REVIEW: “To Be a Woman is To Be Without a Name” by Chidera Solomon Anikpe

Review of Chidera Solomon Anikpe, “To Be a Woman is To Be Without a Name,” Flash Fiction Online 140 (May 2025): 19-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

When FFO serves up one of its rare non-speculative stories, I’m never quite sure what to say. I include the stories on this blog because our commitment to reviewing all stories in a given issue or anthology trumps our focus on speculative fiction; but I sort of feel like I’m not sure what I’m supposed to get out of a non-spec fic short story, so I don’t know how to read it properly.

What I can say is that this somewhat-autobiographical-feeling story has a stark, strong conclusion.

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REVIEW: “Eight Legs of the Mother Hunted” by Brandon Case

Review of Brandon Case, “Eight Legs of the Mother Hunted,” Flash Fiction Online 140 (May 2025): 15-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Spiders (obvs); death of a child.

I love it when a story can get me to empathise with something that normally gives me the ick — it’s the mark of a quality writer when that happens. I’m not a huge fan of spiders, but I am 100% on the side of the titular mother hunted. Her pain is my pain, and her victory my victory. What a gorgeous little story.

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REVIEW: “Entropy in a Fruit Bowl” by Nicole Lynn

Review of Nicole Lynn, “Entropy in a Fruit Bowl,” Flash Fiction Online 140 (May 2025): 11-14 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Death of a parent, physical violence.

Apparently the trick to learning necromancy is: Start small. But love that only existed asymmetrically can never be resurrected once it is dead — these are the two lessons of this short, exceedingly sad, story.

(First published in The Arcanist October 2022.)

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REVIEW: “Robot, Changeling, Ghost” by Avra Margariti

Review of Avra Margariti, “Robot, Changeling, Ghost,” Flash Fiction Online 140 (May 2025): 7-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Death of a child; child abuse.

I’m always excited when I see an Avra Margariti byline, as I know I’m in for something satisfying and probably unusual. This story is particularly dark, bordering on horror, full of hurt and loss and longing. It’s also disconcerting enough that I’d like to say: Read with care.

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REVIEW: “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Teleporter” by M. J. Pettit

Review of M. J. Pettit, “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Teleporter,” Flash Fiction Online 139 (April 2025): 25-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I wanted to love this story — great title, a lot of humor, intriguing premise, a captivating hook at the beginning — but unfortunately, I just couldn’t quite. The combination of the 2nd person POV plus story-telling that presupposes I (as the “you” character in the story) know far more about what’s going on than I (as the reader!) actually do made it feel like I as a reader was being kept at arm’s length, making it hard for me to properly engage with the story.

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