Out now from Interstellar Flight Press!

Available from Amazon, Indiebound, Barnes and Noble online, and direct from publisher.

Official publisher website here

A short story collection reflecting the light and dark in human emotion and fantasy. 

A sea-witch calls to souls from the deep. In modern suburbia, a middle-aged woman fights to keep her daughter from the clutches of a Faerie Queen. . . and finds herself confronting her own past and deepest desires. Sinister clowns run a candy shop on an idyllic resort island. A pair of neuroscientists fall in love amidst their quest to map the human mind. A woman is haunted by a starving ghost, and professors of magic do their best to keep students safe during a time of terrible war. In her debut collection, Vanessa Fogg spins fantastical tales set in worlds both close and distant from our own, exploring relationships, love, passion, and connection across space and time.

Reviews and Press for The House of Illusionists

Featured in “8 Story Collections That Inspired Samantha Mills’s Stunning Speculative Fiction” in Publishers Weekly, by Samantha Mills

“Her work is subtle and moving, at times wistful and bittersweet. I love the range of tones in this book, from the tongue-in-cheek fun of “Fanfiction for a Grimdark Universe,” in which the residents of said universe realize their lives are being written about in another world, to the quiet horror of “Sweetness,” in which the shade of an abandoned child lures other children into the clutches of soul-devouring monsters. Fogg taught me to find the beauty in small moments, to be genuine and thoughtful and still find room for fun.”

Reviewed in Strange Horizons, by Stephen Case

“I was reading the collection on a trip, and the thick atmosphere and gorgeous details of Fogg’s stories made it a great collection to disappear into in an airport. . . Shelter in gardens, academies, and family; solace through beauty, memory, and at times illusion: Fogg’s focus on endings and societies declining or being destroyed may hit harder today than when these stories were originally written, which is why her consistent emphasis on the power of beauty—if not to save then at least to somehow redeem such endings—is important. I sincerely hope there will be many more such lovely endings to come.”

Featured in Locus Online, in “The Year in Review 2025″ by A.C. Wise

“The House of Illusionists by Vanessa Fogg offers up beautifully written and occasionally melancholy stories, many rooted in mythology and fairy tales, and others with a more science fictional bent. Altogether, the collection does a wonderful job of exploring loss, longing, and the desire for connection through the speculative lens, while also offering up notes of hope.”

Featured in The Washington Independent Review of Books’: “The Best Book I read in 2025:” by Tara Campbell

“Each story is a portal into a rich, fantastical new world with beautiful imagery and compelling characters. The language is polished and beautiful, inspiring one to pause and savor before diving back in for the next story. As a reader, it’s a gorgeous collection to get lost in, and as a writer, it’s inspiring to see such skillful writing like this out in the world.”

Reviewed by Jacqueline Nyathi at Harare Review of Books

“Most of what makes this anthology so good is Fogg’s excellent prose, always very even and assured no matter the subject. Compellingly, she seems to know a lot about every subject she tackles, from neuroscience to surfing. There’s time travel, shapeshifting, an eternal garden, a sea witch, magical illusions, the Queen of the Hunt, and lots more. Even a story about fanfic. But all of this always rooted in human things: in the love between a couple, between a mother and daughter, in friendship, home, the wounds of loss and abandonment, and trust. I also really enjoyed the international flavour of these stories. They feel like they’re from many different cultures and folkways; in fact, if you told me Fogg was the pseudonym of an international collective, I’d believe you.”

Reviewed at NewMyths Magazine by Kevin Jin

“Vanessa Fogg’s anthology The House of Illusionists spins emotions into threads of earnest prose and weaves these threads into tapestries of fantasy and sci-fi. There’s genuine magic in the way these disparate stories knit together to transcend the sum of their parts. Much like how, pulled taut, threads can slice as well as any knife, The House of Illusionists isn’t afraid to nick us with pathos to remind us of the heart’s vulnerability—but also the beauty that arises from that fragility. . . Vanessa Fogg’s The House of Illusionists is perhaps the most enjoyable read I’ve encountered this year. “

Reviewed at The Templeton Gate by Galen Strickland

“. . . Vanessa Fogg is one such bard, using her words to illuminate the emotions, the ambitions, the hopes and desires, and sometimes fears, of humanity.”

More Praise for The House of Illusionists

“The House of Illusionists is a stunning collection that takes you through autumn night hunts, strange holiday islands, space-faring multiverses, and sentient ancient gardens. Fogg expertly meshes genre, showing us heartbreakingly real romance in far futures, creeping horror in beautiful fantasy worlds, and even fanfiction reimagined as a platform for exploring alternative universes. Immersive and profoundly moving, The House of Illusionists is a feat of untethered imagination with a raw human heart. I didn’t want to leave some of these worlds.”—Angela Liu, two-time Nebula Award finalist for the speculative fiction novelettes, “Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” and “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down the Moon.”

“Vanessa Fogg possesses that rare gift—the ability to make the mythic feel lived-in and the everyday feel numinous. Her stories move like water through reality’s cracks: A mother recognizes the demon she once saved. Doomed guardians discover fanfiction of their own apocalypse. Scientists preserve love in quantum memory. With prose that shifts between crystalline clarity and dreamlike dissolution, Fogg shows us magic that wounds and heals in the same breath.”—Yi Izzy Yu, writer and translator of The Shadow Book of Ji Yun and Stars that Pause

“The House of Illusionists is a treasure box for anyone who loves exquisitely crafted speculative fiction. Every story spins its own kind of quiet, lustrous magic, and in every story, in every character, Fogg finds a twist, a turn, a chink, a crack, a different point of view. One of the things I love most about Fogg’s stories is that she has a singular ability to portray love in all its messy, complex, everyday glory, always finding beauty in the darkness, and the darkness in what’s beautiful.” —Maria Haskins, editor, reviewer, and author of Wolves & Girls

“In The House of Illusionists, author Vanessa Fogg guides us through black lakes of despair, starving cities, and fanfiction futures, breaking barriers in a sweeping, otherworldly collection that speaks to the heart of humanity. This book squeezed every emotion out of me. Possibly my favourite read of the year. Transcendent and timely.”—Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of Grotesque: Monster Stories

“Vanessa Fogg’s ethereal stories have the alarming delicacy of an unbreakable wire net that, when pulled tight, can cut right through your heart. Encompassing science fiction, folklore-informed fantasy, humor, and horror, The House of Illusionists holds human relationships cupped in its hands and gently, mercilessly reveals their paradoxical fragility and strength. The sweetness, but also the bitterness.” —Francesca Forrest, author of the novellas, The Inconvenient God and Lagoonfire, and the novel Pen Pal.

“Fogg’s gorgeous language and fantastical worlds are a means of exploring the human heart. Each story in this collection is masterfully done, and the whole is absolutely stunning!” —A.C. Wise, author of Out of the Drowning Deep

“Vanessa Fogg is one of my favourite writers, living or dead, and The House of Illusionists and Other Stories is my favourite collection of short fiction – full stop. Fogg’s stories are deeply atmospheric and transporting, lush with beautiful prose and imagery, and steeped in wonder and love. Fogg is equally skilled at crafting her magic and science with one hand, and at exploring intricate and realistic relationships with the other, and in her fiction she merges these elements together into a brilliant whole. I cried multiple times. A real treat.” —Ephiny Gale, author of the story collections Next Curious Thing and Pick Your Potion

More reader reviews at Goodreads

Interviews

Interview on writer and reviewer Myna Chang’s Microverse blog. Interview link here.

Interview on writer Rati Mehrotra’s blog. Interview link here.

Podcast interview with Turn the Page, the official podcast of the Syosset Public Library in Long Island, NY. Interview link here.

Interview with Julie Reeser for the Interstellar Flight Press blog. Interview link here.