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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REVIEW: “To Curse with Needle and Thread” by Vijayalaxmi Samal

Review of Vijayalaxmi Samal, “To Curse With Needle and Thread,” Flash Fiction Online 134 (November 2024): 8-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The stories in this issue of FFO are all bundled together under the header of “rural fantasy”, but don’t be deceived: These are not quiet pastoral stories. Samal’s story opens the issue, and in the very first lines it is visceral, it is angry, it is full of power. It is sharp and blunt when it comes to criticizing colonialism, and the forced conversion that comes with it. A strong and powerful opener!

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REVIEW: “To Serve the Emperor” by Damián Neri

Review of Damián Neri, “To Serve the Emperor,” Flash Fiction Online 133 (October 2024): 31-34 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Child harm, flesh eating.

Neri’s story is the sort that rests on the border of gross horror and psychological horror which sits very uncomfortably with me — I like the latter but not so much the former, but here it is the former that makes it the latter. It was entirely compelling and even if I wasn’t entirely happy reading it, I couldn’t look away.

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REVIEW: “The Clockwork Sisters” by L. M. Guay

Review of L. M. Guay, “The Clockwork Sisters,” Flash Fiction Online 133 (October 2024): 12-14 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story illustrates how the relationship of sisterhood is always fraught, whether the sisters in question are flesh or clockwork.

Given that this story is in the “weird horror” issue of FFO, I’m assuming that’s what it’s intended to be. It’s definitely weird, but I’m not sure how horror it is. So if you tend to avoid horror, you might still enjoy this one.

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REVIEW: “Baba Yaga’s Portrait” by Shannon Scott

Review of Shannon Scott, “Baba Yaga’s Portrait,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 125-141 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Aleksandra is the only girl student at Palekh Art School, a position which means she feels awkward and out of place no matter what she does or where she goes. When she stumbles upon Baba Yaga’s house in the countryside and begins drawing, she thinks maybe her art can finally be her passport to a place of stability and peace — until she is discovered by Baba Yaga!

Those who collect Baba Yaga stories will enjoy adding this one to their collection.

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