lulujoanis's review
4.0
Read for a literature class on Miniatures, but I've always been interested in flash fiction anthologies.
~ ~ ~
"Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild" by Kathy Fish | 5* | Genre-bending poem, searing with righteous anger about the state of this dangerous & dying world, with eerily gorgeous imagery
"Wolves" by Bud Smith | 5* | Bite-sized but filling fable about human belonging through the lens of habitat loss
"Oh, Darling I'm in the Garden" by Diane Williams | 3*
"Sixth Wonder" by Kevin Moffett | 4*
"The Way of the Woods" by Audra Kerr Brown | 4*
"The Buried Man" by Genevieve Plunkett | 4*
"I Will Use This Story to Tell Another Story" by Ashley Hutson | 3* | Breathtaking title and experimental format, but a tired commentary on the "train problem" cliche, thus a predictable ending
"You Are Not Like Other Children" by Angela Mitchell | 3* | Successful use of second-person, but could do a better job of either directly referencing or distancing itself from the anti-Semitic origins of the lizard-people premise it experiments with
"Happy Little Trees" by Steven Dunn | 4*
"B Movie" by W. Todd Kaneko | 4*
"Last Inspection of Mount Vernon by George Washington, Gentleman Farmer" by Karen Craigo | 5* | Dazzling prose; my personal favorite line is 'I will torque myself to this land like a woodscrew to a board.'
"It Falls" by Melissa Goode | 4* | Beautifully fractured examination on mental illness, but a lackluster ending in my opinion
"Aleppo Was Passing By" by Sithuraj Ponraj | 4* | Colorful yet indigestible vignette on the darkest side of humanity: genocide
"Smithereens" by Aleksandr Hemon | 4* | Heartfelt, heartbreaking piece about destruction both external & internal; however, in need of trimming
"Filthy, Polluted" by Raul Palma | 4*
"Knowledge" by Cristoph Keller | 4*
"The Collector" by Lauren S. Marcus | 5* | Haunting yet homely character study about hoarding disorder, navigated with angst and empathy in unison
"Weird Pig" by Robert Long Foreman | 5* | Somehow tear-inducing and side-splitting all at once; like George Orwell's Animal Farm for the millennium
"The Exact Coordinates of Eleanor" by Kathleen Jones | 3* | Interesting sci-fi sketch, tackling feminism and addiction, but would do better as a longer work -- one I would definitely read!
"37 Seconds" by Deb Olin Unferth | 5* |
"Deep Eddy" by Michael Parker | 5* | A lake becomes a character, and a terrifying one, in this work about the hidden sensitivity of insensitive teenagers
"How to Be a Man" by Michael Parker | 4*
"Uncouple" by Jan Stinchcomb | 4*
"Surf Jesus" by Giovanna Varela | 5*
"Clean Girls" by Ruth LeFaive | 4*
"She Is a Battleground" by Nancy Au | 4*
"Ex-Utero" by Jessica Walker | 4*
"House Call" by Melissa Lozada-Olivia | 5* | Never read anything like it, and I expect I never will again; both stylistically and thematically fresh
"Acts of Love" by Justin Herrmann | 5* | Alcohol, shoplifting, and Edgar Allen Poe combine to create a portrait of a relationship between a broken man and an unsatisfied woman; whether that relationship is mutually beneficial or parasitical is up to delicious interpretation
"Ring of Salt" by Monet Patrice Thomas | 5* | An occult description of sex, as well as the disappearance (of boundaries, of friendship, of self-esteem) that moaning incantations often result in
"Minuet" by Rumaan Alam | 5* | An elegant rumination about sensitivity and intimacy between men, in inelegant prose
"Because You are Dead" by Denise Tolan | 4*
"Lowry Hill" by Allegra Hyde | 4* | Rule-breaking; a bit wordy for small fiction, but the style reflects the themes of art and indulgence
"A Man and a Man" by Alex McElroy | 5* | An artistic interpretation on the "walk into a bar" cliche that, unlike "I Will Use This Story...", ends on a surprising note
"Tying the Boats" by Amanda O'Callaghan | 4*
"Triptych" by Eric Blyx | 5* | A twisted hero's journey, centering on the helpless Protagonist; because of its cyclical format, propels itself beyond the limited confines of small fiction into a Whitman-esque multitude
"Crickets" by Quinn Madison | 4*
"What We See" by Denise Howard Long | 5* | Supernatural mosaic on how parents beget children beget stress begets mania; unapologetically controversial, but still progressive with (what I see as) an implicit pro-choice motif
"Barista" by Meg Pokrass | 4* | Lovely, bordering on prose-poetic, but the abstraction and confusing format failed to enhance the work after so many rereads
"Armadillo" by Hala Alyan | 4* | A disparate landscape of a turbulent family with an invisible armadillo; however, some of the meaning is lost by basing the plot around memories
"A Gothic Tale" by Karen Donovan | 5* | Definitely not a conventional tale, but that makes it so much better: a unique take on the Romantic, representing the opposite extreme, to illuminate that perhaps we ought to stop fetishizing such a dismal era; but she does so with such aesthetic flourish that I still can't help but pine!
"Get Down, Stay Down" by Maxin Loskutoff | 5* | A first-person narrative from the point of view of a troubled high school athlete, who longs to solve all of his problems with the violence he was taught to endure and equally inflict; not usually this twink's cup of tea, but obviously it still struck me
"Dead Man's Things" by Reginald Gibbons | 4* | Bewitching, but a bit aimless; perhaps that's the point (so on second thought, after a second reading, bordering-on-5*)
"The Truth About Alaskan Rivers" by Lori Sambol Brody | 5* | Haunting, contemplative story about the allure of guns for troubled children
"The Visitor" by Lydia Davis | 4* | Sensitive account of a noble profession: the caretakers of the elderly
"In Dugave" by Kaj Tanaka | 4* | Cerebral piece about a city in Croatia, vaguely referencing myth, describing the double vision of drunkenness or perhaps held-back tears, carrying the consciences of both the living and the dead
"The Night is Where It Throws You" by Kaj Tanaka | 4*
"The Good Hours" by Desiree Cooper | 4* | Expertly attunes the domestic comfort of garage sales with melancholy; as much as I share the ennui that the narrator feels about materialism and agree on the uncanny of secondhand possessions (and, admittedly, love thrifting) this piece borders on melodramatic
"Sweater" by Kate Keleher | 4* | Same points as "The Good Hours" (both positive and negative) but through the lens of a middle-aged narrator at a middle-aged friend's house party; definitely different enough stylistically and thematically to warrant both stories, though
"Magic Arrow" by Chance Dibben | 4*
"The Architect's Gambit" by Matt Bell | 4*
"Postpatrum" by Mary-Jane Holmes | 3* | My vote for weakest of the stories, only because the other motherhood stories ("What We See" & "Ex Utero") I enjoyed much more; but I can't put this below 3 stars, since I appreciate the Irish dialect (which, I admit, might contribute to my lack of understanding) and loved the father character
"Shit Cassandra Saw That She Didn't Tell the Trojans Because at that Point Fuck Them Anyway" by Gwen E. Kirby | 5* | This one is self-explanatory, and anything else me writing out the title would spoil it
~ ~ ~
"Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild" by Kathy Fish | 5* | Genre-bending poem, searing with righteous anger about the state of this dangerous & dying world, with eerily gorgeous imagery
"Wolves" by Bud Smith | 5* | Bite-sized but filling fable about human belonging through the lens of habitat loss
"Oh, Darling I'm in the Garden" by Diane Williams | 3*
"Sixth Wonder" by Kevin Moffett | 4*
"The Way of the Woods" by Audra Kerr Brown | 4*
"The Buried Man" by Genevieve Plunkett | 4*
"I Will Use This Story to Tell Another Story" by Ashley Hutson | 3* | Breathtaking title and experimental format, but a tired commentary on the "train problem" cliche, thus a predictable ending
"You Are Not Like Other Children" by Angela Mitchell | 3* | Successful use of second-person, but could do a better job of either directly referencing or distancing itself from the anti-Semitic origins of the lizard-people premise it experiments with
"Happy Little Trees" by Steven Dunn | 4*
"B Movie" by W. Todd Kaneko | 4*
"Last Inspection of Mount Vernon by George Washington, Gentleman Farmer" by Karen Craigo | 5* | Dazzling prose; my personal favorite line is 'I will torque myself to this land like a woodscrew to a board.'
"It Falls" by Melissa Goode | 4* | Beautifully fractured examination on mental illness, but a lackluster ending in my opinion
"Aleppo Was Passing By" by Sithuraj Ponraj | 4* | Colorful yet indigestible vignette on the darkest side of humanity: genocide
"Smithereens" by Aleksandr Hemon | 4* | Heartfelt, heartbreaking piece about destruction both external & internal; however, in need of trimming
"Filthy, Polluted" by Raul Palma | 4*
"Knowledge" by Cristoph Keller | 4*
"The Collector" by Lauren S. Marcus | 5* | Haunting yet homely character study about hoarding disorder, navigated with angst and empathy in unison
"Weird Pig" by Robert Long Foreman | 5* | Somehow tear-inducing and side-splitting all at once; like George Orwell's Animal Farm for the millennium
"The Exact Coordinates of Eleanor" by Kathleen Jones | 3* | Interesting sci-fi sketch, tackling feminism and addiction, but would do better as a longer work -- one I would definitely read!
"37 Seconds" by Deb Olin Unferth | 5* |
"Deep Eddy" by Michael Parker | 5* | A lake becomes a character, and a terrifying one, in this work about the hidden sensitivity of insensitive teenagers
"How to Be a Man" by Michael Parker | 4*
"Uncouple" by Jan Stinchcomb | 4*
"Surf Jesus" by Giovanna Varela | 5*
"Clean Girls" by Ruth LeFaive | 4*
"She Is a Battleground" by Nancy Au | 4*
"Ex-Utero" by Jessica Walker | 4*
"House Call" by Melissa Lozada-Olivia | 5* | Never read anything like it, and I expect I never will again; both stylistically and thematically fresh
"Acts of Love" by Justin Herrmann | 5* | Alcohol, shoplifting, and Edgar Allen Poe combine to create a portrait of a relationship between a broken man and an unsatisfied woman; whether that relationship is mutually beneficial or parasitical is up to delicious interpretation
"Ring of Salt" by Monet Patrice Thomas | 5* | An occult description of sex, as well as the disappearance (of boundaries, of friendship, of self-esteem) that moaning incantations often result in
"Minuet" by Rumaan Alam | 5* | An elegant rumination about sensitivity and intimacy between men, in inelegant prose
"Because You are Dead" by Denise Tolan | 4*
"Lowry Hill" by Allegra Hyde | 4* | Rule-breaking; a bit wordy for small fiction, but the style reflects the themes of art and indulgence
"A Man and a Man" by Alex McElroy | 5* | An artistic interpretation on the "walk into a bar" cliche that, unlike "I Will Use This Story...", ends on a surprising note
"Tying the Boats" by Amanda O'Callaghan | 4*
"Triptych" by Eric Blyx | 5* | A twisted hero's journey, centering on the helpless Protagonist; because of its cyclical format, propels itself beyond the limited confines of small fiction into a Whitman-esque multitude
"Crickets" by Quinn Madison | 4*
"What We See" by Denise Howard Long | 5* | Supernatural mosaic on how parents beget children beget stress begets mania; unapologetically controversial, but still progressive with (what I see as) an implicit pro-choice motif
"Barista" by Meg Pokrass | 4* | Lovely, bordering on prose-poetic, but the abstraction and confusing format failed to enhance the work after so many rereads
"Armadillo" by Hala Alyan | 4* | A disparate landscape of a turbulent family with an invisible armadillo; however, some of the meaning is lost by basing the plot around memories
"A Gothic Tale" by Karen Donovan | 5* | Definitely not a conventional tale, but that makes it so much better: a unique take on the Romantic, representing the opposite extreme, to illuminate that perhaps we ought to stop fetishizing such a dismal era; but she does so with such aesthetic flourish that I still can't help but pine!
"Get Down, Stay Down" by Maxin Loskutoff | 5* | A first-person narrative from the point of view of a troubled high school athlete, who longs to solve all of his problems with the violence he was taught to endure and equally inflict; not usually this twink's cup of tea, but obviously it still struck me
"Dead Man's Things" by Reginald Gibbons | 4* | Bewitching, but a bit aimless; perhaps that's the point (so on second thought, after a second reading, bordering-on-5*)
"The Truth About Alaskan Rivers" by Lori Sambol Brody | 5* | Haunting, contemplative story about the allure of guns for troubled children
"The Visitor" by Lydia Davis | 4* | Sensitive account of a noble profession: the caretakers of the elderly
"In Dugave" by Kaj Tanaka | 4* | Cerebral piece about a city in Croatia, vaguely referencing myth, describing the double vision of drunkenness or perhaps held-back tears, carrying the consciences of both the living and the dead
"The Night is Where It Throws You" by Kaj Tanaka | 4*
"The Good Hours" by Desiree Cooper | 4* | Expertly attunes the domestic comfort of garage sales with melancholy; as much as I share the ennui that the narrator feels about materialism and agree on the uncanny of secondhand possessions (and, admittedly, love thrifting) this piece borders on melodramatic
"Sweater" by Kate Keleher | 4* | Same points as "The Good Hours" (both positive and negative) but through the lens of a middle-aged narrator at a middle-aged friend's house party; definitely different enough stylistically and thematically to warrant both stories, though
"Magic Arrow" by Chance Dibben | 4*
"The Architect's Gambit" by Matt Bell | 4*
"Postpatrum" by Mary-Jane Holmes | 3* | My vote for weakest of the stories, only because the other motherhood stories ("What We See" & "Ex Utero") I enjoyed much more; but I can't put this below 3 stars, since I appreciate the Irish dialect (which, I admit, might contribute to my lack of understanding) and loved the father character
"Shit Cassandra Saw That She Didn't Tell the Trojans Because at that Point Fuck Them Anyway" by Gwen E. Kirby | 5* | This one is self-explanatory, and anything else me writing out the title would spoil it
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