164 free-to-read stories tagged “Metafictional”
The narrator is a witch who works in a public library somewhere in the rural American South. Her job is to get patrons the books they need, but a lonely teenage boy poses a challenge.
child-abusedeath-of-a-loved-onemental-illnesssuicide
"So they broke into the hole in the ground, and they killed the kid, and all the lights went out in Omelas: click, click, click. And the pipes burst and there was a sewage leak and the newscasters said there was a typhoon on the way, so they (a different...
child-abusechild-deathgoreviolence
"Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” (Roud 423, Child 313) is a traditional English folk ballad. Like many traditional songs, the lyrics are unattributed. Child transcribed twenty verses, and a twenty-first got added later (and is included here for some unknown...
deathviolence
"This is our story, simplified: Life. Loss. Transformation. Love. Death. Iteration. The first time you get our message, you only / find one thread. It mimics your language in / its simplest form, a single strand of words / laid end to end. You will have to...
death
"WHEEP-3 (“Dr. Weep”), probably the most renowned AI AI-critic of the last two decades, was retired by the Shallow Laboratory at Stanford University last Wednesday. Created by Dr. Jody Reynolds Tran more than two decades ago, the experimental generative...
death
"Bloodsoaked and grinning, the Soldier climbs to the summit of the ruins. The wind is mountain-top fast. It grabs the strands of her hair that have escaped her ponytail and sticks them to her ecstatic mouth: the slick surface of teeth, the gloss-wet of...
violence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
abusebody-horrordeathgoreracismsexual-violenceviolence
In this spell-binding tale, a Pakistani storyteller captivates a group of wide-eyed tourists with a nesting doll of interlocked stories about a trickster and a hidden city ruled by the Queen of Red Midnight.
abusebody-horrorchild-deathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
child-death
"Cool and Sexy Asian Girl stands outside the convenience store under the striped awning and waits for the rain to stop. The rain is never going to stop. Cool and Sexy Asian Girl would need to go to a different city for the rain to stop, a city not built on...
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
child-abusedeath-of-a-loved-onesuicideviolence
A stoner kid and his best friend attempt to move a sofa across town during an alien invasion...
death-of-a-loved-onegoreviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
body-horrorviolence
"In one version of the story, nobody dies, and you get to keep the princess as your maid. She chafes against this, longing for her silks and jewels. You scoff, tugging her after you, a tangle of jasmine wound around her arms. She’s tried to break free many...
body-horrordeathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
"Things began to go badly for the crew of the USFS Erwin around the time Dr. Marchere’s coffee mug spontaneously reassembled itself. Dr. Louis Marchere was not, at that moment, conducting some manner of experiment. Well, he was, only not on entropy and the...
death
Vincent lost his mom on one of the first Mars missions. He’s had a career as a successful author, but he’s always refused to talk about his mother. Fifty years later, he tells us how he decided to end his silence and write a book about her.
death-of-a-loved-one
In 12th-Century England, six-year-old Ada flees the vicious reptilian wastoures who swam the countryside eating people and animals alike.
body-horrorchild-abusedeathviolence
The soprano playing Liù keeps trying to change the opera’s gruesome plot, starting with her own death scene.
deathsexual-violenceviolence
Aria just has a few days to save the whole universe from being swallowed up by Zarzak, the infinite love machine.
deathviolence
A choose-your-own-adventure story in which you navigate the clinic on a space station full of aliens.
body-horrordeathviolence
"As always, I’m doing a buddy read with MariaReadsALot because she talked me into it, and boy, was she right! What a strange world and what powerful characters Titos Pavlou has created! I can’t stop thinking about this book even though this might be for...
death
When their rental truck breaks down, two friends moving cross-country kill time by telling stories about the strange carving in front of the motel where they’re awaiting a mechanic…
deathviolence
"Can someone get the doors? Thanks. Please remember we’re on an honor system for chairs—if you’ve eaten today, please leave them for someone who hasn’t. We don’t need another fainting incident. First of all, if you’re looking for a technical look at...
"INTERVIEWER We’ve spoken about your use of the “weird” in your stories, but have you personally ever experienced anything akin to something that might happen to one of Lovecraft’s characters? BOEKNER Yes — despite all evidence to the contrary, I remain...
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
deathdeath-of-a-loved-onegoreviolence
"There is a future in which a hellgate opens off the coast of California. It happens at midnight on the first day of the new year, which is sooner than anyone expected. The waters rise and we are forced to abandon our home, but one of the neighbors has a...
deathillness-and-pandemicmental-illnessviolence
There is a woman, and she is a man’s wife. Please give her name. Call her whatever you’d like.
abusebody-horrorviolence
A post-human civilization of synthetic beings, fixated on the concept of children, grapples with the meaning of life…after life ceases to exist.
body-horrordeath
"A man who will be given a second name in ten thousand years and a man whose name will be forgotten sit in a forest, or perhaps a grassy plain, or perhaps a cold tundra. It is a biome that will not exist in ten thousand years but whose footprint will be...
mental-illnesssuicide
For Grant Rutherford, work is both life and legacy — but when he dies a mere week after his wife, what he leaves behind will have metaphysical reverberations he could never have foreseen. Content warnings: Grief, medicalized illness, death of a loved one...
death-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemicsubstance-use
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
body-horrorchild-abusedeath
Edgar Allan Poe’s writing has brought a creature into this world and it inhabits a young woman who wants to be rid of it. It has its own agenda.
deathdeath-of-a-loved-onesuicide
Nigerian astronaut Abacha Tunde has been abandoned in space since 1990 and he would appreciate some help getting home.
On the planet First Foot, the small town of Joe's Corner faces conflict over building a radio telescope close to local alien artifacts.
"It was perhaps inevitable you would arrive at the Goblin Library. You begin your walk at the open window of the Goblin Reading Room where your grappling hook bit the sandstone windowsill. Cries of alarm and dismay follow you up from the streets below, yet...
death
"They cut off Auréle’s head and they put it on a pike above the city’s third best bridge. To me, that seemed a shame. I had only just got his nose right. It had a crook in it, Auréle’s nose. A sporting accident, from his days at the Academy. He’d been...
death-of-a-loved-oneviolence
"Dear Dr. Erzsébet Krajcsik-Nagy, I am contacting you as a member of the general public, and not as a fellow scholar, though I must say my chosen field of art history does have certain similarities to yours. I read the interview with you in the online...
"The Alamgir Dynasty has been guiding the Kingdom of Hindustan through centuries of peace, prosperity, and stability. Yet, credit does not rest solely on the wisdom of our modern kings; from the earliest days of what was then called the Alamgiri Empire,...
death-of-a-loved-one
"I did not want to write a report for this book, but Lady Koi-Koi convinced me to, even though she says it “does a disservice to our own stories.”1 I also have to pass my WAEC, and this book is on our reading list for the mock exam, so, fine. I will...
"The seven siblings sit in a place beyond the boundaries of space and time, where everything is made of stories. Even them. Especially them. People are made of stories too, but only the versions of their stories that they tell themselves. Curated, limited,...
death-of-a-loved-oneviolence
"Herein is the account of the evening the crew of the Forever Trying invited the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries into our home. I, Felix, Chronicler of the ship, endeavor to capture a true and accurate record of transpired events on...
"Down here among the dead, our fairy tales begin at the end. So Skullbone—hero, trickster, corpse—plans to dive into the great Maw that rends the sea-ice far beyond our gravelled shores. Against the frozen waves’ mottled blue and glassy white, the Maw...
death
"This much was clear. At some point in my future, I would have access to a time machine. This was a ridiculous sentence and a tragically irrelevant concern while my wife Judi was on the floor and possibly dying, but there it was: nonsense, in the presence...
death-of-a-loved-onesuicide
Four different groups of people explore the pros and cons of different ways to reproduce in the future.
death
After 500 years, the King of Myth and Shadow is getting bored, so he decides to take a vacation in New York City.
In which we learn how bad translations averted a war and led to lasting peace.
misogynywar
A member of a group of powerful beings who make stories real tells us the truth about Solomon Grundy and why he had to die.
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
In his old age, a TV writer reflects on a show he worked on fifty years ago--the only work he's really proud of--and the almost supernatural way it came to an end.
abusesubstance-use
Zhou is an ad man for a Chinese marketing firm, and he has to find a way to get people to buy a new photo technology that has unusual capabilities.
All the imaginary creatures a young person could want to make apartment life more pleasant.
"Once upon a time,” outputted the algorithm, “there was an AI. “It generated recipes and ingredient descriptions for an online grocery store. The website said that this recipe was not just a squash soup recipe, but it also was a good diet recipe / keto...
The First Emperor was the first and last of true immortals on earth, and no winter touched his realm. No autumn wind blew. His orchards bloomed and fruited and bloomed again. In his court, death and old age were shut out. And every day, he drank a cup of...
"Sing. Sing the world into being. The world’s misty valleys and sunlit hills are described by the song of all things. So is the work of skilled hands and the begrudging march of soldiers’ boots. Every action, every object, in the past and the present and...
violence
"Dekar Druid lives in an infinite library. Besides Ebizenum, who is in a special category of their own, he is the only living person in the library’s single tower. Outside, a forest surrounds the tower. There’s a lake a short walk to the north and a peak...
"Once upon a time, on a spaceship traveling through the divide between galaxies, a married couple was bickering about whose job it was to clean the mouse shit that’d accumulated in the reactor tubes."
"The buffet was infinite. It existed in a pocket dimension, via some sort of technological jiggering of the sort that you have heard about before and, unless you are totally anal, don’t want to hear about now. You could probably summon an explanation that...
cannibalismgoreviolence
"Black Quadrangle, Mesolithic era Unknown Charcoal on sandstone This work, created c. 15,000 BC (17,000 AS), precedes earliest surviving written texts. It was rediscovered alongside human remains and burnt carbon deposits, suggesting a role in a burial,...
"Posit a man. He could be any man. She could be a woman. They could be any human being anywhere on the spectrum. The story would play out the same. This is, however, entirely the creation of a writer who has written plenty of formidable women, and so he...
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
"Welcome, Stranger! This is a story for you, you who wait for my words to fall into your ear, so that we can share being and become more than we are alone. The tales I have to tell today are woven into this fabric that unrolls before you as I work my Loom....
child-deathracismsexual-violence
A man is offered the opportunity to partake in an exclusive, subscription-based eating club for those who wish to dine on human flesh. But he may have bitten off a little more than he can chew.
cannibalismgoreviolence
"Hello, there. If you are reading this, then I assume you are either a mortal who somehow stumbled upon this text or a young demigod seeking to ascend closer to Eledumare’s throne. If you are the latter, I welcome you. Soon you shall sit with me and the...
death
"She tells the children to call her Kade Makasi, and if this was one of her stories, she’d describe herself as bent and wrinkled and spider-like for a touch of myth and poetry … but she’s none of these things … she’s tall, thick-browed, with two braided...
mental-illness
"Your deathless heart spasms. Once. Twice. You suck in a long, rattling gasp, and twist over the decanting table, great hacking coughs. Someone thumps your back. “Welcome back, boyo,” Media & Talent Production Coordinator Kayn says. “They got some great...
death
"Latent summer stirred while spring lay dormant. April had come to the Kingdom of S’ong and brought with it spells of rain. Tadpoles in the pond recently developed hind legs; above, a stray shower had been drumming at the water pit-a-pat. The rain-rinsed...
deathwar
"By now, you've received your Portal Ticket confirmations and ForeverFete™ Mas Pack, which should include essentials such as several period correct costumes; one-dose capsules for various ailments common amongst the British West Indies population during...
deathracismviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
"The Exhibit of You is the central attraction of an institution you could call a museum, in a population center you could call a city, beloved by creatures who you could call people. We know that this is annoying sentence structure. If you cannot penetrate...
deathsuicide
"On the first floor of a Colonial-style house constructed last century out of planks of old growth cedar, a monster is dragging a woman’s husband from room to room. The specific path this monster takes will be evident the next morning from the gashes in...
abusesexual-violence
"It was 10 a.m., and Anmar clapped his hands to silence the screeching wake-up alarm he had set for himself. He didn’t actually need the alarm, since he had already been awake for twelve minutes before it went off, but Anmar enjoyed using technology...
"Mom always insisted everyone is family at Tollnacher Stimmacher, but I’m the only one she ever adopted. Twenty-five years ago, I was an orphan on the Earth colony, Lulularia. Mom raised me as her own despite my being human and her being a robot. Ever...
"Ti came to see me, you know. Three four days before she died. Knocked right on my door, and I’ve never been so surprised in all my life. This is a woman who when we were on tour would have the driver drive her halfway down the block rather than walk to...
death
"Attached, please find your personal company-issued Breathing Apparatus, for immediate use within all corporate campus unfiltered air locations! This includes all outdoor locations, such as: the parking lots; the parking garage; the smoker’s hut; the paths...
deathviolence
"Tom called Adriana Honey-Bunny, and she called him Pumpkin. A moment by a window. An orange California morning. Tom snapped his fingers, the waiter understood and came and refilled his cup with fragrant coffee. The sun shone on their table and the street...
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneillness-and-pandemic
"In the winter of 19–, having newly arrived in England, and still recovering from the nervous indisposition which had afflicted me greatly ever since my circumstances during the war, I responded to an advertisement placed in the Yorkshire Post, for the...
Gorman travels the galaxy engaging in all the risky sports that only the very rich can do, but he’s haunted by an annoying robot that keeps trying to interrupt him with a birthday card.
"The notion of the quantum mirror was first floated by two graduate students (Sapna Gupta and Mark Shaw) over a fourth round of beers in a small pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and therefore one should consider the role of intoxication in its initial...
body-horrordeathviolence
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
child-deathdeath-of-a-loved-one
Someone from our era look back to 1888 London and the Jack-the-Ripper murders.
deathgoreviolence
The narrator paints the best portraits, and her work commands the highest prices. But she needs a lot of money, and she puts her work to a darker purpose.
deathsuicide
While one man spends all his income on dreams, another works hard creating those dreams.
death
An account of various famous artists, writers, and musicians who lived in Manhatttan in the 1930s.
Hand-written notes in a book about imaginary places tell a woman’s story of her attempt to survive a fascist takeover of the United States.
In midwinter, just after midnight, the narrator hitches a ride with a strange woman as cold as the night itself.
body-horrordeath
In which a chorus of time travelers give us advice, in the paradoxical way of time travelers.
Mahliya will be down in a bit to tell you the story, but we'll begin by telling you a love story.
In Elizabethan London, an entrepreneur skilled in identifying legitimate antiquities ends up with a bottle that happens to have a demon in it.
Surreal science fantasy, in which three goddesses come to Paris, prince of a mathematical Troy, and ask him to decide to whom to award an apple.
deathwar
"Valentini doesn’t flinch when the purple-bellied storm shakes the house, heedless of the film being shot within its derelict husk. Scene fifteen, take three. The Hollow Places crew rushes to stop the windows’ skeletal rattling before the atmospheric...
child-deathgoreself-harm
"One: My lipstick. The shade is Heart’s Blood. Morbid, if you ask me. I wanted to know if it was really the color of heart’s blood so I bought beef heart and tried dabbing my lips. Close enough. I emailed to congratulate the lipstick company on their...
Night Soil, of course, is human feces, but the salvagers to more than just collect that; they deliver other things too—if you’re willing to deal with them, that is.
An interview with a simulation of the dead artist, Satka, who still has a big online following years after her death.
deathsuicidewar
Content note (click for details) Homophobia, transphobia edited by Hal Y. Zhang On October 19th, 2019, Stonewall Productions released Coming Out to Your Parents on PC and PlayStation 4. While it was the studio’s first major title, it took the gaming...
transphobiaviolence
edited by Ziv Wities Here is Jefferson, talking to himself again. It has happened increasingly of late. The pantograph in the study summarizes his monologue endlessly, and the shelves fill with more and more of less and less. In the great and...
slavery
Content note (click for details) Sexual assault, child abuse, violence, abduction, death, blood, racism, colonization edited by Hal Y. Zhang ***RAW TRANSCRIPT, FIRST PASS EDIT NOTES*** Njiran Folk Beliefs VOLUME II Collected by Ven Nakai, retired Njiran...
racismsexual-violenceviolence
The guillotine was conceived as swifter, painless, more humane. You touch your throat. You wonder.
self-harmsexual-contentsuicide
Bring your sister and I will tell you the story of how the waters returned to Apicuya. No, bring all the children. This is important. Don’t splash. If you cannot hear the thrum of the skymill, you are being too loud. Sit in the shallow pool, otherwise your...
child-deathdeath
I first reached consciousness in a peaceful library. It looked like a library not far from my apartment, though not exactly the same. There were high ceilings and large windows […]
body-horrordeathviolence
This episode features "Our Revels Now Are Ended" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the July 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha_07_26 Support us on...
body-horrorviolence
Author : Victor Forna Narrators : Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Munashe R. Goromonzi, Wanini Kimemiah, Tahnia Barrie, Soila Kenya and Opie Ogundiran Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Previously published by Apex Magazine Rated PG Kɛrozin Lamp Kurfi...
violence
Author : T. R. Steele Narrator : Jordan Kurella Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes PodCastle 943: At Death’s Door is a PodCastle original. content notes for suicidal ideation and second-person narration Rated PG-13 At Death’s Door by T. R....
mental-illnesssuicide
I have done my best to transcribe the account found in the recently excavated cenotaph, but, as you’re aware, these experiential simulations don’t easily lend themselves to direct reproduction. Nonetheless, […]
death
This episode features "Scion: Afterword" written by Thomas Ha. Published in the March 2026 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker. The text version of this story can be found at: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ha2_03_26 Support us on...
This is our struggle. We scuttle on the sand before the softly breathing salt-burdened sea with the lichen on the rocks a bright poison green and great white butterflies screaming under a red sky while we dream of justice and watch the ghost of a...
We’ll skip ahead. Say eight minutes in, so I’m not wasting your time. You’re in your chair, strapped tight, taking around eight Gs. Like this, they wouldn’t even feel that bad, all the force coming from front to back, pressing you down into your seat. Your...
The creatures who shared your art with us had to explain many things to make it minimally comprehensible. This by itself made sense. You are who and what you are, and we are who and what we are, and the physical differences between us are profound. We...
suicide
Draw a rectangular shape. Put a cylinder around it. Add a few small rectangles to any lines, such that they straddle them. At least one on the rectangle, and another on the cylinder. These are airlocks. The engine should look like a lighter stacked on top...
body-horrordeath
Because it’s Carnaval, Iara wears a striped pirate shirt and a red pirate headband. And because of who she is, she sits on the bathroom floor, closes her eyes, and wears the perspectives of seven alley cats, three stray dogs, and a single pigeon for the...
sexual-content
Dear Members of the Community, As we begin yet another fall semester in the throes of the rogue timestream unleashed on our campus, I cannot help but take a moment to marvel at just how vibrant our community has become. In addition to our current...
slaveryviolence
Author : Matt Wallace Narrator : Mur Lafferty Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Escape Pod 1000: A Thousand Names for God and Infinite Mustard is an Escape Pod original. Contains some harsh language A Thousand Names for God and Infinite...
Once Upon a Planet By Kelsey Hutton Once upon a time, there were three boring, totally normal planets lazily circling their sun. One was too hot. It spewed out venomous flames like a firebreather with something pokey stuck in her teeth—dangerously...
The Love Pyramid: A Rocky Cornelius Consultancy By Andrew Dana Hudson “What do you mean you aren’t fucking?” Rocky Cornelius demanded. “That’s terrible! This is going to throw your whole value prop out of whack!” The trio of button-cute narrative design...
Author : Luke Wildman Narrator : Hollis Monroe Host : Matt Dovey Artist : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published in Writers and Illustrators of the Future, Vol. 37 Rated PG How to Steal the Plot Armor – PART ONE by Luke Wildman The day before...
Author : Luke Wildman Narrator : Hollis Monroe Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published in Writers and Illustrators of the Future, Vol. 37 Rated PG How to Steal the Plot Armor by Luke Wildman PART TWO of TWO...
Authors : J. R. Dawson and John Wiswell Narrator : John Bell Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Haven Spec Rated PG This Mentor Lives by J.R. Dawson & John Wiswell Abraham was rushing through his...
Author : Dani Atkinson Narrators : Andrew K. Hoe, Kitty Sarkozy and Katherine Inskip Host : Eleanor R. Wood Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously ran as episode 722 and first published by Daily Science Fiction Rated PG-13 Said the...
PseudoPod 1001: A Coven of Cats Under the Light of the Moon and The Halloween Parade is a PseudoPod original. C/W: implied animal harm (Coven) On this night, we escaped from our homes—we darted through the open doors, we leaped over the privacy fences, we...
animal-harmgoreviolence
“Do It” was first published in the anthology ‘120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era’ C/W: gun violence, knife violence Note from author: The pizza joint in the story is based on a locally (local to me) famous spot in Boston’s South...
deathsuicideviolence
“The Shout” was first published in a limited edition chapbook, The Woburn Books #16, 1929. Jamie Oliver’s controversial children’s book has shone a spotlight on the importance of sensitivity readers Jamie Oliver pulls ‘offensive’ children’s book from sale...
deathmental-illnessracism
PseudoPod 973: Flash on the Borderlands LXXIII: Perpetuation is a PseudoPod original. Shallow Fangs: C/W for second-person PoV “The First Mrs. Edward Rochester Would Like a Word”- From the author: “Many readers want better for the attic wife from Jane...
abuseanimal-harmviolence
“Old Things are Meant to Be Found and Shared” first appeared as “Of Lovecraft and ‘He’” in The Book of Starry Wisdom. “The Secret in the Tomb” originally appeared in the May 1935 issue of Weird Tales. From Leanna Renee Hieber: “Much like the introduction...
body-horrordeathgore
“The Shambler from the Stars” first appeared in Weird Tales, September 1935 I have nobody but myself to blame for the whole affair. It was my own blundering that precipitated that unforeseen horror upon us both; my own stupidity that caused our downfall....
deathgoreviolence
“The Suitable Surroundings” was first published in the San Francisco Examiner, July 14, 1889 “The Resurrection of Chilton Hills” first appeared in Harper’s Monthly Magazine in October 1929. C/W: suicide (The Suitable Surroundings) Ben Phillips’s music ?...
suicide
"DIRECTIONS: Fill in the correct letter with a #2 pencil on the answer sheet. Do not use ink or ballpoint pens. Questions left blank will be marked incorrect. Completely fill in each circle."
Alternate Cover: Pantone Sunset By Marie Vibbert Stacey reads a comic book. It’s about a robot lady, but not like her. This robot lady has exposed gears and metal rods in her arms and wears a metallic bikini as she solves crimes. The colors are...
Mathball By Larry Hodges You are a baseball fan, sitting in the centerfield seats eating an overpriced hot dog. You are wearing a baseball cap, but not a batting helmet, of course. (Why would that be an issue? Hmm…)You smile brightly, but all will not end...
Author : Sonia Sulaiman Narrator : Peter Adrian Behravesh Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Devin Martin Artist : Iasmin Omar Ata Discuss on Forums Previously published in the collection Muneera and the Moon: Stories Inspired by Palestinian Folklore,...
“Masks” originally appeared in Forbidden Futures and was reprinted in the 2022 collection How to See Ghosts & Other Figments “The Machete at the End of the World” appeared in the collection Nightfall & Other Danger “The Tale of Belette” previously appeared...
deathgoreviolence
“The Vengeance Of Nitocris” was first published in Weird Tales, August 1928 Hushed were the streets of many-peopled Thebes. Those few who passed through them moved with the shadowy fleetness of bats near dawn, and bent their faces from the sky as if...
deathgoreviolence
“Black Bargain” was originally published in Weird Tales, May 1942 “What Every Young Ghoul Should Know” was originally published in Amateur Correspondent, September-October 1937 What Every Young Ghoul Should Know” is a little piece of ephemera from an...
deathviolence
“The Dabblers” appeared in the 1928 collection The Beast with Five Fingers It was a wet July evening. The three friends sat around the peat fire in Harborough’s den, pleasantly weary after their long tramp across the moors. Scott, the ironmaster, had been...
animal-harm
PseudoPod 942: The Sound of a Jackknife is a PseudoPod original. The Dead Room Pontypool I only took the Tremaine gig because of Shepherd’s recommendation. “This one won’t pay much,” Shepherd admitted over the phone. People chattered in the background...
body-horrordeathviolence
Author : Amal Singh Narrator : Kaushik Narasimhan Host : Valerie Valdes Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “A Series of Endings” originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine (December 2021) A Series of Endings by Amal Singh This is the story of Roopchand...
death
Author : Victor Forna Narrators : Moustapha Mbacké Diop, Ada Nnadi and Somto Ihezue Host : Shingai Njeri Kagunda Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums Previously published by Bad Form (African History Issue) Rated PG-13 In The Woods Somewhere (or...
body-horrorchild-abusesexual-violence
Author : Benjamin Rosenbaum Narrator : Graeme Dunlop Hosts : Matt Dovey and Ann Leckie Audio Producers : Eric Valdes and Pria Wood Discuss on Forums Originally published in All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories, edited by David Moles and Jay Lake. Previously...
Author : Taryn Frazier Narrator : Dani Daly Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Eric Valdes Discuss on Forums PodCastle 801: Point of Order is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13 Point of Order by Taryn Frazier Behind his screen, the game master cracks his...
“Ye Goode Olde Ghoste Storie” originally appeared in Weird Tales, January 1927 under the pen name William A. P. White Derek Delgaudio Excellent and IMMENSELY spoiler-y piece about In & Of Itself ‘‘But there ain’t no sech thing!” said Jed Hoskins’ old man...
“The Strange Island of Dr. Nork” was first published in Weird Tales, March 1949 CW: racist language. Please note this story was first published in 1949 and contains language which would not be acceptable today, particularly with regards to race. Afflicted...
racismviolence
PseudoPod 890: The Halloween Parade and Twin Xolotls of Sorrow and Salt is a PseudoPod original. This year you pass through a stone arch to reach the Parade. The churro stand is to one side, the bouncer to the other. You can’t quite tell if the bouncer is...
death
Author : Sam Schreiber Narrator : Dave Robison Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “Christmas at the Hilbert Astoria” first appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (November/December 2020) This story contains harsh...
goreviolence
Author : Sam Schreiber Narrator : Dave Robison Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “Christmas at the Hilbert Astoria” first appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (November/December 2020) This story contains harsh...
goreviolence
Universal Archive of Human History: FAQ By Arturo Sierra The Gran Gliese Universal Archive of Human History contains over 5.7×1035 books and an innumerable collection of shorter works. Moreover, it is continuously growing, thanks to additions from...
Author : C.C. Finlay Narrator : Heather Thomas Host : Mur Lafferty Audio Producer : Summer Brooks “Time Bomb Time” originally appeared in the May 2015 issue of Lightspeed Magazine. It was reprinted in Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy...
abuse
Author : Julia Knowles Narrator : AJ Fitzwater Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 718: Memoirs of a Magic Mirror is a PodCastle original. Content warning: mild gore. Rated PG-13 Memoirs of a Magic Mirror...
goreviolence
Author : Dani Atkinson Narrators : Andrew K. Hoe, Kitty Sarkozy and Katherine Inskip Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Daily Science Fiction Rated PG-13 Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson...
“The Tentacle and You” was originally published in Nature Futures back in 2019. “Backers” is a PseudoPod Original “Your Honor, My Undead Client Opposes the Application to Probate His Estate” is a PseudoPod original. “Backers”: “My wife and her friends are...
body-horrordeathviolence
“We’ve All Gone to the Magic Show” was previously published in Vastarien: Vol.3, Issue 1 by Grimscribe Press. Earlier this summer, word spread around our town that the Magic Show’s doors were open. Swollen and stained timbers that once barred the entrance...
PseudoPod 836: The Halloween Parade is a PseudoPod original. The parade this year feels brittle. At least at first. It reminds you of that first step into a swimming pool, wondering if it will be too hot or too cold. You brace yourself for sharp contrast,...
Mathematical Revelations By Helen De Cruz I have never had a Mathematical Revelation in my life. I am presently thirty-eight years and three months old; the first strands of gray have made their hesitant debut in my dark brown hair. I have been a Priestess...
Author : Hamilton Perez Narrator : Karen Menzel (née Bovenmyer) Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by The Dark. Rated R. Our Mortal Undressing by Hamilton Perez I. Discovery I suppose I’m...
deathgoresexual-content
Author : Louis Evans Narrator : Dave Robison Host : Summer Fletcher Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Translunar Travelers Lounge Sexual content Rated R Everybody’s Got a Hungry Heart by Louis Evans Agent Heartbreak and the Misery...
sexual-contentviolence
PseudoPod 772: Flash on the Borderlands LVII: The Loving Gaze of the Abyss is a PseudoPod original. “Five Films Reviewed by Dr. Frankenstein’s Creature” was originally published in Weird Tales in 2012. The poem “Advice I Wish I’d Been Given When I Was a...
child-abuseself-harmsexual-violence
“Flickering Dusk Of The Video God” was originally published in the 2020 anthology Monsters, Movies & Mayhem A fresh burst of white noise roars through my head and jittery tracking lines wiggle and squirm through my vision again, even worse this time. The...
body-horrorgoreviolence
“Screen Haunt” was first published in It Came from the Multiplex, published by Hex Publishers in September 2020 “What are you afraid of?” Jeanne asks, kicking her feet on the top bunk. I’m lying underneath looking up at the springs where they sag down...
deathdeath-of-a-loved-onemental-illness
PseudoPod 782: The Halloween Parade is a PseudoPod original. That’s what the parade is for. The cowboys with no faces are first this year. Men with bone white paint and matte black hats. Men whose eyes are filled with the combination of terror and rage...
Authors : Ash Beker, Summer Fletcher and Alasdair Stuart Narrators : Imogen Harris, Marty Perrett, Wilson Fowlie, Peter Adrian Behravesh, Kaitlyn Zivanovich, Mur Lafferty, M. M. Schill, Alex Hofelich, Shawn Garrett, Scott Campbell, Kat Day, Graeme Dunlop...
goreracismviolence
Authors : Summer Fletcher, Ash Beker and Alasdair Stuart Narrators : Imogen Harris, Marty Perrett, Wilson Fowlie, Peter Adrian Behravesh, Kaitlyn Zivanovich, Mur Lafferty, M. M. Schill, Alex Hofelich, Shawn Garrett, Scott Campbell, Kat Day, Graeme Dunlop...
body-horrorracismviolence
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deathgoreviolence
Vlad’s an immortal vampire and his girlfriend Eliza stays in suspended animation most of the time while they travel the stars looking for a planet where they can be happy together.
Author : John Wiswell Narrator : Wilson Fowlie Hosts : Matt Dovey and Wilson Fowlie Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 654: 8-Bit Free Will is a PodCastle original. Rated PG. 8-Bit Free Will By John Wiswell They exist, then...
Author : Damini Kane Narrator : Suna Dasi Host : Srikripa Krishna Prasad Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 655: Mariska and Major is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13. Mariska and Major By Damini Kane Mariska is not an...
death-of-a-loved-one
Cyd’s suicide brings his friend Kelvin to Albany for his memorial.
body-horrorsuicidetransphobia
Erheani wanted to be a master storyteller, and the first task her teachers set for her was to update an old classic tale. But there are tales within tales...
slavery
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.