Review of K.M. Veohongs, “The Accidental,” Luna Station Quarterly 63 (September 2025): 75-87 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was such a sweet little story. Trina is 5 years old and off to kindergarten for the first time, with a lunch packed by her mother and walked to school by her father. But Trina’s lunch isn’t a typical lunch, because Trina isn’t a typical little girl — she’s not a little girl at all, she’s a bird.
I loved this story for how sweet it was, and for how fun it was to read a story that was based on a premise along the lines of “right! okay, let’s do something different. I know. The MC is a bird, because her mom is a bird, but her dad is an ordinary human. Let’s run with it. Who cares about explaining how anything is? This is just how life is.” Because to a five year old, that’s how the world works. Things just are the way they are. The story was uncompromising and unapologetic, and I loved it for that.
Don’t be fooled, though, it’s not a saccharine sweet story, nor does it have a happy ending, but that just made me appreciate more, rather than less.
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