The end is my least favourite part, how did he end up travelling forward in time? Or is it another him travelling back?

[Beth Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Graham Jones is ALWAYS Stephen Graham Jones.

This starts out reading like anything he writes always starts out: off-kilter with that odd cadence that makes you think the editor wasn't paying enough attention. But then you're like, nah, this is SGJ, trust the process.

We've got a knife, it's one of his slasher things. Not my fave, but at least it's not his zombies, right??

Then the next thing you know, you're crying, it's over and you've been had by a Stephen Graham Jones short story AGAIN.

Because Stephen Graham Jones is ALWAYS Stephen Graham Jones.

[Craig Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer SGJ's novels to his short fiction, generally, but this one had an interesting premise, went in a direction I didn't expect, and a strong ending. What more can you ask for from 25 pages or so?

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

So short while also successfully emotionally gripping.

"Of course they wanted him gone. It could only be so long until he figured out what was happening to her. And then, he knows, he never leaves, he stays to help, and his life never really gets started."

[Rach · Rating 5 out of 5]

the gasp I gusped

[The Litt Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, the classic simulation story!

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of short stories, but this had a decent idea and an unexpected twist. Don't think you can ask for much more out of 5000 words.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t have much of an appetite for horror/fantasy/sci-fi. Not my genres. But this short story captivated me. Just the right length and it packed a powerful punch.