REVIEW: “Flekke” by Joshua Jones Lofflin

Review of Joshua Jones Lofflin, “Flekke,” Flash Fiction Online 151 (June 2026): 8-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Infertility, infidelity.

After having spent many years now review speculative fiction on this blog, I’ve learned that there are many things that I will forgive in a story if it is in a speculative genre. When the speculative overlay is missing, I’m much, much more judgemental. In the case of this story, I honestly don’t understand what the point is — why tell an ordinary story about ordinary life and ordinary sins, when there are so many extraordinary stories that could be told instead?

This one was definitely not for me.

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REVIEW: “An Obituary to Birdsong” by Tehnuka

Review of Tehnuka, “An Obituary to Birdsong,” Flash Fiction Online 151 (June 2026): 11-12 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The ecology of this story may be unfamiliar, but watching its collapse is not. The obvious sadness of the story is the loss of the birdsong and all it entailed, but the smaller grief of how Sangeetha died I found more poignant.

(First published in If There’s Anyone Left, 2023.)

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REVIEW: “What a Name Does is Let You Leave” by Meagan Kane

Review of Meagan Kane, “What a Name Does is Let You Leave,” Adventitious no. 1 (Feb/Mar 2026): 55-69 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m very deeply not a fan of 2nd person POV; unfortunately, that dislike is compounded when the POV is that of someone who is so obviously not me that the cognitive incongruence of being continually told that it is me overwhelms everything else.

Which is a shame, because I think told in a different perspective, I might have really enjoyed this story. Instead, I enjoyed it more in spite of itself, rather than because of it. There was a beautiful depth of longing threading through all of it which kept me reading on.

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REVIEW: “Hunter Mother Sailor Wife” by Catherine Taveres

Review of Catherine Taveres, “Hunter Mother Sailor Wife,” Adventitious no. 1 (Feb/Mar 2026): 114-119. — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

As a fellow mother who flat-out refused to give up her pre-motherhood identity upon having a child (and who strongly feels she’s a better mother because of that refusal…), my heart went out to Cara in the opening pages of this story. I was so pleased by the outcome, and the way it was facilitated by the people around her.

Honestly one of the best stories I’ve read in ages. Gold stars all around, for Cara, for Jothi, for Taveres, for every lucky reader who gets to read this story.

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REVIEW: “To Devour Your Own Name” by Katlina Sommerberg

Review of Katlina Sommerberg, “To Devour Your Own Name,” Adventitious no. 1 (Feb/Mar 2026): 110-113 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I found the central metaphor in this story a bit too strong, a bit too overt. But there are probably other people out there, still struggling to come to terms with how their identity clashes with what people say their identity should be, who would appreciate the power of the message of this story.

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REVIEW: “The Soundtrack of My Afterlife” by P. A. Cornell

Review of P. A. Cornell, “The Soundtrack of My Afterlife,” Adventitious no. 1 (Feb/Mar 2026): 26-47 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: attempted rape.

“Then I died and became a car” (p. 26).

Sometimes, all it takes is one sentence in the opening page to make me know I’m going to love a story. That was this sentence for this story!

And I did love it. I’m of an age where the soundtrack of the narrator’s afterlife was also the soundtrack of my childhood, and of the songs I’m sharing with my own kid. Nothing like a good dose of nostalgia! But I also loved Cornell’s delicate touch in this coming-of-age story, and how realistic it felt. Honestly, this should be a movie!

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REVIEW: “This is Why Magical Realism and Family Tree School Projects Shouldn’t Mix” by Abigail Guerrero

Review of Abigail Guerrero, “This is Why Magical Realism
and Family Tree School Projects Shouldn’t Mix,” Adventitious no. 1 (Feb/Mar 2026): 19-25 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I’m not sure if this was a ghost story, a fantasy story, a slipstream story, a magical realism story, or something else altogether, but I am sure it was A LOT of fun to read! And I loved the thread of something deeper and more serious that ran through it all: That we are not bound by our pasts and we are free to decide what our futures will be.

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