Review of Matthew F. Amati, “About Her Bones So Bleak and Bare,” Flash Fiction Online (March 2023): 7-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a child.
This story is gruesome, violent, and haunting.
REVIEW: “The Fox Spirit’s Retelling” by Wen Wen Yang
Review of Wen Wen Yang, “The Fox Spirit’s Retelling,” Flash Fiction Online (May 2023): 20-22 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a lovely little ghost tale, full of hauntings and spirits and stories that never get fully told.
(Originally published in Remapping Wonderland: Classic Fairytales Retold by People of Color, January 2021.)
REVIEW: “Forest-Sister” by Avril Mulligan
Review of Avril Mulligan, “Forest-Sister,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Every week when his mother goes to the market, Tom’s father sends him and his younger sister, Bib, into the forest, to find their half-sister, their forest-sister; and every day Tom has to live with the debt he owes his forest-sister.
There is a darkness to this story, which comes through in chips and pieces through the beautiful language that Mulligan deploys. It’s a story about the complexities and complications of familial relationships, and desire, and debt, and it will leave a weight upon your heart when you read it.
REVIEW: “A Lullaby for Mattie Barker” by B. Zelkovich
Review of B. Zelkovich, “A Lullaby for Mattie Barker,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The story opens on Mattie Barker arriving in a small and sleepy town to take up her dream job — sexton of the local church. The peace that Mattie feels tending the church garden and graveyard bleeds through to the reader, and nothing can destroy it, not even the ghosts who haunt the graveyard. All in all a very lovely reading experience, full of love and loss and longing.
REVIEW: “Who Do We Become?” by Tannara Young
Review of Tannara Young, “Who Do We Become?,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The story opens with the scene unfolding on the protracted hanging of thief Bey Lestorn. We never get to see the end of it, because with deft and vivid imagery, Young suddenly yanks the story sideways, leaving both the characters and the reader going “what on earth just happened??” That doesn’t often happen with me when I’m reading, so full kudos to Young for such an effective shift.
The rest of the story traces the fallout from this one singular event, and it was compellingly and thoughtprovokingly told.
REVIEW: “Built For Her” by Camden Rose
Review of Camden Rose, “Built for Her,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Domestic violence.
This story opened uncomfortably for me: An abusive woman stalking the girlfriend who left her, and then sculpting a replacement for her. (Perhaps it’s because my weekly Buffy rewatch group chat recently reached “Dead Things,” an episode that gets worse the older I get and the more experience I have with toxic patriarchy and masculinity.) It put me on edge from the beginning, reading the rest of the story with a sense of trepidation. Unfortunately, it didn’t redeem itself for me.
REVIEW: “The Very Hand of God” by Ellen Morris Prewitt
Review of Ellen Morriss Prewitt, “The Very Hand of God,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Eugene spends his days out on the streets to keep out from underfoot of his wife, and it’s there that he discovers the shards of pink, polished glass What are they from? How did they get there? What relationship do they have to the title of the story? This is the sort of story that leaves you guessing for quite a long time about these answers, and, more fundamentally, about what kind of story it’s going to be.
REVIEW: “The Dreamweaver’s Name” by Megan Chee
Review of Megan Chee, “The Dreamweaver’s Name,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The premise of this story was something that I think I could have liked a lot; but unfortunately, the story itself read like notes for the finished product, rather than a story itself. Too much info-dump, told too abstractly. That being said, if the ideas in this story are representative of the sorts of things Chee writes, I’d certainly be willing to try something else by her.
REVIEW: “Kryvoye Lake” by Oksana Marafioti
Review of Oksana Marafioti, “Kryvoye,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Suicide.
I’m not sure I liked this story. Ivan is in love with two women, Darya and Marina, and when forced to decide between the two of them, the other one kills herself. Unsurprisingly, there is no happy ending. It all felt just a little bit sordid.
REVIEW: “Captain Courageous in Venice” by Janna Layton
Review of Janna Layton, “Captain Courageous in Venice,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story takes on the style of the 18th C confessional, and I loved it. It is unapologetically queer, suitably historic, and just a lot of fun — full of adventure, romance, and drama. I grinned the entire way through.
SFF Reviews 