REVIEW: “Drunken Supernova” by Keira Perkins

Review of Keira Perkins, “Drunken Supernova,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 21-23 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

One of the things that Small Wonders does very well is speculative poetry, and this one is no exception. Perkins’ poem is long enough to be a flash fic piece in itself, but it is very clearly poetry and not just prose that’s been formatted with strange line breaks. It has a tight, clear voice, blending reality and unreality exquisitely, with a sucker punch at the end.

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REVIEW: “On the Bare Unwelcoming Shore” by Zohar Jacobs

Review of Zohar Jacobs, “On the Bare Unwelcoming Shore,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 17-19 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

What a beautiful and evocative story this was, exploring the lives of the generation after the generation after the generation that first settled on Mars. It’s ostensibly SF — space travel, planet settling — but the strongest thread in the story, for me, was the way it questioned what religion is and where it comes from. So much in such a small package: I loved it.

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REVIEW: “Granny’s Spider” by Wen Wen Yang

Review of Wen Wen Yang, “Granny’s Spider,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 13-15 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Gwen has never known what happened to The First One, Granny’s first husband and the grandfather of Gwen’s husband, and this story is the story of how she asked and found out. I actually really struggled with this story for perhaps a silly reason: Granny knew that The First One was not a good one quite early on, already back when her kids were young. She says she went to a lawyer and was advised to go and ask for a divorce. But this is below the Mason-Dixon line, and Granny is 80, so assuming this was in the 1960s…lots of states didn’t introduce no-fault divorces until 1970 or later, and prior to that it was just not that easy for a woman to “go and get a divorce”. So would this really have been what a lawyer would advise her?

It’s such a small point to get hung up on, but get hung up on it I did (paused in the middle of the story to go trawling down wikipedia to confirm my hazy memory for dates), and while I love a story that causes me to wikipedia dive, I don’t like it so much when I feel the need to do it in the middle of the story as a fact-check mechanism.

(First published in The Arcanist 2021.)

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REVIEW: “Katya’s Microscope” by Monica Joyce Evans

Review of Monica Joyce Evans, “Katya’s Microscope,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 6-8 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

It’s lovely to see a story that showcases a child with chronic illness; it’s not representation that I see very often!

It’s a tough story to categorize, because even though we’re given quite an intimate view of Katya and her best friend (the narrator), it’s all channelled through the narrator’s experiences; so we are just as ignorant as she is. But it’s fragile and chilling and speculative in just the right way to make for a very satisfying read.

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REVIEW: “Little Bird” by Aggie Novak

Review of Aggie Novak, “Little Bird,” Flash Fiction Online 134 (November 2024): 22-25 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Hunger drives Adnela to thievery, and in doing so she encounters a spirit. In the course of this tight, quiet little story, Adnela and Živinica move from enemies to friends, not in any sort of trope-y way, but in the real, believable way of women who are outcast and scorned banding together to support each other.

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REVIEW: “An Acre a Year” by Gregory Marlow

Review of Gregory Marlow, “An Acre a Year,” Flash Fiction Online 134 (November 2024): 18-20 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This almost could have been a tale out of Grimm; it had all the classic fairy tale elements — a sad and desperate young woman, a magical resolution, a fae-bargain gone wrong — but with an added layer of modernity that deepened and enriched it all. What a pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon, reading this story.

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REVIEW: “To Curse with Needle and Thread” by Vijayalaxmi Samal

Review of Vijayalaxmi Samal, “To Curse With Needle and Thread,” Flash Fiction Online 134 (November 2024): 8-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

The stories in this issue of FFO are all bundled together under the header of “rural fantasy”, but don’t be deceived: These are not quiet pastoral stories. Samal’s story opens the issue, and in the very first lines it is visceral, it is angry, it is full of power. It is sharp and blunt when it comes to criticizing colonialism, and the forced conversion that comes with it. A strong and powerful opener!

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