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!
Review of Elijah J. Mears, “Everyone Hates It When the Alien Shows Up At the Club,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 19-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I loved the narrative POV of this story. It was self-described “the collective hivemind of the club’s patrons” (p. 19), full of spiraling conversations and overlapping trains of thought, but it also reads exactly the way it sounds in my own head, just me. I know many people would find the endless tangents annoying and frustrating, but to me, this story just felt comforting. Highly recommended reading for other neurodivergents out there.
Three words to describe the story? Hilarious, bitchy, romantic. And three more: So much fun.
Review of Samantha Murray, “This Blue World,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 11-13 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story immediately presented me with two hurdles to get over: One, it’s 2nd person POV; two, it’s about ghosts. Neither of these narrative choices are my particular favorites, and I wasn’t sure that I’d get over both (or even either) of them. But Murray managed to pull it off, even if she waited until the penultimate two sentences!
(First printed in Fantasy Magazine September 2022)
Review of Wen Wen Yang, “In This Exchange of Names, I Say Please,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 32-34 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a beautiful and powerful story of immigration, integration, and intercultural heritage. It feels both autobiographical, but also curiously universal, at least for anyone who has ever had to bridge a divide between countries, languages, cultures, heritages, anyone who has ever been the foreigner, the displaced, the out of place.
Review of Cressida Roe, “The Memory Swap,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 28-31 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Have a memory you no longer want? Want a memory you no longer have? Roe’s memory swap story has the solution: Post an ad to a Craig’s-list-like forum, and see who takes you up. Of course, the fun part of the story is: Who would want the memories that someone else doesn’t want? And who can bear to give away the kind of memory that someone else might want? The result is an excellent mix of humor, sorrow, and more than a little a bit of horror.
Review of Shane Inman, “Disinternment,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 26-27 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a parent.
Ooof. It’s quite incredible how hard a punch Inman can pack in just two pages.
Review of Caspian Drake, “Death is a Black Door in the Ghetto,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 14-17 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Drug use and abuse.
For all that this story is labelled by the editor as “horror,” I found it actually to be a redemptive story, full of love and forgiveness.
Review of Jay McKenzie, “What to Buy For Your Husband of Thirty-Seven Years For His Birthday,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 7-8 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
What a sad, disappointing story of sad, disappointing heteronormativity.
Review of Erin Brandt Filliter, “Swampland,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 19-20 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story was classed as “literary,” but in fact it is quite speculative — the first page left me a bit worried that it would just be an ordinary, descriptive, literary story, but the second page takes that step away from reality and mere descriptive and dives into consequences: Why any of it matters. Definitely enjoyed the second half much more than the first!
Review of Brian Howlett, “The Kill Registry,” After Dinner Conversation 3, no. 12 (December 2022): 67-80 — Subscribe here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Murder, domestic abuse.
This is the sort of spec fic I love: Take an outrageous premise, and see where it leads. In this case, the outrageous premise is “everyone gets one bullet — one free kill that they can use at any point in their life, no questions asked, no consequences.” (The most unrealistic part of it was the story behind how the premise got implemented in the first place — a Louisiana politician took the idea from a Geneva PhD student, and America loved it. When will America ever voluntarily limit the number of people one can shoot with impunity?)
Howlett combined this premise with some decent writing quality, making this one of the most fun stories I read in this issue. The only thing that let me down was how dumb the narrator’s use of his bullet was, in the end. It was just plain old misogyny.
SFF Reviews