Review of Alethea Paul, “The Furthest Point” Adventitious no. 1 (Feb/Mar 2026): 49-50 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a gossamer confection of a story — short, ephemeral, delightful while it lasted but not leaving a lasting impression.
Review of Charlie Kieft, “This Is Your Village,” Flash Fiction Online 152 (May 2026): 23-27 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is probably the most depressing story that I have read in years.
Review of Em Starr, “The Screaming Garden,” Flash Fiction Online 152 (May 2026): 20-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was an absolutely delicious piece of horror. I don’t normally expect to enjoy horror pieces because of their humor, but I absolutely enjoyed this one because of that.
(First published in Flame Tree Fiction Newsletter 74, 2025.)
Review of John K. Peck, “Soon It Would See Eyelessly, Turn Corners On Its Own,” Flash Fiction Online 152 (May 2026): 11-14 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The FFO editors categorized this story as horror, but while it definitely had a delicious Gothic feel to it, I found it too serene to be truly horrific.
Review of Joelle Killian, “After Enlightenment, the Sewage,” Flash Fiction Online 152 (May 2026): 7-9 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Addiction and rehab.
I had expected the title to be somewhat more metaphorical than it turned out to actually be. I think I would preferred it to be a little less literal.
Review of Liz Levin, “She Said Yes and a City Died,” Flash Fiction Online 152 (May 2026): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a strong little piece, with a lot of beauty and strangeness in it.
(First published in MetaStellar July 2024)
Review of Meagan Kane, “Europan Culture (Seven Theses),” Flash Fiction Online 151 (April 2026): 28-31 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I’m really not sure what I think about this story. Perhaps my cognitive dissonance comes from the title, which led me to think the story was going to be very different from how it was. But I also wonder if I would’ve liked the story even if it had a different title; there was just something unsettling about the way Conamara’s very being and existence was handle, by the unnamed narrator, or maybe by the author.
Review of Francesco Levato, “A Bone Deep Ache,” Flash Fiction Online 151 (April 2026): 24-27 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
An apocalypse, monsters, religion gone wrong…all of these could have provided a foundation for a horror story on their own, but Levato combined them all into something truly gruesome.
Review of Myna Chang, “Ten and Out,” Flash Fiction Online 151 (April 2026): 20-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story was both perfectly formed in its flash fic form, and something where I would happily read the 300-page version of the same story. The characters could have been put into pretty much any genre or context, and I would have loved them just as much.
Review of Sam E. Sutin, “Remembering Dodem Ansibar,” Flash Fiction Online 151 (April 2026): 13-16 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I adored reading Ansibar’s obituary — and then reading it again, and then again for the third time! This was delightfully fun.
(P.S. SM, if you’re reading this, I’m a logic professor who ALSO enjoys the Axiom of Choice, and would be happy to chat about the job market.)
SFF Reviews