Review of Hannya Kay, “One God Loved Me As I Died,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 33-36 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This is the second story in this volume of FFO that straddles the line between SF and fantasy. It’s got space-ships and incessantly talking gods, a great combination! It’s also another one that turned surprisingly sweet in the end. All in all, a short, satisfying read.
Review of Margaret A. Hanson, “For the Good of the Engines,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 29-32 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was one of those delightful stories that tells you on its face that it’s science fiction, while concealing (albeit not too hard!) the fact that it’s really fantasy. Sweet and adorable.
Review of Stewart C Baker, “How to Cross a Covered Bridge,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 24-27 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Whoever would’ve thought a bridge could make a reader so sad?! Baker must have some kind of magic, because that’s exactly what they conjured up with this story (even if I think it didn’t necessarily need the final page).
Review of Elitsa Dermendzhiyska, “By Candlelight, By Blue Jeans,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 20-23 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a story of ordinary, every day magic — which despite its ordinariness is one of the most powerful kinds of magic out there, as this story, set behind the Iron Curtain, shows. I loved it.
Review of Jonathon Burgess, “Ghostwalking,” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Gosh, this story was beautiful and touching and perfect: Generations in three pages, stuffed full of love and protection.
Review of Elijah J. Mears, “Guardian of the Thresholds” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 12-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
It must be some sort of cosmic fate that made me read this story on the day friends welcomed home three new kittens today and I’ve been inundated with photos, but it made reading it all the more adorable — and more touching.
(Also: every trans kid should have a guardian cat to help them cross their threshold.)
Review of Daniel Roop, “Welcome, Welcome.” Flash Fiction Online 156 (September 2026): 8-11 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a lovely little tour through a child’s fear that death comes for us all — and that death can come in many ways! — to the adult who realizes that all the myriad ways one can die are always ways one can live. It was very sweet.
Review of Caitlin Devlin, “Milk,” Flash Fiction Online 153 (August 2026): 23-25 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was absolutely gruesome.
Review of Jonathan Huston, “The Alien You Love,” Flash Fiction Online 153 (August 2026): 18-21 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The beauty of this love story was almost enough to get me past my deep-seated dislike of the 2nd person POV.
Review of Nico Martinez Nocito, “Iron & Garlic & Salt & Blood,” Flash Fiction Online 153 (August 2026): 15-16 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a story of how we as parents no matter how much we might want to protect our children, we cannot do so at the expense of letting them be alive. I think maybe we were supposed to sympathise with the narrator; instead, all I felt was joy for her daughter.
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