Flash Fiction Online #87, December 2020

“Grand Old Boar” by G. T. Knight

“Felt Along the Seam” by Kelly Sandoval

Reviewed by Chuck Rothman

Flash Fiction Online finishes out the year with two new genre stories that are packed with emotional weight.

The narrator of “Grand Old Boar” by G. T. Knight is a Russian scientist whose father is in a vegetative state and who works on a way to give him a life using technology and the body of a boar. Interesting look at the need to learn to let go, and how religion can affect how we make choices.

Kelly Sandoval’s “Felt Along the Seam” is about Brook, a teen girl who removes ghosts, though not the usual kind. She is haunted by the ghosts of her own fears, and is ambiguous as to whether removing them is a good idea. Nice metaphor, and the story asks questions about what we need to be content.

Chuck Rothman’s novels Staroamer’s Fate and Syron’s Fate are available from Fantastic Books. He is currently working on a novel set in Paraguay.