Flash Fiction Online #149, February 2026
“Me An’ Streeter (An’ Vince) Chase A Comet” by Christopher Degni
“This Blue World” by Samantha Murray (Reprint, not reviewed)
“A Thimbleful of Need” by Christine Hanolsy
“Everyone Hates It When the Alien Shows Up at the Club” by Elijah J. Mears
“A Lesson on Learning Your Place in the Universe” by Thomas Price
“In Brightness and in Darkness, We Sit” by Christopher Blake
Reviewed by David Wesley Hill
Life, according to Macbeth, is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing. “Me An’ Streeter (An’ Vince) Chase A Comet” by Christopher Degni, the first story in the February issue of Flash Fiction Online, on the other hand, is a tale told by a moronic protagonist—and entirely in an annoying attempt at a Brooklynese dialect although the story takes place in a future where ordinary people own space ships. Worse, as with life, the story itself signifies nothing. Hard pass on this tripe.
Next up, “A Thimbleful of Need” by Christine Hanolsy, is a delightful little parable in which drams of pure emotion may be purchased at the local apothecary. To please her lover, Sioned, the protagonist buys the titular thimbleful and they share an ecstatic experience together. Unfortunately, as with potato chips, one taste is never enough … pithy and recommended!
I’ve said it once (see my full review of “(Skin)” in Diabolical Plots (https://tangentonline.com/e-market-monthly/diabolical-plots-128-october-2025/)), and I’ll say it again:
“I hate (detest) parentheses. Next to the semi-colon, they’re my (least) favorite punctuation mark. They (jarringly!) interrupt the flow of narrative, jolting the reader from the story, and (if a punctuation mark were a mouth) scream “meta” (nudge, nudge) from the rooftops … You might like the story if you’re an English Lit grad student going through a John Barth (parenthetical) period, but otherwise take a (hard) pass (((!))) on this one.”
All this applies to “Everyone Hates It When the Alien Shows Up at the Club” by Elijah J. Mears. Enough said.
The fourth story, “A Lesson on Learning Your Place in the Universe” by Thomas Price, establishes a milieu where ghosts are real and you can take classes on exorcism at the local rec center, as does the protagonist since his home is haunted by a woman’s ghost. Despite the pretentious title, the tale itself is readable, eventually revealing itself to be more a love story than a ghost story. Why it is labeled “literary horror,” however, is beyond me.
The last tale of the issue, ““In Brightness and in Darkness, We Sit” by Christopher Blake, is an odd little piece told from the viewpoint of the “peersons”—apparently gnomes of some sort—living in the walls of an ancient house. These peersons spend their short lives spying on and worshiping the Old Lady and Old Gentlemen who live there—until one day the Old Lady does not return home… Touching, and recommended!