A review by gengelcox
Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories by Robert Shapard, James Thomas

challenging fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

I’ve read a lot of flash fiction in the last three years, partly due to writing a lot of flash and thus needing to make a study of what makes a story under 750 words work. I found this anthology of 80 flash pieces in a Little Free Library and thought it would be interesting to see what short fiction outside of the SFF genre looked like. 

And, to be frank, I was somewhat disappointed, although not surprised. Like their longer counterparts, these stories tended to rely too much on vibe or feeling rather than satisfy any requirement of characterization and plot. The editors talk about this somewhat in the introduction, wherein they compare a flash piece more to poetry than a short story because every word matters and the reader can’t skip any. I agree, but it’s the words selected by the author (and agreed upon by the editor) where we disagree. Every word needs to move the story forward; too many words in these stories simply pile on the vibe. 

Out of the 80 stories, I liked about 15-20, including the first out of the gate, Don Shea’s “Jumper Down,” the title referencing the term paramedics use to describe if the building/bridge jumper is “Up” (and hasn’t jumped yet) or “Down” (and likely out). Peter Mehlman’s “Mandela Was Late” is a strange conceptual piece pondering what if Nelson Mandela had had a parole officer. Typically, I liked the more outre and surrealistic stories, like Ray Gonzalez’ “The Jalapeno Contest” or stories that played with form, like “Currents” by Hannah Bottomy which tells the story backwards. But all the stories are short (duh), so the nice thing is you don’t have to commit too much to any one before it’s done and you move on to the next, which meets today’s readers’ low attention spans.