Some Gods of El Paso by Maria Dahvana Headley: Vix and Lorna illegally trade in emotions they take from other people in 1920s Texas.īook Rec: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt Second World/High Fantasyįantasy set primarily in another world, including sword and sorcery.ĭo Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Memories in Bronze, Feathers, and Blood by Aliette de Bodard: A story about the aftereffects of war told by the metal and blood birds created by a former warrior.īook Rec: Agatha H and the Airship City by Phil & Kaja Foglio Low Fantasyįantasy set primarily in our world, with a magical or fantastical element. Typically set in the age of steam, these are sci-fi stories using the tech of that time period. Is there a genre that you’re curious about? One that you’re sure you’d hate, so you’ve been avoiding? If you’d like to expand your genre horizons, this post is for you. Also please note that many genres have a ton of crossover, and I’ve done my best to include a variety of stories without including literally every possible sub-genre because good lord, there are so many. I have, however, made an effort to include stories from as many age categories as possible. Please note that I will not cover larger categories here, so there is no YA (for example) as young adult fiction can be any genre. These are all free short stories online, and I’ve paired every story with a novel in case you need more of that genre right away. So here is a short story example (or two) for every fiction genre. Now that I’ve had the idea of using short story examples to define genres, I could not resist the urge to share it with Book Riot readers. It seems like this thought came to me rather late, considering how long I’ve held that the short story is the perfect form, but here we are. It occurred to me the other day that the short story is the perfect gateway into any genre.

Samples of short stories to write