REVIEW: “The Things You Bought for the Robot” by Stefan Alcalá Slater

Review of Stefan Alcalá Slater, “The Things You Bought for the Robot,” Flash Fiction Online 144 (September 2025): 30-33 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

What makes a person a person? What makes a robot a person? With all the philosophy I’ve studied and taught, I’ve never found a better answer than that there is nothing more to being a person than being treated as one — an answer that works for humans or robots, and an answer that is worked out in this satisfying little story.

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REVIEW: “Tornado Breakers Don’t Cry” by Stefan Alcalá Slater

Review of Stefan Alcalá Slater, “Tornado Breakers Don’t Cry,” Flash Fiction Online 132 (September 2024): 8-11 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

On the one hand, this is a story about a tornado breaker whose role is to protect her town from the dangerous twisters. On the other hand, it’s equally a story about how we fail our parents, and how our parents fail us. The metaphor rests upon the story overtly but lightly, never bogging the story down but instead helping it to shine.

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