Brianne’s Reviews > The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025 > Status Update

These next 5 stories I read were an excellent selection, especially the one by Isabel J Kim — that one reminded me a bit of the The Lottery.

5/5: “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” Isabel J Kim
4.5/5: “The Witch Trap” Jennifer Hudak
5/5: “Yarns” Susan Palwick
4.5/5: “The Wonders of the World” ‘Pemi Aguda
3/5: “Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!” TJ Klune

Country Birds, Kij Johnson — 3.5/5
Fuck Them Kids, Tatiana Obey — 2/5
The River Judge, SL Huang — 5/5 (excellent!)
The Weight of Your Own Ashes, Carlie St. George — 2.5/5
An Ode to the Minor Arcana in a Triplet Flow, Xavier Garcia — 3/5
The Forgetting Room, Kathryn H Ross — 4/5
Look at the Moon, Dominique Dickey — 3/5

Finished “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” (Yoachim) & did not like it. I found it fake-deep — pretentious, but holding no profound meaning. 1/5

Finished “Also, the Cat” (Swirsky) & adored it. The social dynamics between the characters were very vivid. 5/5

Finished “The Audit” (Blake), good, but with an unsatisfying ending. 3.5/5