Flash Fiction Online #148, January 2026
“What to buy your husband of thirty seven-years for his birthday” by Jay McKenzie (nongenre, not reviewed)
“Stairs for Mermaids” by MM Schreier
“Death is a Black Door in the Ghetto” by Caspian Darke
“Swampland” by Erin Brandt Filliter (nongenre, not reviewed)
“Rice Child, Dragon Child” by Jessie Roy
“Disinterment” by Shane Inman
“The Memory Swap” by Cressida Roe
“In This Exchange of Names, I Say Please” by Wen Wen Yang (nongenre, not reviewed)
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
In “Stairs for Mermaids” by MM Schreier the narrator follows her sister to a staircase that leads to the ocean. She never sees her again.
Much of the story deals with the way that young girls often wish to be like their older siblings. The fantasy premise can be interpreted as losing contact with a relative or even suicide, judging by the magazine’s content warning. In any case, the speculative content is minimal.
The narrator of “Death is a Black Door in the Ghetto” by Caspian Darke receives a letter from his deceased father with a return address from a nonexistent floor of an apartment building. He pays a visit to the dead man and learns a lesson.
The depiction of the father’s afterlife is vividly surreal. The story deals with serious social issues and carries a powerful emotional impact.
Set in modern Korea, “Rice Child, Dragon Child” by Jessie Roy features a narrator who can save the dreams of pregnant women and sell them to the wealthy if they predict a prosperous life for the unborn child. He must decide what to do with the dream of his own wife.
The combination of modern technology with traditional mythology is interesting. The way in which the narrator deals with his wife’s dream is realistic and hopeful, without being overly optimistic.
In “Disinterment” by Shane Inman the narrator has to bury his dead mother twice because the first time she comes back as an undead rotting corpse. Missing her presence, he tries to dig her up again.
The story can be seen as an allegory for both feeling free of those we lose and yet yearning for them. The gruesome details of the dead woman’s condition tend to overshadow this more serious theme.
As the title of “The Memory Swap” by Cressida Roe suggests, technology allows people to trade memories. One person trades memories of her mother, both bad and good ones, for various pleasant memories of another person. The situation leads to an ironic ending. The plot is clever, if a bit contrived.
Victoria Silverwolf did a lot of online continuing education tonight.