Review of Meg Elison, “The Tub,” Flash Fiction Online 133 (October 2024): 27-29 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a tremendously powerful story, a kick in the gut, an honest glimpse at the consequences of motherhood — the sort of story you get to the end of and go “oooof!”
Review of Andrew K Hoe, “Vinegar-Gurgle,” Flash Fiction Online 133 (October 2024): 23-26 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Torture, racism.
Now this was horror: A gruesome glimpse into depravity. I struggled to find anything in any of the characters to approve of or sympathize with. The author’s note at the end of story was therefore quite important for me, to understand its purpose and inclusion in the issue: “The story
‘Vinegar-Gurgle’ was written as a way of dealing with two real-life Asian hate incidents.”
Review of Wailana Kalama, “Dissection of a Mermaid,” Flash Fiction Online 133 (October 2024): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Assault.
This is a step by step how-to guide for what it says in the title. The steps begin detailed and complicated and full of tips and tricks. In the end, the short, sharp staccato sentences are sparse and bare, their structure like a knife driving into your flesh.
It is very, very dark.
Review of Spencer Nitkey, “Within the Dead Whale,” Flash Fiction Online 133 (October 2024): 8-11 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was perfectly, utterly, viscerally strange. I’m not usually a huge fan of horror, but this story captivated me.
Review of Christina Raia, “Little Whispers,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 229-248 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
I am unsure what to make of this story. Ava, the main character, is 12, but often felt quite a bit younger than that in her actions, reactions, and internal thoughts. At times it seemed like this was trying to be a horror story; at other times, it felt more like it was trying to subvert the usual horror tropes. The pacing was quite slow, and I ended up feeling like I was often waiting to find out what was going to happen. The unexpected turn at the end was sudden enough to be a bit nauseating. So all in all, I’m left rather uncertain.
Review of Liv DeSimone, “Dragons Over Cefalù,” Luna Station Quarterly 59 (2024): 143-165 — Purchase online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Violence against women.
I struggled with what to put in the content note for this story, because it’s more than sexual harassment (what I initially had), but not quite sexual assault (what I toyed with). Whatever it is, it pervades the opening pages of the story so if that isn’t something for you, definitely avoid this story. The harassment feels like it isn’t that awful, because it isn’t quite assault, but the low-levelness of it ends up making it even worse, because as a reader, as a woman, I kept finding myself trying to normalize it, and that made it all the more awful. In the end, a quote from the story gave me what I needed: “After all, none of this had ever been about sex” (p. 162). It’s not about sex, it’s about violence, and power.
Normally I’m not a fan of using violence against women as a means of moving plot forward in a story, but there was something about this that worked. Two women’s separate revenges become intertwined,
Review of Rich Larson, “To Harvest a Cloud,” Flash Fiction Online 132 (September 2024): 21-24 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Tso arrived in town on the driest day of a very dry year, bringing his own cloud in tow. On one reading, this starts off as a gentle story of how he brought his cloud to those who needed it within the town, in exchange for the town’s welcome and hospitality; but while I couldn’t help but think of one of my favorite song lyrics (Genesis, “Mad Man Moon”): “Within the valley of shadowless death, they pray for thunderclouds and rain. But to the multitude who live in the rain, heaven is where the sun shines.” What must it like to be Tso, to always live in the shade, to never rejoice in the warm embrace of the sun? That felt rather sad to me. And then the entire story turned much darker, and the lyrics became even more apt.
Review of Marilyn Hope, “Nosebleed Weather,” Flash Fiction Online 132 (September 2024): 17-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a horror story but with a very weird bent. If you’re in it for the wild and unusual, this will be a story you’ll enjoy. Death, murder, poison, botany, this story’s got it all.
(First published in X-R-A-Y October 2021.)
Review of Aigner Loren Wilson, “The Black and White,” Fantasy Magazine 84 (October 2022): 17-21 — Read here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Reference to sexual assault.
This was a dark little story of retribution. Sometimes when reading a story, I wonder “why this story?”, i.e., why of all the stories did an author choose to write this one? I don’t have that question here, as I can feel why an author would want to write a story like this; but I am left with this question from the reader’s point of view: Why would I, the reader, want to read this story? I’m not sure…
Review of Kelsey Hutton, “Queen of the Wilis,” Fantasy Magazine 84 (October 2022): 11-14 — Read here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There’s something slightly delicious about the misogynistic horror of this story; the men may think they are in charge, but the women — and the reader — know better! What a gorgeous story.
SFF Reviews