Flash Fiction Online #46, July 2017

“Brujitas” by Shara Concepción

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

Three brief stories by female authors offer the reader visions of the present, the future, and another reality.

In “Brujitas” by Shara Concepción, a group of little girls play near a fence. A woman thought to be a witch looks down on them. They ask her for a spell. The girls climb the high, dangerous fence in order to reach the other side, and magic happens. This story can be read as an allegory of the separation of social groups. It is dense, rich with metaphors, and sometimes difficult to follow.

Set in a severely polluted future Earth, “Elsewhere” by Meera Jhala deals with parents who make sacrifices in order to send their son on a starship to a new world. Short scenes set years apart show the sorrows and joys of the mother as she struggles to give her child a better life. The story is written in a quiet, clear style which draws the reader in.

“Errata to The Fugue of the Undreamable Abyss” by Aimee Picchi takes the form of corrections to a music score, obliquely narrating the story of the composer’s loss of her lover to the mysterious Abyss. In this dark fantasy of love and mourning, the Abyss seems clearly intended as a metaphor for death.

Victoria Silverwolf might be female too.