Short Reviews of Short SFF
Review of S.L. Harris, “Moonmouse,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 29-32 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
“People carry their ruin with them wherever they go” (p. 31) is the repeated moral of this story — and yet, despite this grim conclusion about humanity, the story itself is hopeful, almost joyful, a real contrast to the rest of the stories in this issue.
(First published in Short Édition January 2026.)
Review of Andrew Kozma, “The Sacrificials,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 7-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is capital H Horror of the sort that I find really, really unsettling. It’s vivid and destructive and horrible merely for the sake of horrifying. Beautifully constructed, but deeply unpleasant to read!
And I don’t know if this was intended to be read as a metaphor for gun control (or the lack thereof) in the US, but read as such, it’s also a pretty powerful story.
Review of Bree Wernicke, “The Oil King,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 25-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Ellalee is a dried up, dried out little old woman in a dried up, dried out little old town, whose only business is waiting for her son Malcolm to return — nothing else, not even the horrors coming in from the desert, is anything she needs to worry about. The “horrors” in this story are easily readable as a metaphor for environmental pollution; but somehow, it is Ellalee herself who becomes the most horrifying thing in the entire story, because she has completely abrogated any responsibility for anything, content to let the horrors take over her town and do nothing.
Review of Shelly Jones, “Float. Sink. Tread. Swim.” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 20-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There’s so many things in this story that I’d ordinarily put into a content note — the death of a parent, death of a child, the involvement of child protection services, religious persecution where the religious people are the persecutors rather than the persecuted — that it felt like the entire review would be in the content note if I did so. This story is every bit as sad and heavy as you might predict from the title.
(Interestingly, given where it was first published, it has no wizards, and does not take place in space.)
(First published in Wizards in Space, April 2024.)
Review of Abigail Koury, “The Piano Made of Fingers,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 16-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a curious and engaging read, but I spent the entire story thinking “Why fingers?” — there seemed little about the piano that was specific to the fact it was made of fingers. They could have been carrots, or snakes, or stones, or sticks.
Review of Beth Goder, “Moss Senses,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 11-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The FFO editors described this story as “science fiction,” but in my opinion it leans much more to the “horror” side of spec fic than the “SF” side — partly because there is very little science involved, and partly because of its inherent creepiness, which leaves the reader feeling displaced. The fact that the story could have been rewritten with pretty much anything other than moss and it would still work only enhances how odd and strange and unsettling it is.
Review of Christine Hanolsy, “A Thimbleful of Need,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 15-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Addiction.
This story of unequal desire and unmet needs left an unhappy taste in my mouth at the end.
Review of Christopher Degni, “Me an’ Streeter (an’ Vince) Chase a Comet,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 8-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story features not your average astronauts on not your average space journey (of course not, the journey started as a dare…), and it was a lot of fun.
Review of Christopher Blake, “In Brightness and in Darkness, We Sit,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 27-29 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death.
I love it when authors play with language, but love it less so when I can’t tell if they are, or if there’s just been poor proofreading. The lack of definite articles in this story is definitely evidence for the former; the first occurrence of “peerson” made me wonder if it was the former, until “peeple” turned up as well; however, the occurrence of “discretely” where one would normally expect to see “discreetly” seems much more plausibly a typo or editorial error than a deliberate choice.
Setting this matters aside, there was a wistful sadness to this story that I found quite endearing.
Review of Thomas Price, “A Lesson On Learning Your Place in the Universe,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 23-26 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There were so many layers to this story, so many routes it could’ve got that it didn’t, all resulting in a lesson that felt more like a reward than a punishment. What a well put together, enjoyable read!
SFF Reviews