Havok’s Remember When takes on a journey through the calendar, presenting stories set in specific times of the year. This anthology of flash fiction (1000 words or less) gives us bite-sized tales of time periods (in this case, months) and seasons. I always consider the theme when I rate a Havok offering, so the piece must succeed on both a story level and be clearly from the month it represents. For this review, though, I will also list enjoyable stories no matter what month it appeared in.
For me, if a story’s setting is in a month, it must represent that month in a unique way. I think I took a stricter definition than the editors. Also, there may have been something I missed that made the tale unique to that month, so I wanted to give some grace. This list of flash fiction contains several stories that were great but I wasn’t sure about the month theme.
The Night is Coming (John deSousa)
Man of Theseus (Caleb A. Robinson)
Meet and Greet (Austin Grisham)
Anacrusis (Emily Hutnyak)
Phantom Pain (Lincoln Reed)
Switching Lives (Ronnell Kay Gibson) – What a concept!
My favorite in this category is The Lady in the Lake by Abigail Falanga. Hauntingly written.
The best combination of stories and months are:
Room by Rebecca Morgan. A redemptive, callback story.
Memoria by Elizabeth Anne Myrick. Who would’ve thought it could happen to superheroes?
Chasing the Darkness Away by Elizabeth Arceo. I love the concept and ending.
Jurassic Wedding by R. L. Nguyen. Delightfully humorous.
Harvest Song by Hannah Birss. We need more sci-fi stories like this one.
Land of Honey by Kayla E. Green. Perhaps the saddest story in the anthology, very moving.
Wishes by Emily Hutnyak. One of the most powerful, non-speculative stories in the anthology.
Substitute Santa by Rienne French. Easily, my favorite humorous story in many years. (“Don’t eat the r–-!”).
It was hard to pick a favorite of my favorites as so many were so strong. I lean toward loving horror, urban fantasy, or an off-beat contemporary. This is why the science fiction story of “Step Right Up!” by Alicia Peterson really stood out. An outstanding concept meets engaging writing with deep meaning, and it could only happen in the month of National Origami Day. Spectacular.
The Remember When anthology has many strong stories here. I had to keep whittling down the list. From snow days to “last days,” from Paul Bunyan to the Abominable Snowman to vampires, from lantern riddles to books of madness to a magic 8-ball, you’ll be happy to recall this bevy of tales.