REVIEW: “Seven Days of Bleeding” by Chloe-Lynn Russo

Review of Chloe-Lynn Russo, “Seven Days of Bleeding,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 270-273 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story traces one woman’s week of bleeding, and the effect of her blood upon the world each day. It’s quite short, and quite remote, in the sense that we only ever see the woman and her actions, never anything else. And yet, we never learn anything about the woman, who she is, where her power comes from, why she is doing all of this. So in the end, I felt I was wanting rather more than I got.

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REVIEW: “Real People” by Fija Callaghan

Review of Fija Callaghan, “Real People,” Luna Station Quarterly 60 (2024): 70-78 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Before the story starts there is a note about the author’s inspiration, a note which definitely made me nervous about what would be coming. But, I shouldn’t have been: This story took the best part of its inspiration, rather than the worst parts, and turned it into something new and magical. It’s a story about the things we love as children and what comes after we’ve grown up. It made me think of my own baby girl doll, Catherine, who when she was inherited by my daughter remained Catherine but somehow ended up a he instead, and wonder who she might be if she’s inherited by a grandchild.

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REVIEW: “Why I Quit Teaching at the Villain Academy” by Tina S. Zhu

Review of Tina S. Zhu, “Why I Quit Teaching at the Villain Academy,” Flash Fiction Online 135 (December 2024): 17-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Maybe it’s just because I’m an academic at the end of term, but you can totally read the first page of this story replacing “villain academy” with “university” and “villain” with “academic” and it is so, so, depressingly true. Doesn’t get much better on the second page, even if the substitutions no longer really work, because it’s full on climate depression.

Basically, don’t read unless you’re in a mood to get really bummed out!

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REVIEW: “A Soft and Silent Glow” by Liz J. Bradley

Review of Liz J. Bradley, “A Soft and Silent Glow,” Flash Fiction Online 135 (December 2024): 23-25 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I love it when I get to read an author’s debut story! Bradley’s dystopian future has more than a hint of magic about it — a lovely contrast carefully blended. There’s nothing especially hopeful or happy about the story, but there is something beautiful about it.

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REVIEW: “Five Easy Hairstyles for Snake-Haired Girls” by Jelena Dunato

Review of Jelena Dunato, “Five Easy Hairstyles for Snake-Haired Girls,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 10-11 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This poem was a twist on the standard Medusa story, from her despoilment to her eventual escape and ascension. It had a couple of good lines in it, including: “If you wanted criticism, you’d call your mother,” which is a banger.

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REVIEW: “If We Live to be Giants” by Allison Mulder

Review of Allison Mulder, “If We Live to be Giants,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 25-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Domestic abuse.

This was a shudderingly sad story of two girls’ escape — and their mother’s escape — from an abusive grandfather. It’s the kind of story that makes you think there must be something behind it, a reason why the author chose to wrote this story rather than another one. I hope the exorcism of writing it helped.

(First published in Fireside Magazine 47, 2017).

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REVIEW: “Granny’s Spider” by Wen Wen Yang

Review of Wen Wen Yang, “Granny’s Spider,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 13-15 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Gwen has never known what happened to The First One, Granny’s first husband and the grandfather of Gwen’s husband, and this story is the story of how she asked and found out. I actually really struggled with this story for perhaps a silly reason: Granny knew that The First One was not a good one quite early on, already back when her kids were young. She says she went to a lawyer and was advised to go and ask for a divorce. But this is below the Mason-Dixon line, and Granny is 80, so assuming this was in the 1960s…lots of states didn’t introduce no-fault divorces until 1970 or later, and prior to that it was just not that easy for a woman to “go and get a divorce”. So would this really have been what a lawyer would advise her?

It’s such a small point to get hung up on, but get hung up on it I did (paused in the middle of the story to go trawling down wikipedia to confirm my hazy memory for dates), and while I love a story that causes me to wikipedia dive, I don’t like it so much when I feel the need to do it in the middle of the story as a fact-check mechanism.

(First published in The Arcanist 2021.)

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REVIEW: “Little Bird” by Aggie Novak

Review of Aggie Novak, “Little Bird,” Flash Fiction Online 134 (November 2024): 22-25 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Hunger drives Adnela to thievery, and in doing so she encounters a spirit. In the course of this tight, quiet little story, Adnela and Živinica move from enemies to friends, not in any sort of trope-y way, but in the real, believable way of women who are outcast and scorned banding together to support each other.

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REVIEW: “An Acre a Year” by Gregory Marlow

Review of Gregory Marlow, “An Acre a Year,” Flash Fiction Online 134 (November 2024): 18-20 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This almost could have been a tale out of Grimm; it had all the classic fairy tale elements — a sad and desperate young woman, a magical resolution, a fae-bargain gone wrong — but with an added layer of modernity that deepened and enriched it all. What a pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon, reading this story.

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