As promised, I have read all the novels short-listed for the 2025 World Fantasy Awards. The awards will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention, held this year in Brighton UK on Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 2025. If I only had the time, I’d read all the other nominated works, but I don’t. So I’ll do what I love most, read novels and talk about them.

Here are the short-listed novels, and my first two reviews:

The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape)–This novel won the 2025 Hugo Award and was short-listed for the Locus Award. Mentioned in this post.

The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo (Holt; Quercus UK)–a wonderful overlay of Chinese folklore on the early 20th century historical conflict between China and Japan. Reviewed in this post.

The Bog Wife, Kay Chronister (Counterpoint; Titan UK)–what IS this thing? Southern/Appalachian Gothic? Magical Realism? Fascinating read.

The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman (Viking; Del Rey UK)–combined Monty Pythonesque and Malory Morte-D’Arthur-esque massive novel about the Arthurian world in decline.

The Wings Upon Her Back, Samantha Mills (Tachyon)–What if profound disillusionment causes you to lose your wings? What would you do to get them back?

I’ll review one novel per post as we all anticipate the judges’ decision, but in THIS POST ONLY, I’m mentioning two. That’s because I’ve already reviewed The Tainted Cup recently, so I’ll just give a shout-out to the novel here and point you to the review.

The Tainted Cup

Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup has already won one major speculative fiction award and has been nominated for another. See my review HERE.

The Fox Wife

Yangsze Choo’ s The Fox Wife delightfully combines Chinese folklore about the supernatural nature of foxes with the early 20th century historical conflict between China and Japan. The main character Snow (Ah San), a woman who is actually a shape-shifting fox, has a wry take on the world of humans that instantly charms and engages the reader. When she states, “The first rule about foxes is that you don’t talk about foxes,” she grabs me with this slyly repurposed Fight Club meme and doesn’t let go. Then, as the novel combines the magic of fantasy with the separate magic of historical fiction, I really am a goner. There’s a mystery here, a love story, the broken heart of a grief-stricken mother, and revenge, sweet revenge. Snow the Fox Wife is a marvelous storyteller into the bargain. It’s a wonderful novel. I savored every word.

COMING UP NEXT: my review of Kay Chronister’s The Bog Wife.