Review of Kurt Newton, “The Invisible,” Flash Fiction Online (May 2023): 16-19 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story can be summed up “coping mechanisms for past trauma gone wrong”. At first, the idea seems great, but knowing that this issue of FFO is all about horror, you also know from the start that things are all going to go wrong. It was delicious finding out how.
Review of Sarah Cline, “Skin the Teeth,” Flash Fiction Online (May 2023): 11-14 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Gory, creepy, disturbing: those three words sum up this story. It’s crazy cat lady taken to an entirely differently level!
Review of H. V. Patterson, “Unexplained,” Flash Fiction Online (May 2023): 7-10 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Patterson’s story is the opening one in a horror-themed issue of FFO, and while the immediate scene is of a woman who has suddenly lost a finger, this isn’t a story about gore and body horror. Rather, the terror is much more psychological: No doctor believes that she ever used to have 10 fingers.
I’m pretty sure every woman (and probably many men) has had the experience of telling someone about something that has happened to her, medical or otherwise, and not being believed. Patterson taps into this fear deftly, and the ending is a killer.
Review of Avril Mulligan, “Forest-Sister,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Every week when his mother goes to the market, Tom’s father sends him and his younger sister, Bib, into the forest, to find their half-sister, their forest-sister; and every day Tom has to live with the debt he owes his forest-sister.
There is a darkness to this story, which comes through in chips and pieces through the beautiful language that Mulligan deploys. It’s a story about the complexities and complications of familial relationships, and desire, and debt, and it will leave a weight upon your heart when you read it.
Review of B. Zelkovich, “A Lullaby for Mattie Barker,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The story opens on Mattie Barker arriving in a small and sleepy town to take up her dream job — sexton of the local church. The peace that Mattie feels tending the church garden and graveyard bleeds through to the reader, and nothing can destroy it, not even the ghosts who haunt the graveyard. All in all a very lovely reading experience, full of love and loss and longing.
Review of Rhonda Parrish, “Good News, Bad News,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: References to addiction.
This was ostensibly a story of post-apocalyptic Drumheller, but I found it weirdly idealised and utopian. Ty, one of the secondary characters, has a background in “science,” and hence is able to design hydroponics, make use of laboratories, build solar-powered systems — quite the collection of skills beyond the ken of most of the scientists I know! Papillon, the main character, takes on the role of ruler of a metaphorical fiefdom with ease. Everything seems to work out just a little too well and a little too easily for everyone involved. But I did like the sentiment expressed at the ending — almost enough to redeem the story.
SFF Reviews