Review of Jennifer Mace, “Upon What Soil They Fed,” Flash Fiction Online (March 2023): 20-22 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a creepy little story about the unexpected things a door-to-door salesman might encounter.
(First published in Syntax & Salt January 2020).
Review of Marisca Pichette, “Wonderful Wounds Await You,” Flash Fiction Online (March 2023): 16-19 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was an interesting story which was a “not for me” one because of its use of second-person narration. If this doesn’t bother you, then you’ll probably enjoy it (unless body horror isn’t your thing.)
Review of Dafydd McKimm, “Power is Love in the Devil’s Eye,” Flash Fiction Online (March 2023): 11-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Salacious, graphic, and humorful, but unfortunately rather too relentlessly heteronormative for my tastes.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
SFF Reviews