Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Nikki Erlick NARRATORS: Marin Ireland; Dan Bittner; Stacey Glemboski; Graham Halstead; Mia Barron; Callie Dalton; Janina Edwards; Shawn K. Jain; Christian Barillas; Jason Culp. GENRE: Speculative Fiction PUBLICATION DATE: June 17, 2025 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A speculative fiction novel about an innovative treatment facility and the individuals whose life it affects. An imaginative plot with some solid unforeseen reveals. Literary in style. Character-driven. Slow but steady pacing. A bit sad though there are moments of joy. Quite introspective. Recommended. I am an outlier… on the positive side! 🥳 Go in with the right expectations to enjoy this better. Plot Preview: In a secluded stretch of the California desert, a new establishment is making waves. ‘The Poppy Fields’ is an experimental treatment centre, claiming to offer relief to those burdened by grief through their revolutionary yet free therapy that involves extended sleep. Only those vetted by their elaborate...

AUTHOR: Lim Sunwoo TRANSLATOR: Chi-Young Kim GENRE: Speculative Fiction Collection PUBLICATION DATE: February 10, 2026 RATING: 3.7 stars In a Nutshell: A speculative stories collection. True to the genre, with a good mix of real and surreal. Character-oriented despite having tricky plots. Good translation. A bit disjointed at times in the storytelling but on the whole, a great debut. Recommended. This debut collection contains eight stories that delve into human feelings while still reaching beyond the human experience into the surreal and the bizarre. It is ‘speculative’ in the true sense of the word, with each of the stories transcending logic without offering pragmatic justifications. There is no foreword or note introducing the theme of the collection. But the blurb says that these stories “explore feelings unseen, unconveyed, unexplainable” and that “each sparkling story asks you to look within, to encounter all that is desired and strange and possible in life and death.” This ef...

AUTHOR:  Karmen Špiljak GENRE: Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: January 23, 2026 RATING: 4.05 stars. In a Nutshell: A short story collection containing some dark speculative fiction tales. The darkness isn't outright paranormal, more like suspenseful or atmospheric. Creative plots, good writing, mostly good endings. A tad repetitive and/or confusing at times due to flashbacks, but this isn't a major issue. I enjoyed most of the stories. Much recommended.  I am very much a judge-a-book-by-the-cover reader. ( Feel free to judge me for this! 🤭) This often results in my missing out on some exemplary works just because the cover didn’t catch my eye. This is one such case. Had an offer to read-&-review this book not popped up through another source, I would have missed out on an entertaining collection of dark suspense.  This indie collection contains ten stories from varied speculative fiction subgenres. None of the stories are outright paranormal, though there are...

AUTHOR: Sommer Schafer GENRE: Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: November 14, 2023 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A short story collection about ordinary women caught in extraordinary circumstances. A nice range of plots and genres, going from grounded to speculative. Intriguing and unusual storylines. Some were a bit too metaphorical for my brain. But overall, a clever character-driven collection. As the title suggests, this debut collection of seventeen stories focusses on women. Women from varied backgrounds, varied familial situations, and varied age groups. What’s common to them all is that they face a challenge, not necessarily a routine one. How they tackle it forms the crux of each tale. As we know, each person handles difficulties differently. The women in these book fall in the same boat. Some accept their fate, some rebel, some introspect, some opt for wild coping mechanisms. The resultant display covers an eclectic array of human behaviour, all of which provides...

AUTHOR: Nnedi Okorafor GENRE: Literary Science Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: January 14, 2025 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices literary fiction with sci-fi elements, NOT science-fiction with literary elements. Story within a story. Interesting disability representation (but mild vibes of ableism), great character detailing (but mostly unlikeable characters), unusual combination of futuristic elements with traditional family drama (but the two don’t blend well), good use of Nigerian + American setting and immigrant experience (no buts here; this was great). Plot Preview: Zelu’s life has not been easy. Disabled since her teen years, unexpectedly fired from her university job, and facing rejection yet again for her latest manuscript, she’s the least successful in a family of high-achievers. In frustration, she decides to write a book that is unlike her earlier works and isn’t even in a genre she likes. She pens a science fiction novel titled “Rusted Robots” about an apocalyp...

AUTHOR: Hanna Thomas Uose NARRATOR: Lydia Wilson GENRE: Speculative Literary Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: March 27, 2025. RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A literary speculative-fiction novel coming from multiple characters and timelines. Innovative concept, thought-provoking exploration, excellent character-driven writing, slow pace. Can’t believe this is a debut! Much recommended but not to all. Don’t read the GR blurb. Plot Preview: 2025, London. Yuki and Sam, both in their mid-to-late thirties, are just another ordinary married couple. Happy with each other, a bit bored with their routines, desperate to have kids but not successful yet. Yuki is an enthusiastic member of the local MP’s team and is passionate about causes. Sam is a slightly frustrated work-from-home graphic designer with ambitions of becoming a musician. An American pharma company plans to introduce Yareta in the UK market. Yareta is a drug that can extend human life by at least 200 years and already successful in ...

AUTHOR: Carmen Maria Machado GENRE: Speculative Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: October 3, 2017 RATING: Can't decide! In a Nutshell: Might make a good story collection for the right reader, but not for me. It went a bit too meandering and surreal for my taste. I had chanced upon one story by this author, an amazing tale titled ‘The Husband Stitch’ and also the first story in this collection, a couple of years ago on the Granta site. Having been impressed with it, I looked up the author on Goodreads and discovered this debut collection. But after reading it, I feel like I should have stopped after that first experience. Let's be clear: she's not a bad writer at all, but her writing isn't for me. There’s no disputing the creativity of the storylines. The eight stories in this book transcend several fantastical genres, delving into sci-fi, surrealism, fantasy, comedy, horror, and psychological fiction. However, what connects each of them is the strong thread of...

AUTHOR: Evelyn Arvey GENRE: Dystopian Science Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: February 20, 2024 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: An indie dystopian novel that straddles various genres and does justice to all. Brilliant plot, excellent character development, and fabulous atmosphere. (Have you ever seen me use such gushy adjectives in a row?) If you think an indie work can't deliver the same thrills as a trad-published work, this book will prove you wrong. I'm so impressed! Much recommended! Plot Preview: Professor Mirri Daaha, a historical anthropologist, has just started her new project: testing the psychological and physiological effects of stress on primitive humans. For this purpose, eight ancient humans have been kidnapped from their time and placed in a special artificially-constructed isolated environment. Elaine is one of the kidnapped humans. As she wakes up incoherent, not knowing who or where she is, she knows only one thing: she'll do anything to survive. The stor...

EDITOR: Sonia Sulaiman GENRE: Speculative Anthology PUBLICATION DATE: September 5, 2024 RATING: 3.5 stars In a Nutshell: An anthology of Palestinian speculative fiction. Focusses on the Palestinian identity as well as the speculative content without losing track of either. The OwnVoices writing and the undertone of wistfulness adds to the impact. Much recommended to SFF lovers. "All Palestinian fiction is speculative; we are always grappling with the past and living in expectation of the future..." "The world as I know it will be a memory by the time you read these words." This anthology of fourteen stories was conceptualized before the latest war began. So the above sentences in the editor’s note seem even more poignant. While we know war comes with uncertainty and mayhem, most of us haven’t experienced living under a daily threat of death and destruction. No wonder fantastical writing is the preferred mode of storytelling for Palestinian authors. Though specula...

AUTHOR: Ephiny Gale GENRE: Speculative Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: September 3, 2024 RATING: 3.8 stars. In a Nutshell: An imaginative speculative story collection. I’m astounded by the author’s creativity! A few of the endings were not satisfying to me, but overall, I had a lot of fun reading this collection. Recommended to SFF fans! This indie story collection has twenty-six stories over 226 pages. Thus there is a good number of stories and they don’t drag in tempo. The introduction is presented in the form of a drinks menu, allowing us a glimpse into each story so that we can “Pick our potion.” The menu has the story title, a drink that goes with it, and a brief background to how and why the story was written. I appreciate that the author warns us that this section contains spoilers, but at the same time, I wonder why this creative menu had to include spoilers. Many of us don’t like reading spoilers, so there is no way for us to pick something from the menu while tryi...

  AUTHOR:  Lisa Fox GENRE: Speculative Fiction Anthology PUBLICATION DATE: July 1, 2024 RATING: 3.65 stars. In a Nutshell: A speculative fiction collection with stories from various SFF subgenres, with the title working as the theme. Lyrical writing, great exploration of feelings, amazing premises that are distinct from each other. The endings didn’t work for me in a few cases, but overall, this is one heck of an imaginative collection. Recommended! Last year, I had read Lisa Fox’s ‘Core Truths’ , a speculative fiction collection focussing on our internal core emotions. I had been quite impressed by that collection, and hence didn’t miss the chance to check out her second offering. The experience has been so similar that I could have simply saved some time by copy-pasting that review here. ( I won’t; every book deserves its own review. ) This collection of twenty-seven stories is yet again rooted in speculative fiction, but it covers a range of subgenres such as dark fant...