REVIEW: “Vale of the Firefae” by Jalyn Renae Fiske

Review of Jalyn Renae Fiske, “Vale of the Firefae,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 113-124 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

One of the things I want out of a fantasy story is something different from reality — the very best of worldbuilding can deliver something so utterly unlike what is actually the case that in addition to reading for escapism one can also marvel at the ingenuity to imagine something so unreal. Now, not every fantasy story can have the very best of worldbuilding, and I don’t measure stories against that very best. But there is something both disappointing and unsettling about a wildly fantastic story whose worldbuilding structures replicate — whether consciously or unconsciously — problem structures in our own world. I found that to be the case with Fiske’s story: She has constructed a society that is, on the one hand, not at all like any actually existing society; but on the other hand, the misogynist and patriarchal norms that are encoded in the structure are depressingly familiar.

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REVIEW: “Bussola” by Teresa Koeppel

Review of Teresa Koeppel, “Bussola,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 101-110 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

At the start of this weird little ghost story, Koeppel sets up some rules which I then spent the rest of the story watching carefully to see whether — and how — they would be kept. There were subtle inconsistencies that end up bothering me probably way more than they should have, making me pause to scroll back up to make sure I hadn’t read something wrong or misremembered. I don’t mind an unreliable narrator or an inconsistent story when it is clearly a deliberate construction of an author; but I wasn’t entirely convinced that these here were. End result: Not really my kind of story.

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REVIEW: “The Weather Girl” by Summer Jewel Keown

Review of Summer Jewel Keown, “The Weather Girl,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 261-273 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It’s a bit weird reading a romance when you know from pretty much the first line that it doesn’t have a happy ending, but nevertheless I enjoyed the unfolding of this one, waiting to see just how the unhappy ending would come about. Unfortunately, in the end, it was for boring, mundane, ordinary reasons, which kind of defeated any more fantastic/speculative elements that the story had, for me.

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REVIEW: “Sunk Cost Fallacy” by M.J. Jones

Review of M.J. Jones, “Sunk Cost Fallacy,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 55-71 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The opening paragraphs of this story were immediately gripping — taut, unsure, full of more questions than answers, but not so vague as to be annoying.

When the scene shifted and I found out this was a selkie story, I was immediately cautious (I’ve read far more ordinary, boring, common selkie stories than I have distinctive and interesting ones). The fact that it was a “selkie life in the time of copycat selkie-wannabe TicToc influencers” story went some way towards reassuring me, as this is definitely not a take I’ve read before.

In the end, this story was nothing like any selkie story I’ve read before, except, perhaps, that in its bones its a story of loss. There are, on the face of it, two relationships lost in this story; the one that hurt me the most, as a reader, is perhaps not the one you might expect.

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REVIEW: “”Secrets of the Goblin Market” by Valerie Hunter

Review of Valerie Hunter, “Secrets of the Goblin Market,” Luna Station Quarterly 64 (December 2025): 39-52 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I do enjoy a goblin market story, but something struck me when reading this one, which is that all too often “goblin market” is all we are told about the setting, never anything about who the goblins are, or where they came from, why they run markets, or even whether the people shopping there are goblins themselves, or not. Too often, goblin market stories seem to just rely on the phrase evoking a setting by stirring up in the reader hazy memories of Rossetti’s poem.

Not so Hunter’s: A goblin market was specifically, carefully chosen as the appropriate setting for the story of Min, and her grandmother, and how Min decided to break all her grandmother’s rules. A sweet, satisfying story.

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REVIEW: “Small Prayers for the God of Sow Thistle Hill” by Kate Francia

Review of Kate Francia, “Small Prayers for the God of Sow Thistle Hill,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (December 2025): 26-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The theme of this story felt eerily similar to that of Matt Dovey’s in the same issue, but instead of feeling repetitious, it felt like the two stories reinforced and supported each other. The lesson in both of them — told here in a sweet, sorrowful, almost wistful way — is one that often needs to be said over and over and over again before people will listen, so I’m pleased that FFO’s editors opted for including both of these.

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REVIEW: “Gifts From On High” by V. H. Chen

Review of V. H. Chen, “Gifts From On High,” Flash Fiction Online 146 (November 2025): 36-43 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It’s amazing how effectively a series of text messages can convey the fraught relationship between a parent and a grandparent with respect to a child. It’s also amazing how effectively a series of text messages can convey, alternatingly: annoyance, overinvolvement, smugness, concern, humor, and panic. I laughed and laughed by the end of this delightful little sweet story.

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