Mindworks by Neal Schusterman

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✦ BLURB ✦

This collection of unforgettable and uncanny stories could only come from the mind of award winner Neal Shusterman. Compiled for the first time in one epic volume, these stories both classic and brand-new will stretch your imagination from terror to the sublime and back again. Explore a world where bats block out the sun, where soup is a trap for your soul, or where the life-force of a glacier can bring back the dead. Journey to a place where the wind can be captured, time can be crafted into infinite attic space, or a hot tub can house an ancient monster. And revisit the Arc of the Scythe universe for two all-new tales of gleaning.

In this collection, the only thing that is truly certain is nothing is certain.

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A kaleidoscope of the strange and sublime.

Pre-Reading Thoughts

I love a good short story collection, especially when it mixes tones and genres. Shusterman’s imagination is always so inventive, so I was curious to see what kind of bizarre corners of reality he’d twist open here.

Post-Reading

As I thought…
This is a collection brimming with invention. Some stories lean sci-fi, some lean fantasy, some are just a neat little one-gag flash — but they’re all distinct and vivid. I was ready for variety, and I definitely got it.

It surprised me by…
Even the stories that didn’t quite land for me were still engaging. Usually in a collection, the misses feel like filler — but here, they felt like Shusterman just playing with a different flavour, one that wasn’t always to my taste but still had something memorable. That’s rare.

MUSIC PAIRING

• 🎵 Featured Song: “Strange Magic” by Electric Light Orchestra — playful, a little eerie, exactly right for a collection that swerves between tones.

• 🎶 Vibe Album: OK Computer by Radiohead — eclectic, weird, futuristic, layered with moods.

• 🎧 Artist Recommendation: St. Vincent, for the way she bends genre into new, unexpected shapes.

VIBE CHECK

• Colour Palette: shifting neons against midnight black.

• Soundtrack: retro synths cut with bursts of orchestral drama.

• Season: late autumn — crisp, darkening, but still sparking with energy.

• Mood: restless imagination.

• Scent: ozone before a storm.

TAROT PULL

From the Galactic Star Tarot: The Magician — depicted as an ethereal figure on an alien world, with nebulae blazing overhead and an ankh raised in one hand. This is a card of limitless creation and boundless potential, and it mirrors the collection’s energy perfectly. Each story feels like the Magician’s work: pulling new realities from the void and setting them glittering in front of us.

For fans of:

• Book: Exhalation by Ted Chiang — cerebral and inventive short fiction.

• TV/Film: Love, Death & Robots — short bursts of sci-fi/fantasy weirdness that range from dark to funny to sublime.

Disclaimer

Mindworks publishes on the 18th November, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

🃏 The deck had opinions: [The Empress] — [Several stories feature something being torn away to make room for new things]

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