A Switchblade Girl With a Candy Heart: Review of One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
One Last Stop is a heartwarming story of found-family chock full of eccentric, colorful characters that jump off the page.
The Blow-It On Cheezer Row
The worst were the blow-its. A blow-it was unpredictable. Anything could happen.
Marvel in Color: The Evolution of Racial Diversity within the MCU
The MCU has had a less than stellar track record when it comes to racial diversity.
Announcements
Past Announcements
Issue 41 Pre-Order Open
Our 41st issue is now available for pre-order online.
2021 Sudden Fiction Contest Winners!
We’re thrilled to announce the winners and honorary mention of our 2021 Sudden Fiction Contest! Read more to find out who won!
Book Reviews
The Difficult Transition to Self-Acceptance: Review of We Were Promised Spotlights by Lindsay Sproul
This book does more harm than good in the negative stereotypes it perpetuates.
Casting a Story: Review of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
No one wants to hear about this ugliness. But everyone loves a well-told story.
Fragments of a Meandering Life: Review of A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
Nearly every story in the collection is captivating in its constant motion and minute detail.
More Reviews
Desperate Love: Review of “The Case for and Against Love Potions” by Imbolo Mbue
After reading this story, readers may wonder whether a love potion is worth the trouble and risk.
Chinatown’s Dark History: Review of The Paper Daughters of Chinatown by Heather B. Moore
She has no idea that the rest of her life will be spent rescuing Chinese girls and women.
When Neighborhoods Dissolve: Review of When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole
What happens when an oppressor pushes you out of a space that has shaped you?
Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole: Review of Red Pill by Hari Kunzru
Its characters and events, while sinister, are plausible: an uncomfortable mirror to our own world.
‘You’ Series Loses Original Heart in Third Installment: Review of You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
As per usual, Kepnes pulls out all the stops with bottomless cliffhangers and narrative-shaking revelations.
Commentaries
The surprisingly radical politics of Pixar’s WALL-E
It seems that our brave little robot is actually part of a much larger political-ecological revolution.
To Delete or Not To Delete: Fanfiction and Lost Writing on the Internet
Fanfiction, and literature on the internet in general, raises new sorts of questions about the pitfalls and possibilities of archiving. How do you save not just an artifact, but all the software and hardware that is needed to run it?
Editors’ Most Anticipated: Spring 2021
This Spring, the editorial team at the Berkeley Fiction Review wanted to highlight a selection of upcoming releases that we are especially looking forward to reading and viewing. These selections mean something special to each individual editor, so we hope this list inspires an interest in these works!
Comfort Books: What Are They and Why Are They Important?
A comfort book is just as the name suggests: a personally significant piece of literature, typically fiction, that brings a person solace and allows for an escape from reality.
More Readings
Watching and Waiting: The Slow Rise of South Asian Representation on Screen
Even so, I was disappointed to find that Mismatched had taken a narrative by an Indian-American author about Indian-American characters, with a unique premise about growing up American yet being submersed in Indian culture, and had set it entirely in India.
Bury Your Gays (Literally): How The Haunting of Bly Manor Uses and Subverts the Trope
Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor, the anthology series follow-up to the popular The Haunting of Hill House, may have all the makings for a classic ghost story, but don’t be mistaken—it’s actually a love story.
A Paean to Otherness: How Shirley Jackson Makes the Supernatural a Safe Haven
I saw myself and my sister in Merricat and Constance – two sisters from a deeply troubled family, survivors of traumatic experiences who rely on each other to make it through the day.
Fiction
His Scaly Self
Gradually, he grew accustomed to his alternate form, to the point that he could forget about it for hours at a time.
More Stories
Latent in Translation
She knew how to read a newspaper article when she was five; now she cannot tell Chinese from hieroglyphics.
The God of Love
As I walked home, I felt it—little wings against my lungs.
Montauk’s Design
Two houses, virtually identical in structure and appearance. Odd, right?
A Ghost In The Hallway
At night he could hear her rustling the curtain. He would whisper his questions to her.
Anything that Shines
There’s an our kind and a their kind.
The Mean Streets
I was Indiana Jones, hanging from a rope above a pit of snakes, my moves skilled and sure. My recorder was below, begging to be rescued like whatever unrealistic female heroine Jones would fall in love with and then totally forget about by the sequel.
Port-au-Prince
She took in another breath, reminding herself of the hours she would have to spend today making forced smiles to cover her nerves, laughing anxiously to prevent herself from saying something she didn’t mean, and breathing in and out to steady her heartbeat.
Multiple Deterrents
I know what Venita does. I’m not stupid. She doesn’t know I know, the fragrances of her leaving and the taste of her returning.
Interviews
Breaking the Canon: Interview with K-Ming Chang, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge & Author of Bestiary
Something about flash fiction and short fiction is just so ripe with experimentation and with breaking boundaries and for kind of completely turning on its head what a story can look like.
A Flash of Lightning and Heartbreak: Interview with Ashley Hutson, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge & Author of One’s Company
I feel like when you write flash, you’re giving something to the reader, like an electric shock.
A Case for “the surreal and the strange”: Interview with Anna Vangala Jones, Sudden Fiction Guest Judge and Author of Turmeric & Sugar
When I picture a flash fiction story done well, a story that’s getting so much across in this tiny space, I imagine a little snow globe or something that’s bursting with how much is going on inside it.
More Interviews
On Craft and Contradictions: Interview with Jen Fawkes, Author of Mannequin and Wife
A few weeks ago, I sat down (virtually) with short story writer Jen Fawkes to discuss her debut story collection, Mannequin and Wife: Stories. We talked about the origin of her writing career, the ocean, and her goal of capturing the spectacular mundanity of everyday life through fiction.
Issue 40 Release Party Transcript
Read the transcript of our release party for Berkeley Fiction Review Issue 40, which took place on April 30th via Zoom!
An interview with Meagan Johanson, author of “Spent” and Sudden Fiction winner
“Spent” came like this—from a feeling, the remorse of only having one life to spend. Even if we hold love in armfuls—real love, true love, good love—there will always be a life you can’t be living, a timeline you’ve left behind.
Personal Essays
Regarding the Pain of Women: Disabled Childhoods and Intellectual Insanity
Growing up as a disabled child, I learned to live in a world that was my own.
Lucia’s Lessons on Leaving
Berlin’s writing captured a sort of reckless joy I recalled from my time in Paris: living on that rugged edge between foolish risk-taking and worthwhile adventure.
Blue Pills as Always
Across this textured face, I count all the bleeding and irritated spots, hooking onto them with my eyes and making sure that each and every unwanted citizen of a pimple on the once-clear expanse of my face is ingrained in my mind.
More Readings
My Unseen World
The Unseen World grapples with this abstract notion: if memories are the fundamental building blocks to a coherent identity, when one loses these memories or memories are distorted —who does this person become? Who are they in relation to you?
How Reading Has Helped Me in the Age of COVID-19
“I….have been able to use reading as both a reprieve from reality, as well as an educational tool to become a more productive version of my isolated self.”
Writing in Ten Easy Steps
Step 1: Once you are roused from slumber by thoughts of the monumental task at hand, brew some coffee. If you don’t drink coffee, thoughtfully bob a bag of tea into a cup of microwaved water. Optional: Add alcohol to taste.
Visuals
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