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.)
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