I asked on the Clarkesworld Discord for recommendations for must read stories this year, and this story was mentioned the most. I liked “Window Boy” as well and Thomas Ha clearly has an unique voice.

Clarkesworld April 2025

It hooked me right from the start, where you immediately get a sense of something being a bit off about this world, but we are deliberately kept in the dark on the details as the story is told from an inside perspective with their vocabulary. A reference to a blue house keeps being mentioned, and it is clear it has something to do with people working for the government, though what it is exactly isn’t immediately apparent.

In this society open satirical criticism of the people in power are allowed, but there isn’t free speech as such. Some stories gets censored and the narrative follows the parent of a writer, whose stories gets very popular, but they also draw the attention of the censors.

The culprit is that his stories are ambiguous, vague and open to interpretation. The authoritative regime knows that that sort of writing sparks critical thinking better than outright open criticism does. When people think for themselves and can put a piece of fiction into their own context, rather than something that is very clear in its message, is more dangerous for a regime that wants to keep the population under control.

This short story perfectly captures how and why good stories can do that, why something ambiguous and unclear can encompass more than open and shut cases. In the same vein, vague and seemingly random actions of censorships is frighteningly more effective than when the rules are clear. Definitely a story worth reading.

Read in Clarkesworld April 2025
Rating: 4