Review of Matthew F. Amati, “About Her Bones So Bleak and Bare,” Flash Fiction Online (March 2023): 7-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a child.
This story is gruesome, violent, and haunting.
REVIEW: “The Fox Spirit’s Retelling” by Wen Wen Yang
Review of Wen Wen Yang, “The Fox Spirit’s Retelling,” Flash Fiction Online (May 2023): 20-22 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a lovely little ghost tale, full of hauntings and spirits and stories that never get fully told.
(Originally published in Remapping Wonderland: Classic Fairytales Retold by People of Color, January 2021.)
REVIEW: “The Invisible” by Kurt Newton
Review of Kurt Newton, “The Invisible,” Flash Fiction Online (May 2023): 16-19 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story can be summed up “coping mechanisms for past trauma gone wrong”. At first, the idea seems great, but knowing that this issue of FFO is all about horror, you also know from the start that things are all going to go wrong. It was delicious finding out how.
REVIEW: “Skin the Teeth” by Sarah Cline
Review of Sarah Cline, “Skin the Teeth,” Flash Fiction Online (May 2023): 11-14 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Gory, creepy, disturbing: those three words sum up this story. It’s crazy cat lady taken to an entirely differently level!
REVIEW: “Unexplained” by H. V. Patterson
Review of H. V. Patterson, “Unexplained,” Flash Fiction Online (May 2023): 7-10 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Patterson’s story is the opening one in a horror-themed issue of FFO, and while the immediate scene is of a woman who has suddenly lost a finger, this isn’t a story about gore and body horror. Rather, the terror is much more psychological: No doctor believes that she ever used to have 10 fingers.
I’m pretty sure every woman (and probably many men) has had the experience of telling someone about something that has happened to her, medical or otherwise, and not being believed. Patterson taps into this fear deftly, and the ending is a killer.
REVIEW: “Birds Are Not the Village” by Merri Andrew
Review of Merri Andrew, “Birds Are Not the Village,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Consideration of infant death.
This story plays on the adage “It takes a village to raise a child.” The narrator has a baby daughter, Thea, but instead of a village all she has to support her is a flock of birds. And, as the title says, “birds are not the village” — this is but a prelude for a harrowing story that will be deeply scary for any sleep-deprived parent.
REVIEW: “The Doula” by Akmay
Review of Akmay, “The Doula,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Childbirth.
What a creepy, bloody, gory story! If you are squeamish about innards and organs, I’d recommend avoiding.
REVIEW: “Silk” by Alyssa C. Greene
Review of Alyssa C. Greene, “Silk,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Considering the subject of this story was weaving, it feels appropriate to describe it as “intricately woven,” threads being fed to the reader a bit at a time so that we don’t get the whole pattern at once, but have to wait for it to be built, all the while, horror deepening in the background.
REVIEW: “Heirlooms” by Zebib K. A.
Review of Zebib K. A., “Heirlooms,” Fantasy Magazine 72 (October 2021): 11-15 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
The narrator and her roommate have recently moved to a new apartment, in a historically Black neighborhood that is succumbing to gentrification. Other people in the building have said they don’t feel safe in the neighborhood, though we the readers are not told why. Why desperately creepy beings start tapping on the narrator’s window in the middle of the night, we begin to get a sense of why — but is she the only one that sees them?
I certainly didn’t expect a horror story when I started this, but that’s definitely what I got!
REVIEW: “Live Oak” by Carly Racklin
Review of Carly Racklin, “Live Oak,” Luna Station Quarterly 52 (2022): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Rory and Finn have just moved to a new house, and it’s not the happily ever after they hoped for. The big tree looming over Rory’s bedroom is clearly haunted — but whoever heard of a haunted tree? Maybe truth of the matter is even deeper and darker than they can imagine.
A lovely creepy little forest horror story.
SFF Reviews 