"The Belonging Kind" is a science fiction short story by cyberpunk authors William Gibson and John Shirley. It was first published in the horror anthology Shadows 4 edited by Charles L. Grant in 1981, later to be included along with several other stories in Gibson's collection Burning Chrome. It was written prior the conception of the Sprawl universe in which several of Gibson's novels and stories are set, taking place in a setting much more like contemporary American life.