REVIEW: “Stairs For Mermaids” by MM Schreier

Review of MM Schreier, “Stairs For Mermaids,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (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.

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REVIEW: “Rice Child, Dragon Child” by Jessie Roy

Review of Jessie Roy, “Rice Child, Dragon Child,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (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.

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REVIEW: “Swampland” by Erin Brandt Filliter

Review of Erin Brandt Filliter, “Swampland,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (January 2026): 19-20 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This story was classed as “literary,” but in fact it is quite speculative — the first page left me a bit worried that it would just be an ordinary, descriptive, literary story, but the second page takes that step away from reality and mere descriptive and dives into consequences: Why any of it matters. Definitely enjoyed the second half much more than the first!

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REVIEW: “Shedding the Weight” by Chiemeziem Everest Udochukwu

Review of Chiemeziem Everest Udochukwu, “Shedding the Weight,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (December 2025): 15-17 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a nice little love story, but one of the reasons why I’ve always struggled with more literary, less speculative, fiction is that I often read literary fiction and think “what was the point?” I love spec fic because it explores, it pushes boundaries, it asks questions, and it allows me to learn. This just allowed me to be distracted, for a few minutes.

(First printed in Jellyfish Review December 2022.)

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REVIEW: “Homonyms” by Laurence Klavan

Review of Laurence Klavan, “Homonyms,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (December 2025): 8-9 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There was some interesting language play in this brief little story. It did, however, feel a bit of a story in two halves, the connection between them relying solely on that language play, which I’m not sure was quite strong enough to bridge the gap.

(First published in The South Shore Review June 2022.)

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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: “Reflexive Benevolence Imperative” by Matt Dovey

Review of Matt Dovey, “Reflexive Benevolence Imperative,” Flash Fiction Online 147 (December 2025): 19-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This is a good story for anyone currently suffering from burnout in the face of everything overwhelming going on in the world right now. The line “THERE IS ALWAYS NEED SOMEWHERE/WE CANNOT SEE TO IT ALL” (p. 21) really spoke to me: No matter how much we do, how much we care, it’ll never be enough. It’s a line that could’ve taken the story into a hopeless place of giving up, but then we are reminded “IT IS NOT IMMORAL TO REST” (p. 21) — a reminder probably many of us read.

So, rest. And maybe read this story while you do.

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