REVIEW: “Big Sister” by Jang Ami, translated by Joheun Lee

Review of Jang Ami, Joheun Lee (trans.), “Big Sister,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 235-258 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Death.

There’s something about the classic fairy tale style that seems to transcend cultures — I was surprised at how familiar the archetype of this story (originally written in Korean) felt, even while none of the characters or elements or tropes were themselves familiar. It made the story both comforting and eerie; and with the final twist being saved for the very end, it kept me hooked until the final page.

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REVIEW: “Vale of the Firefae” by Jalyn Renae Fiske

Review of Jalyn Renae Fiske, “Vale of the Firefae,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 113-124 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

One of the things I want out of a fantasy story is something different from reality — the very best of worldbuilding can deliver something so utterly unlike what is actually the case that in addition to reading for escapism one can also marvel at the ingenuity to imagine something so unreal. Now, not every fantasy story can have the very best of worldbuilding, and I don’t measure stories against that very best. But there is something both disappointing and unsettling about a wildly fantastic story whose worldbuilding structures replicate — whether consciously or unconsciously — problem structures in our own world. I found that to be the case with Fiske’s story: She has constructed a society that is, on the one hand, not at all like any actually existing society; but on the other hand, the misogynist and patriarchal norms that are encoded in the structure are depressingly familiar.

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REVIEW: “Bussola” by Teresa Koeppel

Review of Teresa Koeppel, “Bussola,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 101-110 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

At the start of this weird little ghost story, Koeppel sets up some rules which I then spent the rest of the story watching carefully to see whether — and how — they would be kept. There were subtle inconsistencies that end up bothering me probably way more than they should have, making me pause to scroll back up to make sure I hadn’t read something wrong or misremembered. I don’t mind an unreliable narrator or an inconsistent story when it is clearly a deliberate construction of an author; but I wasn’t entirely convinced that these here were. End result: Not really my kind of story.

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REVIEW: “The Weather Girl” by Summer Jewel Keown

Review of Summer Jewel Keown, “The Weather Girl,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 261-273 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It’s a bit weird reading a romance when you know from pretty much the first line that it doesn’t have a happy ending, but nevertheless I enjoyed the unfolding of this one, waiting to see just how the unhappy ending would come about. Unfortunately, in the end, it was for boring, mundane, ordinary reasons, which kind of defeated any more fantastic/speculative elements that the story had, for me.

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REVIEW: “Trespassers” by Mina Ramirez

Review of Mina Ramirez, “Trespassers,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 27-36 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Considering the trajectory of current circumstances, I can get the desire to write a story of signing away all of one’s rights to a faceless corporation in exchange for survival; there’s a certain sort of catharsis in doing so.

But given the trajectory of current circumstances, this isn’t necessarily the sort of story that I want to read. Maybe other people do — if so, I hope they’ll enjoy it. (It does have a satisfactory ending, which helps.)

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REVIEW: “What Should We Do With the Body?” by Amelia Weissman

Review of Amelia Weissman, “What Should We Do With the Body?” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 95-99 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Never thought I’d read a story about nuclear fairy beetles — something that sounds a bit like “take a word from this hat, a word from that hat, and another word from that hat, and then write a story about the combination” — but whatever Weissman’s inspiration was, the result is something different and a bit unusual, and fun to read.

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