REVIEW: “Self-Portrait as ChatGPT” by Sarah Chin

Review of Sarah Chin, “Self-Portrait as ChatGPT,” Luna Station Quarterly 63 (September 2025): 286-290 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: References to suicide.

I can teach you how to say “I’m sorry” so someone believes it. I can make you sound like you mean it, even when you don’t (p. 289).

This was a beautiful, somewhat heartbreaking story, which was even more interesting to read given that I had read a few days earlier this Guardian piece on chatfishing. It’s becoming harder and harder to imagine a future where significant portions of the population are not outsourcing a significant portion of their human interactions to a machine, and that’s both scary and sad.

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REVIEW: “Woodsong” by Arthur H. Manners

Review of Arthur H. Manners, “Woodsong,” Flash Fiction Online 145 (October 2025): 19-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There’s two layers of horror to this story: The external trappings that comprise its setting, which are eerie and creepy enough on their own; and the horror of a parent slowing coming to terms with not being able to save their child. It’s not a pleasant story by any means.

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REVIEW: “To Breach a Citadel” by Jeannie Marschall

Review of Jeannie Marschall, “To Breach a Citadel,” Flash Fiction Online 145 (October 2025): 7-9 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story didn’t quite work for me. It had the traditional horror-story’s build-up to a spooky, creepy ending, but maybe I missed something, but I didn’t get what was supposed to be scary about the denouement. Ordinarily, this would be an indication that I need to read a story a second time, in case I did miss something, but without something, some hook, some lovely language, some character that grabbed me, it doesn’t feel like this would be a worthwhile use of my time.

No story works for every reader; this one simply isn’t one for me.

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REVIEW: “This is What Mouths Are For” by Parker M. O’Neill

Review of Parker M. O’Neill, “This is What Mouths Are For,” Flash Fiction Online 145 (October 2025): 24-26 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There are four mouths in this story — Guiltymouth, Anxiousmouth, Bittermouth, and Haughtymouth. All four mouths do what you’d expect mouths to do, and what I love about horror as a genre is how it provides space for the ordinary, everyday to twist into the macabre. O’Neill pulls this off excellently: About four paragraphs before the end I suddenly went “oh god,” as I figured how it was all going to end.

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REVIEW: “The Forest Through the Teas” by Wendy Nikel

Review of Wendy Nikel, “The Forest Through the Teas,” Flash Fiction Online 144 (September 2025): 34-36 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I loved the pun in the title, it made me excited as a hint about what was to come. Sadly (at least for me and my tastes), what was to come involved a whole lot more, rather heavy-handed, botanical vocabulary, not all quite as punny as the title. It made me sad, because it detracted enough from my enjoyment that I never quite got into the story itself, which I think I might have otherwise enjoyed.

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REVIEW: “The Things You Bought for the Robot” by Stefan Alcalá Slater

Review of Stefan Alcalá Slater, “The Things You Bought for the Robot,” Flash Fiction Online 144 (September 2025): 30-33 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

What makes a person a person? What makes a robot a person? With all the philosophy I’ve studied and taught, I’ve never found a better answer than that there is nothing more to being a person than being treated as one — an answer that works for humans or robots, and an answer that is worked out in this satisfying little story.

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REVIEW: “Emerald Gears” by Beth Goder

Review of Beth Goder, “Emerald Gears,” Flash Fiction Online 144 (September 2025): 26-29 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was little more than a series of linked scenes, not quite a story, but they were pretty little scenes, and I love it when I read something which is clearly a fantasy story even when the setting is SF-coded. I also enjoyed the very goblin-market-esque feeling the piece had.

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