Review of Wailana Kalama, “Dissection of a Mermaid,” Flash Fiction Online 133 (October 2024): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Assault.
This is a step by step how-to guide for what it says in the title. The steps begin detailed and complicated and full of tips and tricks. In the end, the short, sharp staccato sentences are sparse and bare, their structure like a knife driving into your flesh.
It is very, very dark.
Review of K. J. Khan, “Our Father”, Clarkesworld Issue 212, May (2024): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
This is deeply engaging, especially so for it being a fairly short story. The story slowly peels back the layers of this story, with deeply emotional moments as well. Such a beautifully paced story that really shows the bittersweet nature of parenthood. Recommend!
Review of Jordan Taylor, “What Remains to Wake,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 209-226 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was an intriguing story, fully fairy-tale it its tropes and elements, but with a twist of bloody horror — simultaneously properly Grimm while also being wholly new. In the realm of fairy-tale retellings, telling something entirely knew which is still yet a fairy tale is an accomplishment!
Review of Catherine George, “The Crow Bridge,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 167-185 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
What a stunningly lovely story this one: Delicately told and strongly constructed, full of myth and loss and struggle. I really loved it.
Also, kudos to George, who, according to her biography, took 10 years out from writing fiction, and came back to it. I did that too, and yet I still find support in hearing of other people doing the same. It helps, when facing writer’s block, to see examples of how it’s not forever, even if 10 years may seem like forever.
Review of Liv DeSimone, “Dragons Over Cefalù,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 143-165 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Violence against women.
I struggled with what to put in the content note for this story, because it’s more than sexual harassment (what I initially had), but not quite sexual assault (what I toyed with). Whatever it is, it pervades the opening pages of the story so if that isn’t something for you, definitely avoid this story. The harassment feels like it isn’t that awful, because it isn’t quite assault, but the low-levelness of it ends up making it even worse, because as a reader, as a woman, I kept finding myself trying to normalize it, and that made it all the more awful. In the end, a quote from the story gave me what I needed: “After all, none of this had ever been about sex” (p. 162). It’s not about sex, it’s about violence, and power.
Normally I’m not a fan of using violence against women as a means of moving plot forward in a story, but there was something about this that worked. Two women’s separate revenges become intertwined,
Review of Carolina V. Mata, “The Desert,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 119-122 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
“The desert was created to antagonize”: This one line sets the scene for a short, fierce story of fighting back against despair. There’s not much detail or backstory or world-building, meaning there is a lot of scope for reading into the story whatever you like — generational trauma, climate change, what have you. Its short length makes the story quite flexible and elastic in a satisfying way.
Review of Sara Omer, “Burn, Balefire Heart,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 35-53 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Dragons, slaves, enemies, a plot, freedom, and — eventually — love. This story had it all! I loved the depth of it, though at times I felt like I didn’t quite have all the back-story. I think this could have made a really excellent novella, and hope that Omer tries her hand at something longer form in the future.
Review of Angela Caravan, “Rainfall,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 99-116 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a shy sweet story of first love, one that seamsters and seamstresses will enjoy because of all the stitching and smocking in it.
Review of Y. M. Resnik, “Sparking Joy,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 89-96 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
After the death of her husband, Sharon is required to downsize the mass of her apartment in order to ensure that valuable resources are recycled and put back into national service — and she’s been sent an AI to help her deal with the process. It’s a solid premise for a story, but what I loved was that I had a good guess as to how it would unfold, and my guess was totally wrong. I loved the twist, resulting in a story that made me smile and also made me shiver.
Review of L. L. Madrid, “The Ruby Level,” Flash Fiction Online 132 (September 2024): 25-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Five short snippets comprise this story, all slightly disjointed from each other and yet still managing to depict a dark and rather horrific narrative. Deliciously unsettling.
SFF Reviews