SFF Reviews - Science Fiction and Fantasy

Review of A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow (4916 words) Apex Magazine, Issue 105 : Purchase or Read Online In this world, some librarians are witches, and almost all books are magic. This is the premise and it’s immediately relatable because all readers, at some point, have genuinely believed books were a type of magic. They can transport you somewhere else, which is just what the skinny black teenager wants. He just wants to go somewhere else, anywhere but where he is, stuck in a life that isn’t what he wants it to be. And the narrator, the witchy librarian, wants to help as much as she can, but even witches have rules. And this story is about whether or not to break those rules, whether or not to give someone what they really need, so that they can have their chance at happiness. Cleverly written, with a great magical reality so closely coexisting with our own un-magical one. The tight plot and vivid descriptions make...

Review of Peanut Butter Elegy by Jenna Glover (3269 words) Luna Station Quarterly, Issue 051 : Purchase or Read Online The narrator makes some choices, and while they may not be the best choices, she did what she did. She was grieving and she said things and now she can’t take it back. Lies always build up and sometimes it snowballs into a much bigger web of lies and then you’re in too deep to do anything but continue to lie. I get the feeling of helplessness, but I don’t understand the need to lie. Apart from the plot being built on it, I mean. I did enjoy the world building and the community they lived it, but lying is never good. By the end of the story, she does feel some remorse about it, but things have reached a stage where it doesn’t help. I’m ambivalent about how this story ends. At least a little note of hope, or the beginning of an attempt to fix things? Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of How I Got Published (12 Tips from a Bestselling Author) by Dominica Phetteplace (731 words) Fireside Magazine, Issue 52, February 2018 : Purchase or Read Online I do enjoy a good list story! This was a fun, magical take on what it takes to get published. It definitely isn't easy, and it raises a lot of questions about how to navigate it and what are the things you are willing (or not willing) to do in pursuit of publication and success. Great prose, good style and a wonderful fantasy bent to this story. All this while still being able to provide social commentary on how difficult writers have it, and how many choices they need to make - in terms of writing, approach, how to promote themselves, and where to find the right audience who can relate. Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of Riddle by Ogbewe Amadin (1159 words) Fireside Magazine, Issue 51, January 2018 : Purchase or Read Online A young child, Idara, thinks anything her Mama says is fact. And so if she says there's good and there's evil, and all witches are evil, then so it must be. Idara believes it because she's young and that's what she's always believed. So when she finds out her aunt actually is a witch, it makes it that much more difficult to make an informed decision on whether or not she wants to learn to be one too. Idara is naive, and it comes across. It is an interesting twist because not only does she lack awareness of gray areas, she takes a decision without fully grasping the magnitude of it. It is a story about magic and witches, but also about how a child's agency - or lack thereof - can influence their life and decisions. Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of Mudslide Milkshake by Rachel Lastra (937 words) SmokeLong Quarterly, Issue 77, September 2022 : Donate or Read Online What a rich story! It's not often that I can find such poignant emotion in flash. The start and the end of the story is at basically the same point in time, so the rest of the story is how she got there and why she reacted like that at the beginning. Again, difficult to pull off in flash. I enjoyed the humor interspersed through this obviously not-humorous event in the narrator's life. A very thoughtful, raw story.  Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks