Review of Kemi Ashing-Gawa and Tali Arima, “Jovis,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
It always makes me happy to read a co-authored story, especially when the end result has such a clear and singular voice, as this one does. Despite the eclectic mix of ancient ruins, fantastical creatures, and space shuttles — a combination that could very easily have felt fragmented — all the pieces came together in a way that felt coherent, chilling and eerie.
Review of L. S. Johnson, “In the Field,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Tam and Davey are soldiers, fresh from recent victory and ready to believe that this will be the final push. But this is not a happy story, it is an incredibly grim one, pervaded with the futility of war.
Review of Samantha Carr, “Technical Magic,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Cheyanne’s mother is ill, and her sister Tricia wants to put her into a care home; after all, the two sisters have been caring for her for five years, and there’s a limit to how long Cheyanne can be expected to put her life on hold.
But Cheyanne doesn’t want her mother in a home, and is willing to go to extreme measures to prevent this. Unfortunately, technical magic only works when you follow all the details and instructions properly. This not particularly happy story had a not particularly happy ending, but there was never any reason to think it would.
Review of Cynthia Gómez, “Lips Like Sugar,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Oblique references to sexual harassment and assault.
If you’re looking for an amusing and slightly raunchy bisexual vampire urban fantasy, this is a story for you.
Review of Libby Feltis, “Fittonia,” Luna Station Quarterly 55 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
There were so many little bits and pieces in this story that are things I love — an emphasis on the importance of names, throwbacks to classic literature, sass, innuendo, writers writing stories as a means of currency, and happy endings. It was such a fun read. It was always an extremely realistic and believable account of the life of a highly sensitive and empathetic person.
Review of Devon Borkowski, “Home for the Rising Sun,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a strange, intensely beautiful at times, haunting story that I found incredibly hard to characterise or categorise.
Review of K. R. Segriff, “The Broken Princess,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story combined a fairy-tale-like voice with a fairly-mundane setting (hard to imagine Polk County, Iowa, as a magical land, whatever the narrator says!). Unfortunately, the result was, for me, too jarring to be enjoyable, and instead felt almost condescending. But maybe if you’re a horse person — or an Iowa person — this will be a story for you.
Review of Hesper Leveret, “Before the Unicorn Hunt,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Every year there is a unicorn hunt, where the prince can flaunt his skills to his courtiers. For the remainder of the year, Lariselle, its caretaker, lives with her family in the royal hunting lodge, keeping everything ready until the next year. And each year she has a special duty: To go to the hidden Boscan village and select the unicorn whose blood will go into the special cider the prince will drink, the one whom the prince will then go on to hunt and kill. It’s an awful duty, but one that Lariselle discharges, albeit unwillingly, and in the end she gets her reward.
Review of Nika Murphy, “The Tale of the Mother and the Hexed VCR,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Postnatal depression, consideration of suicide.
Two things I loved about this story:
(1) The way it shows how the ordinary, every day events of our lives are at exactly the same time the birth of myths and folk tales.
(2) The way it illustrates, clearly and without apology, the reality of postnatal depression, and how separate it is and distinct from a mother’s love.
Review of E. A. Brenner, “We’re Sorry, This Number Has Been Disconnected,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Misogyny, harassment, attempted rape.
Indira Chant does no one favors and is friends with no one and I loved her from the very first paragraph. She’ll never live up to the magical powers of her sister (Jorie, who is off on her “labyrinth year”, a great alternative to the more prosaic gap year most students get), and now she needs her sister’s help — but Jorie hasn’t answered her phone in two weeks.
So instead, Indira, who is friends with no one, has to for the first time in her life make an alliance with someone other than her sister. Ella wants to learn magic, and wants to escape having to go to prom with Chris. Indira is ready to help her with both. It’s a good, fierce story of women supporting and uplifting women.
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