31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 18: “Glimmer” by Ian Rankin
"Glimmer" is a lean story, right from its declarative opening sentence.
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 17: “Dead Set” by Cho Nam-Joo; Jamie Chang, trans.
"Dead Set" is a story that takes direct aim at the punishments that accrue to women in an unfair society.
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 15: “Passing Through” by Vladimir Sorokin; Max Lawton, trans.
In the Soviet Union, Sorokin implies, the government is able to act in a most atrocious manner, while the minor functionaries who work the factories and offices have to carry shit.
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 14: “The House on the Esplanade” by Anne Hébert; Norma Scott Stoddart, trans.
The critic Delbert Russell referred to the story as "a mordant criticism of the artificiality and emptiness of the life of the haute bourgeoisie of Quebec."
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 13: “Survivor Type” by Stephen King
King's accomplishment here is in combining his three levels of fear – terror, horror, and disgust – in a surprising and highly literary manner.
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 12: “The Home Front” by Charles Ardai
The notion of redemption is an element of hardboiled crime fiction Ardai plays with in this story.
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 11: “Milk” by Anuja Varghese
The story focuses on Anju, an overweight racialized high school student who is relentlessly bullied by a group of popular white girls.
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 9: “Burial Ground” by Carleigh Baker
The idea of progress, and what it displaces, takes on a surreal aspect in "Burial Ground."
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 8: “Progeny” by Philip K. Dick
In the world of Dick's story, efficiency and rationality are paramount.
31 Days of Stories 2025, Day 8: “Hairs on Me” by Virginie Despentes; Will McMorran, trans.
"Hairs on Me" is a complicated reckoning with female desire and the kind of bodily insecurity a media-saturated world imposes on women.