Big Motherfuckin List of Recs 2024

I read a lot of stuff that was really good this year! If you wrote something that isn’t on this list (which is like…most stories that exist) it’s not a reflection on the story, I promise, but my brain is a sack of cats and unless something really stands out I often forget what I’ve read. My tastes trend towards queer, horror, and fantasy.

I’d also like to add that nearly everything on here is free to read online. Next year I’d like to make more of an effort to dive into the magazines that don’t publish for free online but this was not that year.

So if your story is here—congrats, you were very memorable to me for some reason! And maybe if you’re seeing this and haven’t read some of these, it will inspire you to check them out!

Short Stories

Okay look. I don’t want to talk about how many times Nightmare magazine is on this list compared to other places. Don’t @ me, don’t skeet me or whatever, I just love what they do, and especially when what they do is body horror.

So here is just a collection of stories I REALLY loved this year, and that I think you should check out! Some of these stories have had a lot of attention, and some I have barely seen mentioned. Whatever the case, they ended up on my phone and in my hands and stuck out to me.

Butter by Erin Brown, Nightmare Magazine

What a way to start my list!!! Mind the CWs, this story is a brutal tale of a box of butter, body horror, capitalism?? And the horrors we’ll wilfully inflict on others as we try to survive. The gore is so visceral that I had to take breaks, and if that doesn’t entice you I don’t know what will!

Cicadas, and Their Skins by Avra Margariti, Strange Horizons Magazine

“I spend my first summer as an orphan watching cicadas fuck, scream, and molt.”

Has there ever been a better opening line? Perhaps not. This story from Avra is about religion, gender fuckery, magic, and disability. It’s weird in all the best ways.

Ecdysis by Samir Sirk Morató, Podcastle

This was another story that started with a banger opening line and then just…kept being banger lines the whole way through. A bizarre story about a lindworm (a dragon, in a way) who became a man, and the third bride his family makes him take who is also supposed to slay him but ultimately does not. It was heartbreaking and beautiful and so worth your time.

Emotional Resonance by V.M. Ayala, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 (originally at Escape Pod)

Okay this is cheating a little because it was originally published in 2023 BUT it appeared in BASFF in 2024 so I’m counting it! If you haven’t read this piece by V.M. Ayala, you should go do that now. It’s a beautiful, queer story of two robots who risk a fight against capitalism to be together, even if that together can’t last forever. And don’t we all need a little bit of robots fighting capitalism these days?

like blood on the mouths of death by Victor Forna, Nightmare Magazine

“…at the age of five and a half, when your mother tells you she’s fine, you believe her.”

THIS story. I swear, if you read nothing else from this list, please read this story by Victor. It’s this tragic, heartbreaking story of a mother trying to her best to live for her son despite creatures that are slowly taking her apart. I read it as an allegory for unbeatable illness, and it makes my heart ache for the strength of parents whenever I read it.

Fairy tales for drowning girls by Bree Wernicke, The Orange & Bee

A beautiful, haunting story of the lies women will tell other women, and how they sacrifice their sisters for tradition and comfort. It left me oddly hopeful that someone in this story could be free and escape the cycle.

Five Views of the Planet Tartarus by Rachael K. Jones, Lightspeed Magazine

Everyone has been shouting about this story and I can’t emphasise enough: it’s because it’s amazing. Rachael has created a master class in short fiction in 549 words with this terrifying little piece. You’ll read it through once, finish with your eyes wide and a gasp in your mouth, and then re-read it looking for the clues pointing to what you just learned.

Grottmata by Thomas Ha, Nightmare Magazine

This story is beautiful, and creepy, and haunting, all the things Thomas Ha does phenomenally on the regular. It’s a story about an occupation and the people living through it, their history, and their future. It’s got some Junji Ito-style creepiness that was delightful to read, and I think about this story regularly.

Linden Honey, Blackcurrant Wine by M.R. Robinson, Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Ugh. Just ugh! This is M.R.’s debut piece and it’s a gorgeous piece about an old woman who was once not so old, and the love she share(s/d) with a woodmaiden, a creature of the woods. Irena lived a generally happy life with a man who was kind to her and grandchildren she adores, but she always wondered what might have happened to that woodmaiden. I love sapphic stories, and I love sapphic stories about older women because we just get so, so few of them.

Painted Surfaces by Guan Un, Nightmare Magazine

Ooh I love this one so much. A creepy little re-telling of a Chinese folktale where a man discovers his wife goes missing each night. When he decides to follow her one night and see where she goes, he’s surprised by what he finds but ultimately loves her just the same. I can’t tell you how much I adore a narrative around “my partner is monstrous but I love them anyway” and this has all of those feelings and gorgeous prose on top of it.

Rachel is at a Protest by Esther Alter, The Deadlands

This is a very dark one about a Jewish trans woman grappling with her ancestry and her own participation in protests against the Palestinian genocide. She has horrific dreams where she dies at the hands of bigots time and time again. It ties up so much guilt, both Rachel’s own and a kind of inherited guilt she feels from her heritage, and pain, and helplessness. It’s a truly beautiful and heartbreaking story.

Skinless by Eugenia Triantafyllou, Haven Spec Magazine

Okay I almost had like 4 Eugenia stories on here and then I made myself be reasonable. This was my favourite of hers this year, though! It’s a short, creepy little story about girls who borrow skins, and how they like to make people afraid of them. Who can’t relate to that at least a little bit?

Star Berry and the Wolf Trail by Nicole Munro, Augur Magazine

This story has not had enough attention, but it’s worth buying the issue of Augur magazine that it’s in just to read Nicole’s story, I promise. Star Berry is led on the wolf trail in the sky by a young pup that she meets, and takes you on the stunning and magical journey with her. The prose is just beautiful in this, and I can’t wait to see what Nicole writes next.

Ten Ways of Looking at Snow, Reflected Off an Obsidian Armor by Avra Margariti, Haven Spec Magazine

I also could have included as many Avra stories as my grubby little palms can hold but I kept it to two, okay? I’m a saint. This story is a dark, queer fairytale of a wintery knight and the girl she strikes a bargain with. Their love is tumultuous and strained and all-encompassing, and the storytelling through ten winters will leave you reeling at the end.

The Caged Budgerigars by Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar, Flash Fiction Online

A beautiful, quick little flash piece about a woman who buys budgerigars (little birds) for her son, and watches them fall in love as she takes care of them because her son quickly forgets about them. Very relatable as a parent, but this story has just stunning imagery and language and a tale of a woman finding herself.

The Nightmare Delivery Service by Angela Liu, Small Wonders

Angela’s published some amazing things this year (I have a poem of hers mentioned below as well) and I could have listed almost any of them but I just love this tiny piece and keep coming back to it. I really love the call to action at the end, this idea that the Nightmare Service knows you could pick happy dreams, but they think you’ll come back for nightmares because they make us all feel alive.

Trees Can Have My Soul; in Return, Let Me Have My Grief by Rukman Ragas, khōréō magazine

I friggin love this story. It’s this beautiful interplay between two cultures, neither of which the narrator really belongs to, and how grief worms its way into the mix. How do you celebrate your dead when you feel guilty about not being there while they were alive? It’s a really beautiful story.

Your Return to the Five Ruins of the Bog by Parker O’Neill, Apex Magazine

A creepy, dread-filled sort-of epistolary story told through reflections and journal entries from a scientist investigating The Bog and its creators. I loved this short little dive into how a relationship unfolds and ends, and I kept wanting to know more, and more, just like one of its unfortunate investigators.

Where They Sleep by Heather Clitheroe, Beneath Ceaseless Skies

This is a melancholy, aching story of grief and hauntings told from the perspective of a very good boy (a dog). I felt so much for this narrator, his story was so human and heartfelt. It made me cry so hard y’all, you don’t even know!

Within the Dead Whale by Spencer Nitkey, Flash Fiction Online

This story is about a dead whale and the hole in it, and within that hole the author has somehow packed feelings about dread, and parenting, and what we’ll do for our children and at what cost. So creepy and atmospheric and strange, this instantly became a modern classic for me.

Poetry

You will likely notice I have far less poetry recommended here than I do short stories, and that’s because I simply have no idea what I’m doing. All the poetry I like is determined by ~vibes but perhaps you also enjoy ~vibes and will like some of these!

3,000 Year Love Confession by Angelia Liu, Heartlines Spec

Angela has the uncanny ability to tug at your heartstrings in so few words, and urge you to care about someone you’ve never met and never will. This poem shared a TOC at Heartlines with my debut story this year and I just come back and read it sometimes because I think it’s beautiful.

EVERYONE I HAVE EVER KISSED THINKS ABOUT ME ALL OF THE TIME AND IS IN LOVE WITH ME by Hilary Kaufman, Taco Bell Quarterly

This poem is weird as shit and you should just go into it knowing nothing, but read it anyway.

Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying by Noor Hindi, Poetry Foundation

This was actually originally published in 2020 and then (from what I can tell) subsequently published by the author in a collected book of poetry that came out later. This is the only entry on this list that wasn’t published in 2024 but I don’t care because I think everyone should read this righteous anger from a Palestinian American.

Intersections of grief by Diana Dima, The Deadlands

Anytime I read a Diana Dima poem I know I’m in for stunning language and imagery, and this one absolutely does not disappoint. As she reflects on death and grief, she tries to reconcile languages with things we cannot name and it breaks my heart every time.

Poem in the Shape of the Poet Beating Henry Kissinger to Death with Their Bare Hands by Felix, Taco Bell Quarterly

I just gotta say, it was not on my 2024 mood board that TBQ would publish several of my favourite poems this year but seriously, this shit goes so hard. I’m not always a fan of poems-in-the-shape-of-things but if you’re going to make one in a shape, this is the best shape possible.

The Southern Bells by Beatrice Winifred Iker, Nightmare Magazine

A brutal poem that pulls no punches about Appalachia and racial violence in America. This one doesn’t hold your hand and I think I love that most about it.

The Witch Recalls Her Craft by Angel Leal, Uncanny Magazine

A witch, powerful and relatable, laments how much of her magic she’s forgotten or lost access to because of the nature of balancing life with magic. It’s so, so beautiful.