Word Count: 758 | Reading Time: 3 min
And just like that, the year is at an end. I have always been a bit ambivalent about New Years’s. Have never quiet known what to feel, how to take in this time. In particular this limbo between the last few days of December-yet-to-go and January-about-to-come. These days seem to lag, always. The speed of their passing slower than the memory of the many weeks spent behind. It is a strange, eerie feeling. Not unlike the two shorts I bring for you today.
The tales overviewed herein include stories from PseudoPod and Nightmare, respectively, both published during the last quarter of this year, October to December, 2025. Also spotlighted in the end are some very exciting new reads that we dearly hope you’ll be adding to your New Year gifts.
Without further ado, let us begin.
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The Story-Stealer’s Night by Madhu Campbell – PsuedoPod 998, Oct 2025
“This is not the story Mary meant to share, but the words flow like sweet, sacramental wine.”
What if stories were a thing to be consumed and there was a ferocious monster hunting all traces of it? This is a world where humans, hence, become the food source, wanted for they very skill—the knowledge to communicate and enchant—that they have always revered. This sums up the premise of this twisted little tale of revenge and stories.
As uncanny as it is enrapturing, the short meanders from one story to another circularly and seamlessly. Campbell manages to masterfully guide the flow of it all without losing on any of the terrifying, chilly effects. There are some graphic details in there so please read the content warnings given at the beginning of the story. Eerie and effective.
“The last time Durga saw the Story-stealer, she lost everything: her stories, her imagination, her ability to feel her past, to hope and plan and anticipate her future… The creature leaves nothing behind.”
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Bleed For Me, Bro by Sharang Biswas – Nightmare, Nov 2025, Issue # 158
“Watching Jules claw his way back to life was the hottest thing I’d ever seen… One moment, Jules was twitching in a pool of his own blood, and the next, he shuddered back into himself, lips opening like a crescent moon, lacerations pursing closed like kisses, the bruising around his throat softening from gemstone-purple to butterfly-blue.”
Body horror meets kink in this freaky and very graphic romance about a gay reanimator who brings people back to life after they have been painfully, erotically murdered. The details are macabre (please heed the content warnings given at the start of the story before diving in!), the emotions tender. Biswas certainly has a panache for balancing both. There’s a healthy dose of humour in there, too, right alongside some pretty gruesome details of bloody, gory magic. But in its bones, this is a tale about the intimate ties between pleasure and pain, and the connection it can forge between people who trust each other implicitly to the extremes.
“Countless times, I had convinced bleeding, burned, and broken bodies that everything I had done to them was impermanent. That it didn’t matter what state their flesh was in, the thing that made them a person—spirit, soul, animating principle, zest for life, whatever you wanted to call it—was endlessly regenerative, endlessly vital. A body I could break, a person I could not.”
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Spec-Fic Spotlight: New Releases We’re Excited to Read
We have several new works to spotlight today. If you’re looking for new reads to begin your year with or searching for gifts for your friends and family, we hope you’ll consider these delightful new stories:
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- Dark Tales of Wonder, by Maliha Rao
- To Bargain with Mortals, by R. A. Basu
- The Isle in the Silver Sea, by Tasha Suri
- Dawn of the Firebird, by Sara Mughal Rana
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That marks the end of the last Dimensional Diaries issue for the year of 2025. I will hopefully see you all again in the year to come, brining you more tales and books to keep you company. Until then, please enjoy this incredible new issue of Tasavvurnama. If you would like to join our newsletter and/or make a donation, please visit our support page here. You can also join our ever-expanding Tasavvur Book Club where we read and discuss South Asian speculative fiction every month. Just drop us a DM on instagram and our team will be in touch.
I’ll bid you adieu with a quiet prayer for better, happier days for everyone. Happy New Year’s and happy reading!