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!
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.
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)
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.
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.
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!
Review of J. Amanda Ferry, “Magical Thinking,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 73-93 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Serious childhood illness.
Where’s the border between magic and science? It’s a hard enough question for an adult to answer, much less for a 9yo like the story’s narrator, Rainbow (even a “catastrophically precocious” 9yo like Rainbow). I was a bit nervous upon starting the story, because 1st person POV where the narrator is a child often goes awry; but Ferry handles the balance between making Rainbow be a child without being childlike exceptionally well.
In many respects, this is a stark, harsh, and sad story. But it was also utterly gripping — one of the best in this issue.
Review of Jang Ami, Joheun Lee (trans.), “Big Sister,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 235-258 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death.
There’s something about the classic fairy tale style that seems to transcend cultures — I was surprised at how familiar the archetype of this story (originally written in Korean) felt, even while none of the characters or elements or tropes were themselves familiar. It made the story both comforting and eerie; and with the final twist being saved for the very end, it kept me hooked until the final page.
Review of Mikhaela Woodward, “Attach,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 209-224 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was one of those marvellous stories where at every single point, I have no idea where it was going to go. It’s so rare to get a story like this, it leaves me almost breathless.
Review of Heather Dee Norton, “Winter Finds,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 195-206 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story took a lot of familiar threads and wove them into something unusual and quite unexpected. I found myself enjoying it more the more I read.
SFF Reviews