REVIEW: “Friendshop” by Zoe Marzo

Review of Zoe Marzo, “Friendshop,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Leah has recently moved to L.A. and is struggling adjust to her new life — if only she had a friend who could help ease the hard corners of not fitting in. Conveniently, this is when Leah encounters the Friendshop — open 24 hours only — just the right place for her to find her perfect, bosom friend.

Daisy comes along, everything Leah needs, and there’s a lovely uncertainty to this story, whether it’s going to be a cheerful one with a happily-every-after ending, or whether the initial set-up, that one can buy friendship, is the premise of something horrific.

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REVIEW: “Birds Are Not the Village” by Merri Andrew

Review of Merri Andrew, “Birds Are Not the Village,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Consideration of infant death.

This story plays on the adage “It takes a village to raise a child.” The narrator has a baby daughter, Thea, but instead of a village all she has to support her is a flock of birds. And, as the title says, “birds are not the village” — this is but a prelude for a harrowing story that will be deeply scary for any sleep-deprived parent.

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REVIEW: “All Our Whiskered Idols” by Kahlo Smith

Review of Kahlo Smith, “All Our Whiskered Idols,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Ruminations on death.

Smith’s story is an exploration of the complications and complexities of family, and death, and religion, and grief. The first part of it was almost aggressively ordinary — good and satisfyingly told, but leaving me wondering what was going to be speculative about it — which made the contrast of the second, weird and wildy speculative, part all the more sharp.

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REVIEW: “Last Letter First” by Kristina Ten

Review of Kristina Ten, “Last Letter First,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Pregnancy, abortion.

What started off as a fun little story about the intimacy of acquaintance — the way in which two strangers thrown together through coincidence can suddenly become friends, only to just as suddenly separate, to go their own way and never see each other again — segued neatly into unexpected depths. In a sense, the reader and the story are themselves like Duri and Margosha, thrown together by accident, revealing something of each other, and then passing on.

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REVIEW: “Mother Mangue” by Lis Vilas Boas

Review of Lis Vilas Boas, “Mother Mangue,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Childbirth, references to infertility.

Mother Mangue is “a mother ready to help” when people are in need of help, and “when they don’t need her, she is just the witch.” The help she offers is both to bring babies into the world that are refusing to come; and to prevent others from coming when they are not wanted. Her story, a quiet one of longing and despair, takes shape when she seeks out for herself that which she has only ever given to others.

This is a long story full of many unexpected twists. It kept me curious all the way to the end.

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REVIEW: “Silk” by Alyssa C. Greene

Review of Alyssa C. Greene, “Silk,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Considering the subject of this story was weaving, it feels appropriate to describe it as “intricately woven,” threads being fed to the reader a bit at a time so that we don’t get the whole pattern at once, but have to wait for it to be built, all the while, horror deepening in the background.

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REVIEW: “Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism” by Andrea Kriz

Review of Andrea Kriz, “Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism”, Clarkesworld Issue 184, January (2022): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

The narrator’s friend made a virtugame that featured their relationship. It also included a slightly fictionalized version of the narrator, a hurtful one at that.

You know that moment when you discover that someone you thought of as a friend just thought of you as a means to an end, a joke, or perhaps both?

That’s what our narrator faces, and then makes a choice. An insightful story into interpersonal relationships, especially with people who think of you in a much different way than you think of them.

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REVIEW: “No One at the Wild Dock” by Gu Shi

Review of Gu Shi, “No One at the Wild Dock”, Clarkesworld Issue 184, January (2022): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.

A timely, beautiful story. It was exceedingly well written. It’s stories like these that keep drawing me back to translated fiction.

The progression of AI from childlike curiosity and learning difficulties, to slowly gaining knowledge, skills and eventually sentience is lovely, with a perspective that I’ve rarely seen.

The depth of emotion, and subtle changes in interaction as the AI develops and grows are part of what made this story magical for me.

The story is truly poignant due to the commentary on the present state of humanity and our technological dependence inter-weaved with the staggering growth of AI’s abilities.

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