The Atrocities
by Jeremy Shipp

This was a short little novella about a woman who comes to tutor what turns out to be a dead girl. But is that all of what’s going on? I really enjoyed this. You slip in and out of dreams in the narrative without warning, meaning you need to be paying pretty close attention to what’s going on. The twist was well done and the descriptions of the twisted art throughout the story were very good. I definitely recommend this if you like short horror.

Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds

What can I say about this except that I was blown away and I definitely cried. A boy’s brother has been shot and he’s determined to go and shoot the guy he thinks did it. As he takes the elevator down from his apartment, dead people close to him get on at each floor, talking to him about what he’s going to do and how they died (all by gun violence). It ends with his brother getting on and let me just say, if you’re not crying by then there’s something wrong because it is just that powerful.

I definitely recommend this to everyone. It’s all in verse, which makes the story even more stunning.

The Last Policeman
by Ben Winters

There’s a meteor headed for Earth and we have six months to live. That’s the premise of the Last Policeman series. He’s a cop who finds a death by hanging (the most popular suicide type in their city) that he just feels is wrong somehow. He investigates it as a murder and stirs up all kinds of trouble. It’s really well done with how the world might start functioning with a literal deadline and the kinds of things people might start to do. Hospitals still work, but are understaffed due to people going out to “find themselves” and do what they’ve always wanted to do before it hits.

It’s a solid murder mystery and I really recommend it. It’s fast, readable, and with good clues to help you figure out what’s going on.