Review of Anna-Claire McGrath, “Regarding Your Application to This Year’s Orpheus Fellowship,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 34-44 Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a parent.
Any academic who has ever written a grant application will resonate with this story — but I’m pretty sure that even if you haven’t gone through that specific circle of hell, you’ll still enjoy this clever and touching tale!
Review of Allister Nelson, “And Lilith Sewed the Seam,” Luna Station Quarterly 57 (2024): 22-32 Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I really love it when SFF stories take religion seriously, and my experience in recent years is that this most often happens in Jewish SFF. Nelson’s story is a great example of this, as her characters weave together magic, Russian mythology, and Jewish beliefs. Add in a bunch of queer romance, and there was a lot in this story I liked. There were also parts that weren’t for me — I’m not really into graphic descriptions of nudity — but they weren’t enough for me to not want to read it all.
Review of P. H. Low, “The Flock is Your Blood,” Flash Fiction Online 110 (November 2022): 19-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story does what many stories failed to do: Overcame my dislike of 2nd person POV with the sheer raw force of its power. I think the story could’ve ended half-way in and I would still have loved it.
(First published in If There’s Anyone Left, November 2020).
Review of Dafydd McKimm, “The Flamingo Maximizer,” Flash Fiction Online 110 (November 2022): 8-11 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Someone must have fucked up at the zoo,
is a great opening line, and also a clear and succinct description of the premise of the story. Someone has fucked up, and now there are flamingos, bright and pink, across the grey backdrop of Wales.
Equal parts funny and sweet, just a little bit terrifying and a little bit thought-provoking, this was a bright gem of a story in a doldrum day.
Review of Jennifer Hudak, “The Weight of It All,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 10-18 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Disordered eating.
Maybe this is a ghost story; I don’t know. Maybe it’s a story about someone who only wants to be other than they are — I don’t know that either. But there was something peculiarly longing in this story that caught hold of me right in the initial lines, and kept me wanting more.
[And considering that I’d left this story towards the end of the issue to read and review because of its length, getting close on to 5k when I’ve been struggling, struggling to read fiction lately, this really is a testament to the power and quality of this story.]
This story is an absolute triumph.
Review of K. S. Walker, “How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk, or Other Ways of Knowing,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 21-25 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Sometimes I read a story and it just isn’t for me. That’s what Walker’s story — of waiting for lost love to return from the sea, of seeking a route to the sea to find them — was, unfortunately. This was, I think, primarily because the structural and narrative choices made prevented me, rather than helped me, connect to the characters. So it felt more like a chore to read than a story.
Others who don’t share my structural and narrative preferences may enjoy this more.
Review of Samantha Murray, “This Blue World,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 19-20 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Ghost stories aren’t usually my thing; stories told in 2nd person POV aren’t usually my thing. Yet Murray’s 2nd-person-POV-ghost-story was EXACTLY my thing, one of those wonderful surprises that shows you just how the flexibility of language can result in something so enjoyable.
Review of Sharang Biswas, “I Kissed a Dragon,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 29-30 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This poem had some nice turns of phrases, but overall I felt like it was lacking in substance, with just a few too many stereotypes.
Review of Angel Leal, “The Hole is the Beginning,” Fantasy Magazine 83 (September 2022): 27-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This lovely poem touched me, particularly some of the lines towards the end:
These children may not feel connected,
but it’s their otherness that connects them.
It’s about motherhood and otherness and how in the best of worlds the children we love, we love whoever they are.
Review of Avra Margariti, “All the Dead Girls, Singing,” Small Wonders no. 7 (January 2024): 31-33 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Violence against women.
The story of Fairview, whose dead girls congregate by the edge of the lake, is raw and harsh and rough. On the one hand, it’s superficially a ghost story. On the other hand, it’s definitely not that, it’s a story of violence against women, and about the men who perpetrate it.
Read with care/caution.
(First published in Coppice and Brake 2020.)
SFF Reviews