Review of Rachael K. Jones, “Five Functions of Your Bionosaur,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 40-43 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This story is unutterably sweet and desperately sad, and left me crying in my office.
(First published in Robot Dinosaurs, 2018.)
Review of Jelena Dunato, “Five Easy Hairstyles for Snake-Haired Girls,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 10-11 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This poem was a twist on the standard Medusa story, from her despoilment to her eventual escape and ascension. It had a couple of good lines in it, including: “If you wanted criticism, you’d call your mother,” which is a banger.
Review of Lora Gray, “Sever,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 34-38 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This poem packs a punch, from alien pregnancy to the aftermath of abuse to space travel — it’s a lot.
Review of Eric A. Clayton, “Faith That Builds Worlds,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 29-32 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
A space monk, a boundary-pushing kid, a religious ritual gone wrong, and a civilization desperate to rebuild themselves — what’s not to love about this story?
Review of Allison Mulder, “If We Live to be Giants,” Small Wonders no. 4 (October 2023): 25-28 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Domestic abuse.
This was a shudderingly sad story of two girls’ escape — and their mother’s escape — from an abusive grandfather. It’s the kind of story that makes you think there must be something behind it, a reason why the author chose to wrote this story rather than another one. I hope the exorcism of writing it helped.
(First published in Fireside Magazine 47, 2017).
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.
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.
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.)
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.
Review of Samantha Murray, “The Stars that Fall,” Small Wonders no. 11 (May 2024): 35-37 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Death of a child.
This was a weird combination of science, astrology, and fantasy, and for all it’s mishmash, I really, really liked it.
(First published in Flash Fiction Online 2017).
SFF Reviews