Review of Julian Riccobon, “Café Negro,” Flash Fiction Online (July 2023): 21-22 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Enslavement.
There’s a lot packed into this story, which forces the reader into an encounter with history, slavery, torture.
(First published in The Acentos Review, October 2022.)
Review of Meredith Gordon, “Patrice,” Flash Fiction Online (July 2023): 17-19 — Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Childbirth, adoption.
This was a peculiar little story, noteworthy for its depiction of physical disability, and the way in which only a few sentences at the end can turn something otherwise ordinary into something speculative and intriguing.
Review of Marissa Lingen, “The Plasticity of Youth”, Clarkesworld Issue 185, February (2022): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
Jess is pregnant, and going to her scheduled doctor visit. She is stopped because of a raven that decided to eat her tires. Her daughter, when born, seems to be a bit different, but healthy. Over time, we learn that it’s not just tires; it’s just not ravens. A lot has started to charge.
I really like this type of story, where the world sort of changes without it having been done by humans. The humans are simply trying to navigate this world, just like everyone and everything else does.
It was strongly emotional, and I say this in the best possible meaning of the phrase.
Review of Isabel J. Kim, “The Massage Lady at Munjeong Road Bathhouse”, Clarkesworld Issue 185, February (2022): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
A well-structured story about Jinah, who works at the bathhouse. She has the ability to see and scrape off the scales on her clients’ bodies – scales that show the effect of choices.
These translucent scales turn opaque over time, at which point they cannot be scraped off, signifying the calcification of the choices they make.
At one point in the story, Jinah needs to make a choice. Does she think scraping off her own scales would be worth it?
An insightful, well written story. The characters have a lot of depth, too.
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 Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko, “For Whom the Psychopomp Calls”, Clarkesworld Issue 184, January (2022): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
This story can be described by one of the few words that comes up in the story via the psychopomp: melancholy.
A story that keeps you on edge in a variety of ways. My only (minor) issue is that the human sometimes reacts in a heightened manner to things. A tad unrealistic, but then again, nobody’s perfect and maybe this particular human is like that? So, not really an issue with the story, just that aspect of the characters personality.
The writing style itself was on point for the kind of story it was. The great pacing added a lot, too.
Highly recommended. The ending is particularly heartbreaking.
Review of Kahlo Smith, “All Our Whiskered Idols,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Content note: Ruminations on death.
Smith’s story is an exploration of the complications and complexities of family, and death, and religion, and grief. The first part of it was almost aggressively ordinary — good and satisfyingly told, but leaving me wondering what was going to be speculative about it — which made the contrast of the second, weird and wildy speculative, part all the more sharp.
Review of Elizabeth Guilt, “Tracks,” Luna Station Quarterly 54 (2023): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
This was a rich, sad, vibrant story, both quick and short and full of emotion. I loved how it took a character we’re all at least passing familiar with — the magician’s lady who is sawed in half — and gave us an intimate, private glimpse at her story.
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.
Review of Andrea Kriz, “Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism”, Clarkesworld Issue 184, January (2022): Read Online. Reviewed by Myra Naik.
The narrator’s friend made a virtugame that featured their relationship. It also included a slightly fictionalized version of the narrator, a hurtful one at that.
You know that moment when you discover that someone you thought of as a friend just thought of you as a means to an end, a joke, or perhaps both?
That’s what our narrator faces, and then makes a choice. An insightful story into interpersonal relationships, especially with people who think of you in a much different way than you think of them.
SFF Reviews