The World is Weird. You will be discouraged from participating in it. However, your participation is not optional. Zip up your human suit and set sail, imbibing every perspective you can in order to perfect the persona. Push to the outer edges. Document your travels, and forget to return. There will be a test. Learn what it means to be human. Forget what it means to be human. Learn what it means to be human. Forget what it means to be human. Do not panic. BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror, Volume Two encompasses the finest Weird speculative fiction published in (roughly) 2023. Edited by Alex Woodroe.

The World is Weird. You will be discouraged from participating in it. However, your participation is not optional. Zip up your human suit and set sail, imbibing every perspective you can in order to perfect the persona. Push to the outer edges. Document your travels, and forget to return. There will be a test. Learn what it means to be human. Forget what it means to be human. Learn what it means to be human. Forget what it means to be human. Do not panic. BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror, Volume Two encompasses the finest Weird speculative fiction published in (roughly) 2023. Edited by Alex Woodroe. Table of contents: Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas - Lullaby for the Unseen Thomas Ha - In That Crumbling Home Hussani Abdulrahim - The Library Virus Patrick Malka - Show Me Eirik Gumeny - A Balanced Breakfast David Simmons - Food is Poison Premee Mohamed - Quietus Perfect Kiss Strickoll - punctum (o baked alaska for you i am a former american) LC von Hessen - Transmasc of the Red Death Simone le Roux - The Man Outside KS Walker - River Bargain Baby M.M. Olivas - The Prince of Oakland Amitha Jagannath Knight - My Mother, The Exoskeleton Rachael K. Jones - The Sound of Children Screaming Judith Shadford - Endless Yearning Daniel DeRock - Guest Opinion: We must take action regarding the [REDACTED] High School janitor Geneve Flynn - A Box of Hair and Nail Anemone Moss - Everything You Dump Here Ends Up in the Ocean Karlo Yeager Rodríguez - Up In the Hills, She Dreams of Her Daughter Deep In the Ground Elena Sichrovsky - Embryo Ivan Zoric - Our Roots Will Dry Out in the End Michael Bettendorf - As the Music Plays Groovy Chris Kuriata - Family Not Going To Heaven

The End is Weird. In the event of cosmic fallout, it is vital that you adhere to the following: Secure your own persona, and a backup if available. A neighbor’s is acceptable. Your skin may attempt to abscond. This is normal in these situations. Do not panic. Ignore all notifications from your mobile devices. They are not to be trusted. Pay no mind to the details of that photograph. Yes, that one. Should your body accrue any additional limbs, please keep proper inventory; they will need to be accounted for. Avoid celebrity advice. Do not feed the bears. You will feel dizzy. You will feel nausea. Do not panic. This will pass. Do not panic. This will not pass. Step bravely. Do not panic. BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror, Volume One, encompasses the finest Weird fiction previously published in 2022. Edited by Alex Woodroe. Table of Contents: Banhus—M.E. Bronstein User Warning—Charlotte Ariel Finn The Bear Across the Way—Emily Rigole En el Patio de la Casa del Callejón—Tania Chen In Haskins—Carson Winter The Imperfection—Mae Murray Blame—Warren Bennedetto Low Tide Jenny—Bitter Karella Machine (r)Evolution—Colleen Anderson Skin—Isha Karki Eat Your Colors—Sonora Taylor Paradise—Sloane Leong There is No Easy Way Towards Earth—jonah wu Notes on the Forum of the Simulacra—Cadwell Turnbull Blood Calumny—Joe Koch Lemmings—Kirstyn McDermott Water Goes, Sand Remains—Jolie Toomajan The Mules—Jennifer Jeanne McArdle Stage Five Clinger—Nikki R. Leigh The Day When the Last War is Over—Sergey Gerasimov Mother; Microbes—H.V. Patterson The Mythologization of Tymber Prescott in Five Selected Photos—Luciano Marano

'Rich and witty ... it confirms Helen Oyeyemi as a true original' Ali Smith 'Powerful ... wonderfully unsettling ... Oyeyemi's raw style is great' Time Out 'Beautiful ... this is about the difficulties of knowing who you are, especially if you are born of several incompatible cultures. It has the ring of truth' The Times Maja Carmen Carrera was only five years old when her black Cuban family emigrated from the Caribbean to London, leaving her with one complete memory: a woman singing - in a voice both eerie and enthralling - at their farewell party, while little Maja peered out from beneath a table. Now, almost twenty years later, Maja herself is a singer, in love with Aaron, pregnant and haunted by what she calls 'her Cuba'. Growing up in London, she has struggled to negotiate her history and the sense that speaking the Spanish or the English of her people's conquistadors made her less of a black girl. But she is unable to find in herself the Ewe, Igbo, or Swahili of her roots. It seems all that's left is silence. And on the other side of the reality wall, Yemaya Saramagua, Yemaya of the ocean, lives in the Somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to London, the other to Lagos. Yemaya is troubled by the ease with which her fellow gods have disguised themselves as saints and reappeared under different names and faces... ________________________ The Opposite House is about the disquiet that follows us across places and languages, a feeling passed down from mother and father to son and daughter. It is an unforgettable second novel from the author of The Icarus Girl.

Stripped of family, at odds with his own drug-altered body and mind, living all alone except for a daemonic dog, Amur lives by the sea, where he daily hones his fighting skills and contemplates revenge against the God-King, his former lover.

You know that office bromance: two of a kind, always taking their lunch together, always wearing the same sly grin. Only ever a hair away from a cold joke about how spreadsheets are a living hell; about taking a bullet if it means going home early on Friday. Sometimes in these fantasies, they’re heroes being hauled out on a stretcher. Sometimes they’re the ones pulling the trigger. Now, say these guys discover a loophole that makes some days less real than others—less permanent—and start to act out their violent fantasies without fear of reprisal. Why shouldn’t they? Tomorrow, everything will go back to normal, with no one the wiser but them. They’ll always remember what it felt like to act on their basest impulses. They’ll know how it could feel to do it again. Maybe you don’t know these guys. Maybe you don’t want to. Soft Targets is a reality-bending novella about malignant malaise; the surrender to violence; and the addictive appeal of tragedy as entertainment. Contains graphic depictions of gun violence in the workplace; caution recommended.

A grave could be visited. Ashes could be scattered. But simply vanishing? That ripped a hole in the world the size of a life, and through that hole sighed a terrible wind repeating a single note: Gone. For years, Aggie had forgotten the real Joanne, the way her sister had laughed, fought, been. But now that the videotape made her real again—no matter how many times the recording changed, no matter how terrifying the flickering images—it was all Aggie wanted. To trade the Gone for the One. She owed Joanne that much. To say she was sorry. That it had been her fault. It had been all their faults.