Review of Samantha Murray, “Through These Moments, Darkly”, Clarkesworld Issue 223, April (2025): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
Reading this story on a cold spring day hits different. The “you” point of view for narration was a choice, and I’m happy to say it made sense for the story. Lovely words throughout – the prose was just as awesome as the plot. An evocative piece of writing.
This story is a hopeful delight.
Review of Corey Farrenkopf, “Drown-Haunted,” Flash Fiction Online 138 (March 2025): 25-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a parent.
This story was eerily reminiscent of another I recently reviewed, “The Ferryman Makes His Morning Crossing” by Corey Davis (the eeriness only enhanced by the fact that the two authors share a given name!). There’s something very real and present in the fear that both of these stories express: Fear of a future where our lives and cities as we know them have been overtaken by rising tides, endlessly submerged. But Farrenkopf’s has a moment of hope, towards the end.
Review of Shantell Powell, “The Qalupalik,” Flash Fiction Online 138 (March 2025): 18-21 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: child endangerment.
This story took a sharp, unexpected, violent turn right at the end — and it needed it, because otherwise the set-up felt all too familiar and almost too often told. I appreciated having things turned on their head!
Review of Damon Young, “Henrietta Armitage Doesn’t Read Anymore,” Flash Fiction Online 138 (March 2025): 9-13 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: suicidal ideation.
In this compelling story, Young takes a metaphor and pushes it to the extreme. While Henrietta tells her doctor, “You can’t get sick from a metaphor,” Young manages to construct a believable story where this statement itself becomes no longer all that believable.
Review of Beth Goder, “Mirror-Hole,” Flash Fiction Online 137 (February 2025): 34-37 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a deliciously odd and creepy little story. It felt unlike anything else I’ve ever read, which is increasingly rare the longer this blog has been around!
Review of Kiernan Livingstone, “Schism,” Flash Fiction Online 137 (February 2025): 28-32 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is a pretty depressing story about how everything ultimately all falls apart, and what is lost when it does.
Review of Faith Allington, “The Lonely Eldritch Hearts Club,” Flash Fiction Online 137 (February 2025): 18-21 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I’ve never had to partake in online dating fora myself, but I’ve heard the horror stories. Given how bad actuality is, could it be any worse to swipe right on an eldritch beast instead? Not according to this absolutely sweet and romantic little story of love and heartbreak.
Review of Samir Sirk Morató, “galactic oracle eulogy,” Flash Fiction Online 137 (February 2025): 9-12 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The setting and characters in this story are so unusual and distinctive that I spent quite a bit of my time trying to figure out just who and what everything is. I like the way that so much is left ambiguous (is it fungus? parasites? metaphor? weird aliens? bio-ship or metal-ship? macroscopic or microscopic?), so that I have no confidence at all that my interpretation is accurate, but every confidence that my interpretation is just as valid a way of reading it as anyone else’s.
Review of Rodrigo Culagovski, “BigHappyFriend Likes Humans,” Flash Fiction Online 137 (February 2025): 14-17 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Oh, my, what a bleak story this was! A little gem of black humor wrapped up in a first- (or, maybe third- or fourth-…) contact story. It made me laugh, even if I wouldn’t necessarily call it funny.
Review of Rebecca Washburn, “A Flame At the Edge of Darkness,” Luna Station Quarterly 61 (2025): 361-383 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The story frames itself as being about the Darkness — a phenomenon that isn’t quite natural, isn’t quite artificial — and the Flames — the young girls who are the only predators of the Darkness; but in truth it’s much more a story of love and estrangement between mother and daughter. I had some sympathy with Maggie, the mother (from whose point of view the story is told), up until her thinly veiled homophobia was revealed, as well as the way she pretended her religion was “love”, and then I lost all sympathy for her. I spent the rest of the story desperately hoping that she wouldn’t get resolution, that there wouldn’t be redemption, wouldn’t be a happy ending, because that seemed like it would just be too easy. Having reached the ending, I’m not quite sure if I’m happy with it or not.
SFF Reviews