SFF Reviews - Science Fiction and Fantasy

Review of In Tandem by Camden Rose (996 words) Flash Point Science Fiction, Mar 2025 : Read Online Something I love and don't get to read as often as I'd like - magical realism! A lovely little story that held complex emotion. A line that really got to me: "That’s how it was now. Edgar had smoothed down Wallace’s spiky bits, as their daughter liked to joke. With him gone, Wallace was nothing but fury." Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of The Witch by Lily Black (100 words) Flash Point Science Fiction, Feb 2025 : Read Online Short, powerful fantasy flash fiction. I adore such pieces. A singular scene with immense feeling and stakes. Read it. Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of If We Live to Be Giants by Allison Mulder (997 words) Fireside Magazine, Issue 47, Sept 2017 : Read Online The gradual raising of stakes was beautifully showcased. The sense of relief the girls must have felt at the end was palpable, without diminishing the severity of what they went through over the course of the story. A lot packed into this flash fiction piece, not least the depth of narrative and choice of prose that elevate this story. Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of The Last Stand of the Tooth Fairies by Sasha Brown (4846 words) Cossmass Infinities, November 2023 : Purchase or Read Online An action-packed fantasy story of a six year old, Zuri. She leaves her tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy, and she’s pretty excited about her very first tooth. Except.. you’re supposed to be asleep when the tooth fairy shows up. And Zuri wasn’t! The rest of the story is about what happens next, and I really loved the scope of the story and the world building. It’s also pretty difficult to write about kids and how they think and talk - this story gets it so right. Love the attention to detail, and love the story! Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of The Hanging of Billy Crabtree by H. A. Eugene (974 words) Flash Fiction Online, September 2024 : Purchase , Subscribe or Read Online  This story is weird in a really fun way! Every twist takes this piece to another level, all in unexpected ways, and escalating quick. Don't even try to predict where this one is going, just let it wash over you - a quick dose of surreal fiction! Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks

Review of Whole by Somto Ihezue (3944 words) Cossmass Infinities, Issue 8, April 2022 : Purchase or Read Online An emotional and expansive story, made more memorable with vibrant descriptions. You can tell that a lot of thought and craft has gone into creating this piece. As the story builds, a lot of things are put in perspective, and so smoothly, too. Allow yourself to really feel the words; this is a story worth savoring by a true storyteller.  Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of Visiting by Avra Margariti (951 words) Tree And Stone, Issue 1, March 2022 : Donate , Read Issue or Read Online A short, touching tale about multi-generational relationships and how valuable they can be. It captured the essence of how a child's mind works, which is rare to pull off well. It's evocative and surreal, but it's also very everyday-ordinary-life. A lovely little story. Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of To Slay a Goblin by Dylan Curry (974 words) Flash Fiction Online, October 2023 : Purchase or Read Online   A funny, unique take on a fantasy-style adventurer, doing some good ol’ adventuring. The sharp, sudden emotion makes this story so layered. A great example of how flash fiction can be such a wonderful format.        Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks

Review of Little Pound Shop by Rebecca Harrison (979 words) Flash Fiction Online, December 2023 : Purchase or Read Online A lovely magical story. I would have enjoyed a longer version as well, maybe some more detail about the enchantments in the shop! That’s just me enjoying stories about enchanted objects though - this story in itself was a treat to read. This one is what short and sweet is all about!    Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks

Review of They Could Have Been Yours by Joy Baglio (6982 words) Apex Magazine, Issue 136 : Purchase or Read Online   A woman scrolls on a Site, and all her exes seem to be getting engaged within a few days of each other. She feels self doubt creep in, and then she finds a ring. When she puts it on, she can visit all the women her exes are engaged to. The more she gets involved in her disembodied travels, the more her real life is affected. Interesting to watch it unfold. The prose was beautiful. The ending is beautifully poignant.   Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of welcome, caller by Sarah Little (1000 words) Tree And Stone, Issue 1, March 2022 : Donate , Read Issue or Read Online Conversations across time are always lovely to read. The protagonist finds a phone booth that lets her eavesdrop, so to speak, on her past or future self. The prose was quite nice, too. I wish this story was longer, I would have liked to read more detail about this world. Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of Every Shade of Healing by Taryn Frazier (994 words) Apex Magazine, Issue 136 : Purchase or Read Online A dark yet beautiful story about healing the pain and scars. It’s only once you heal that you can harness that experience and growth into something beautiful, something meaningful. A thoughtful, lovely one.   Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks

Review of That Story Isn't the Story by John Wiswell (9033 words) Uncanny Magazine, Issue Forty-Three : Purchase or Read Online This Hugo and Nebula finalist and Locus Award winner novelette places a striking tale of trauma and recovery in an urban fantasy setting. The details are often left to our imagination, but as we have likely experienced in other stories, our imagination is quite capable of conjuring up horrors to fill the gaps. A supernatural creature holds sway over his familiars, symbolic of the less fortunate who are often preyed on by folks with bad intentions. Victims range from teens to immigrants to gay people - people in difficult situations who are likely to forget their own strength. And that brings us to the heart of the story - recovering your own strength. That journey towards recovery is exceedingly difficult to traverse, and it's made relatively manageable when you have a support system and a semblance of independence and the beginnings of a ...

Review of Rudali by Amal Singh (2870 words) Mithila Review, August 2016 : Subscribe or Read Online Not an easy story, but an important one. And if it can bring up so many feelings in me as a reader, I can only imagine the emotional upheaval the author must have gone through to create this story. Grief comes in many forms, and is expressed in many different ways too. And sometimes it is hard to separate what you want to do from what you have to do. And then there's also the undead here for some fantasy representation, so this story has basically everything! I absolutely loved everything about this, from the character development, the world it is set in, the choices Shashi makes - just everything. I appreciate that the author is from India and is able to portray Indian culture in a realistic and respectful way. Being Indian myself, it irks me when Indian writers whitewash our culture, but Amal Singh is refreshing. I look forward to reading more of his work! Support us o...

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 A Fall Backward Through the Hourglass by P.A. Cornell (1082 words) Cossmass Infinities, Issue 8, April 2022 : Purchase or Read Online A heartfelt fantasy by the author who also wrote Nine Lives . I enjoyed that story and loved this even more. If I had to use just one word, it would be poignant. The protagonist starts aging backwards after the birth of her daughter, born on her thirtieth birthday. As she keeps getting younger, she and her daughter go through different phases where their relationship changes as their relative ages change. It is often difficult for both of them, but there's no lack of love and affection, even through the hard times. As she keeps getting younger, some observations just slice through you, especially if you're a parent or have been a caregiver to a young child. The story was tight, with strong prose and emotional resonance. Loved it! Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks    

Review of Nine Lives by P.A. Cornell (799 words) If There's Anyone Left, Issue 2, January 2022 : Purchase or Read Online A very endearing bit of flash fiction. We hear that cats have nine lives, but this particular cat very literally has nine lives, and he keeps coming back as a cute little kitten every time. And his very lucky human gets to experience his cat's affection over the course of many lifetimes. Beautiful. Support us on Ko-fi -  https://ko-fi.com/ohjustbooks