REVIEW: “Dissection of a Mermaid” by Wailana Kalama

Review of Wailana Kalama, “Dissection of a Mermaid,” Flash Fiction Online 133 (October 2024): 16-18 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Assault.

This is a step by step how-to guide for what it says in the title. The steps begin detailed and complicated and full of tips and tricks. In the end, the short, sharp staccato sentences are sparse and bare, their structure like a knife driving into your flesh.

It is very, very dark.