Jaz B’s Reviews > The Best Short Stories 2025: The O. Henry Prize Winners > Status Update

#19 My God.

#18. I liked this story. The perspective of the 13 year old boy so disconnected from everything around him was so interesting. The ending broke my heart.

#16 love. I must admit this is what I think of when someone says “short story”. It’s not the length - it’s that it was about one thing while somehow exploring infinite things hidden between the words at the same time. And how beautiful it was.

#15 another favorite. The narrator is so so clueless about what Doktor Musavi is experiencing and is so hypocritical because of it. He thinks one way and disproves himself in the same sentence. I also feel like I learned a lot and am feeling encourage to learn more about the lived experiences of Iranian women.

#15 my second favorite story so far! I’m not quite sure what about Ostlund’s writing style I like so much but I do. It’s not dry but almost…like writing in bold. Like if you’re writing a document and use bold, italics, sub/superscripts, etc to organize your contents by importance; it’s like she only included the bold parts. The plot felt very personal to the characters but also everything meant something.

#14 oh my god. Truly truly devastating. The raw emotion I’m feeling right now is what I expect out of 2025’s best short stories. So devastating, so true, so real.

#13. I’m starting to curb my enthusiasm about these stories. I guess just because it’s ’best of 2025’ doesn’t mean I’ll love them all. Out of 13 so far I’ve probably been impressed with about 3/4. They’re all very well written. I like the snippets of lives I would otherwise know nothing about but I’m not left with anything to consider about said lives.

#12. At the end my first thought was “…that’s nice sweetie.” I actually really liked the dialogue but the ending? The beginning? Maybe I’m missing something. I guess the beginning was to show where Kevin came from and what his father was like. The end was lacking any/every thing. Not sure why it’s on this list of bests.

#11 I thought the author did a really good job of portraying a “trapped” feeling. Except when someone or something dies. 4.85/5

#10. I feel two ways. 1) it wasn’t spectacular 2) for the story it was and who the narrator is, it couldn’t have been told better.