Welcome to another Words for Thought! This time around, I’m looking at stories where things are not as they seem and expectations are upended for the characters involved. Whether it’s horror, fantasy, science fiction, or something in-between there’s always room for surprise, whether for good or ill. There are spoilers ahead, so beware.
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“What Haunts the Newbuild?” by Meagan Kane, published in Pseudopod in February 2026 (https://pseudopod.org/2026/02/06/pseudopod-1015-what-haunts-the-newbuild/), focuses on two haunted houses—one old with decades of experience scaring its inhabitants and one a brand-new construction with seemingly little to offer in the way of terror.
If the dead who loved her haunt an old home’s bones, what haunts the newbuild? What makes her creak and moan? Every house is a violence—and a weathered house knows this better than most—but if the trees that once stood on her land form an old home’s dead-spirit frame, what drywall-and-laminate ghosts have lent their souls to the joining of foam and caulk?
The two houses form a rivalry, making a bet as to which can most effectively frighten their human inhabitants. The old home is confident, believing decades of experience will win out, while the newbuild is dismissive of time and wisdom as advantages. Good Bones continually tries to give LUXURY VINYL FLOORING advice, thinking the younger house is too arrogant to accept it, not recognizing the ways they are underestimating the newbuild. A house isn’t just its history, but its materials, like the ages of decomposed prehistoric life that go into making vinyl flooring, a haunting much larger than Good Bones could have anticipated.
It’s a gorgeously written and evocative story, and a fun concept that is treated seriously, therefore never coming off as silly. Kane puts a unique twist on the haunted house subgenre, demonstrating that there are always new stories to be told. A haunting doesn’t always take the expected path, and this is a wonderful reminder of that fact.
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“Meet the Mets” by Ace Tilton Ratliff, published in Escape Pod in March 2026, (https://escapepod.org/2026/03/26/escape-pod-1038-meet-the-mets/), puts a science fictional twist on things not being what they seem and characters’ assumptions being challenged.
Growing up, he’d figured out teeth and nails worked where skirts held him back. Roberta—he hated that name, especially once he realized his dad hated him—became a spitting, hissing, feral beast who drew blood however and whenever they came after him for who he was.
Except gnashing and bashing worked best when you weren’t outnumbered.
Bobby is a young trans man in 1964, who works selling concessions at the ballpark, and frequently gets into fights. One day, he catches sight of the mascot, Mr. Met, without his costume head and is shocked to discover there’s an alien in the suit. He tries to warn people about an impending invasion and gets locked into an empty office for his troubles after things escalate.
While he’s locked up inside, Mr. Met ends up outside the office, looking for a quiet place to take a break. As they talk, Bobby realizes the alien isn’t an advance scout for an invasion, but simply loves baseball after learning about it from broadcasts of the game. Bobby is further surprised to learn that the owner of the Mets proposed the concept of mascots in the first place so the alien could watch the games in person, giving safe haven to an outsider after her own experiences as a woman owner of a ball team. The story is sweet without being saccharine and celebrates the idea of a shared passion as a source of community, comfort, and safety—a lovely reminder that fandom doesn’t have to be toxic or about picking sides.
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“Underneath the Underneath” by Audrey Zhou, published in the Strange Horizons in April 2026, (https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/underneath-the-underneath/), involves misleading myths and hidden histories.
He kisses her again, his mouth dipping to her neck before it moves lower. Mina’s body does not know what to think. Wei’s touch is familiar, works her up like he’s stoking a fire. But her body has not really felt like her own ever since Wei’s father began to ask about when they would finally have a baby.
Mina isn't ready to be a mother, but she and her husband, Wei, are facing increasing pressure from her father-in-law who sees it as their duty to carry on the family line and legacy. Mina delays as long as possibly, secretly taking birth control, until she runs out, causing her to turn to her mother-in-law in desperation. Mina is surprised to learn the story of Wei's older sister, who was a lot like Mina herself, and the way that story ties to the real reason women aren’t allowed to fish for dragons alongside men and why there are so few women on the island in the first place.
The prose is gorgeous and the story suffused with longing. It explores the limited choices often available to women, while allowing Mina to take control over her own body and destiny via an act of transformation, even if it does require sacrifices of a different nature. There’s a bittersweetness to Mina’s decision that keeps the story from feeling like it’s offering up an easy, magical solution. Her body will still change beyond her control, but at least she is able to choose the shape and time of the changing, rather than having it forced upon her.
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“Skiinfolk” by Jamie McGhee, also published in Strange Horizons in April 2026, (https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/skiinfolk/) involves someone deliberately pretending to be someone they’re not, hiding their identity, and engaging in cultural appropriation.
I cannot control how my body looks, but I can control how it moves. After ten years, I can split, halo and hit a double backflip. I can jackhammer into a headspin and end in a tombstone freeze, and my footwork flies so fast people think I’m levitating. Every time I head to the dance studio, I feel like I’m glowing.
Ogden is a Black dancer, struggling to find work amidst racist beauty standards in a world where almost anyone can adopt a skiin to change their appearance. Ogden is one of the few with an allergy to Augmented Skiin, stuck in a body that others consider too Black to be marketable. However, he finds a ray of hope in Laurence Laurens, a singer unapologetically celebrating Blackness, who puts out an open call for back-up dancers. Ogden and Laurence start a relationship, but Laurence ghosts him before immediately turning around and marketing a new skiin that looks just like Ogden’s. Ogden learns that Laurence was wearing a skiin all along, adopting Blackness as a costume, fad, and marketing gimmick.
The story is by turns heartbreaking and hopeful as Ogden finds his way toward healing a new community of dancers at the end. Along with being an excellent story, it’s also a powerful look at the appropriation of Black culture by people who look down on Blackness itself, while claiming they're honoring and elevating Blackness and expecting gratitude in return. The story is also effective in its examination of racist beauty standards, complex relationships, and internalized racism, among other themes.