REVIEW: “Float. Sink. Tread. Swim.” by Shelly Jones

Review of Shelly Jones, “Float. Sink. Tread. Swim.” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 20-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There’s so many things in this story that I’d ordinarily put into a content note — the death of a parent, death of a child, the involvement of child protection services, religious persecution where the religious people are the persecutors rather than the persecuted — that it felt like the entire review would be in the content note if I did so. This story is every bit as sad and heavy as you might predict from the title.

(Interestingly, given where it was first published, it has no wizards, and does not take place in space.)

(First published in Wizards in Space, April 2024.)

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REVIEW: “The Piano Made of Fingers” by Abigail Koury

Review of Abigail Koury, “The Piano Made of Fingers,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 16-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a curious and engaging read, but I spent the entire story thinking “Why fingers?” — there seemed little about the piano that was specific to the fact it was made of fingers. They could have been carrots, or snakes, or stones, or sticks.

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REVIEW: “In Brightness and in Darkness, We Sit” by Christopher Blake

Review of Christopher Blake, “In Brightness and in Darkness, We Sit,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 27-29 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Death.

I love it when authors play with language, but love it less so when I can’t tell if they are, or if there’s just been poor proofreading. The lack of definite articles in this story is definitely evidence for the former; the first occurrence of “peerson” made me wonder if it was the former, until “peeple” turned up as well; however, the occurrence of “discretely” where one would normally expect to see “discreetly” seems much more plausibly a typo or editorial error than a deliberate choice.

Setting this matters aside, there was a wistful sadness to this story that I found quite endearing.

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REVIEW: “A Lesson on Learning Your Place in the Universe” by Thomas Price

Review of Thomas Price, “A Lesson On Learning Your Place in the Universe,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 23-26 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There were so many layers to this story, so many routes it could’ve got that it didn’t, all resulting in a lesson that felt more like a reward than a punishment. What a well put together, enjoyable read!

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REVIEW: “Everyone Hates It When the Alien Shows Up At the Club” by Elijah J. Mears

Review of Elijah J. Mears, “Everyone Hates It When the Alien Shows Up At the Club,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 19-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I loved the narrative POV of this story. It was self-described “the collective hivemind of the club’s patrons” (p. 19), full of spiraling conversations and overlapping trains of thought, but it also reads exactly the way it sounds in my own head, just me. I know many people would find the endless tangents annoying and frustrating, but to me, this story just felt comforting. Highly recommended reading for other neurodivergents out there.

Three words to describe the story? Hilarious, bitchy, romantic. And three more: So much fun.

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REVIEW: “This Blue World” by Samantha Murray

Review of Samantha Murray, “This Blue World,” Flash Fiction Online 149 (February 2026): 11-13 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story immediately presented me with two hurdles to get over: One, it’s 2nd person POV; two, it’s about ghosts. Neither of these narrative choices are my particular favorites, and I wasn’t sure that I’d get over both (or even either) of them. But Murray managed to pull it off, even if she waited until the penultimate two sentences!

(First printed in Fantasy Magazine September 2022)

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REVIEW: “Stairs For Mermaids” by MM Schreier

Review of MM Schreier, “Stairs For Mermaids,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 10-13 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: suicide.

This is a story about big sisters and little sisters, and the first-person plural narrator lends the story an edge of universality, telling the reader that this is what all big-sister-little-sister relationships are like. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed this story more or less if the relationship the narrator depicted as universal at all resembled my own big-sister-little-sister; would the story have been more resonant, or less, if I had been the kind of little sister that the narrator seems to think all little sisters are? I don’t know.

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REVIEW: “Rice Child, Dragon Child” by Jessie Roy

Review of Jessie Roy, “Rice Child, Dragon Child,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 22-25 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This felt a bit like a modern day “Sophie’s Choice,” with the narrator forced to decide between the future of her dreams and a future of security, each choice coming with its own hidden, unknown costs. I loved the setting and the central plot mechanism — the narrator’s gogok that can slice dreams away from one person, preserving them to give to another.

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REVIEW: “Gig Economy” by Ali MacLeod

Review of Ali MacLeod, “Gig Economy,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 173-193 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I absolutely love how MacLeod plays with the reader’s knowledge of how apps like Uber work to give us enough idea of what’s going on while simultaneously making us wait a couple of pages before we find out just what kind of gig the narrator is involved in — a reveal which I found positively delightful, a real “I’m going to enjoy this story!” moment.

And I was right. It was so warm, and sweet, and funny, and it pulled at my heart-strings in the very best of ways. I loved it!

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