REVIEW: “Second Film” by Christopher St. Prince

Review of Christopher St. Prince, “Second Film,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 33-36 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Drug and other substance use and abuse.

I’ve learned to become leery of the stories the FFO editors tag as “literary” as opposed to something more overtly speculative. These stories always end up feeling more sordid, less imaginative, more disappointing than the speculative stories they publish — which I’m sure is more a reflection on me and my tastes as a reader than it is on the stories themselves. Given all that, this was nevertheless a tight, well-put together story with just enough of an undertone of horror to make it feel like it fits the scope of this blog.

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REVIEW: “The Sacrificials” by Andrew Kozma

Review of Andrew Kozma, “The Sacrificials,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 7-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This is capital H Horror of the sort that I find really, really unsettling. It’s vivid and destructive and horrible merely for the sake of horrifying. Beautifully constructed, but deeply unpleasant to read!

And I don’t know if this was intended to be read as a metaphor for gun control (or the lack thereof) in the US, but read as such, it’s also a pretty powerful story.

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REVIEW: “The Oil King” by Bree Wernicke

Review of Bree Wernicke, “The Oil King,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 25-28 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Ellalee is a dried up, dried out little old woman in a dried up, dried out little old town, whose only business is waiting for her son Malcolm to return — nothing else, not even the horrors coming in from the desert, is anything she needs to worry about. The “horrors” in this story are easily readable as a metaphor for environmental pollution; but somehow, it is Ellalee herself who becomes the most horrifying thing in the entire story, because she has completely abrogated any responsibility for anything, content to let the horrors take over her town and do nothing.

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REVIEW: “The Piano Made of Fingers” by Abigail Koury

Review of Abigail Koury, “The Piano Made of Fingers,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 16-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a curious and engaging read, but I spent the entire story thinking “Why fingers?” — there seemed little about the piano that was specific to the fact it was made of fingers. They could have been carrots, or snakes, or stones, or sticks.

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REVIEW: “Moss Senses” by Beth Goder

Review of Beth Goder, “Moss Senses,” Flash Fiction Online 150 (March 2026): 11-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The FFO editors described this story as “science fiction,” but in my opinion it leans much more to the “horror” side of spec fic than the “SF” side — partly because there is very little science involved, and partly because of its inherent creepiness, which leaves the reader feeling displaced. The fact that the story could have been rewritten with pretty much anything other than moss and it would still work only enhances how odd and strange and unsettling it is.

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REVIEW: “The Memory Swap” by Cressida Roe

Review of Cressida Roe, “The Memory Swap,” Flash Fiction Online 148 (January 2026): 28-31 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Have a memory you no longer want? Want a memory you no longer have? Roe’s memory swap story has the solution: Post an ad to a Craig’s-list-like forum, and see who takes you up. Of course, the fun part of the story is: Who would want the memories that someone else doesn’t want? And who can bear to give away the kind of memory that someone else might want? The result is an excellent mix of humor, sorrow, and more than a little a bit of horror.

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REVIEW: “Mrs. Robinson” by Veronica L. Asay

Review of Veronica L. Asay, “Mrs. Robinson,” After Dinner Conversation 3, no. 12 (December 2022): 5-25 — Subscribe here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

(Note: After Dinner Conversation pairs spec fic stories with philosophical reflection questions. In some reviews, I’ll engage with the questions; in some, I won’t.)

This was a proper Gothic tale, hitting the right notes of ludicrousness and horror, and providing a suitable setting for the moral quandary that Asay wanted to interrogate. The final reflection question paired with this story, “To what extent should we judge Benedict or the narrator by modern values given that they were working within the unjust rules of inheritance and prejudice of their time
period?”, is one of the more interesting questions that have been asked concerning the stories I’ve read in this issue, and I suspect is one that would lead to lively conversation.

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REVIEW: “Terra” by Laura Stone

Review of Laura Stone, “Terra,” Luna Station Quarterly 63 (September 2025): 265-285 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a long, reflective story, centered around the musings of a single, solitary character — Cass’s shipmate Simms died before we, the reader, ever met her — which is a narrative structure that I think is difficult to pull off: It’s hard to keep the pace from dragging. It took more than half the story for events to begin, and even then, they seemed to take forever. As a consequence, when the horror elements kicked in, I ended up more bored than scared. This one just wasn’t for me.

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REVIEW: “Woodsong” by Arthur H. Manners

Review of Arthur H. Manners, “Woodsong,” Flash Fiction Online 145 (October 2025): 19-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There’s two layers of horror to this story: The external trappings that comprise its setting, which are eerie and creepy enough on their own; and the horror of a parent slowing coming to terms with not being able to save their child. It’s not a pleasant story by any means.

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