I read 9 of the 23 offered this month. I usually pick them based on name recognition, or the author notes that pique my interest.
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Read:

-- Murky Waters by Shannon Fay (3/4) - 4*
Perfect little bit of flash fiction
Author note: This story was inspired by a photo featuring a goth mermaid with an anglerfish, which got me thinking about the similarities between anglerfish and sirens.

I tried to find a similar photo and I don't think I had much luck.

Anglerfish and Mermaid by Monica Rose Song (picture):


I found a bunch of angler fish mermaid combos (picture):


KiaBugBoy (picture):


-- There's Something Crawling on Me by Jordan Hirsch (3/15) - 3*
From Author note: lover of first contact stories, I'm drawn to what the exploration of new worlds will be like. With danger in every inch of the mundane,

-- The Modern Witch's Recipe for Enemy Pie by Elizabeth Cobbe (3/16) - 2*
I don't really understand why the "recipe" starts talking to the cook. "Oh dear. Okay, look. We're not telling you to stop. We can't do that. It's already in the oven. Besides that, who are we to say what you do with the damage she's done?"

-- Pilgrim Problems by Rich Larson (3/22) - 3*
Co-workers at a touristy "be in character" early American settlers exhibit have drastic difference in their abilities to stay in character. We can infer why by the end.

-- The First of Many Lies You'll Tell Her by Kelly Sandoval (3/23) - 2*
I was lost that it was the "grandmother" talking to her daughter until quite a way through. Actually the grandmother is talking to the reader because she says YOU. "you will know, as you've always known..." The backdrop to the story and why they are separated is good. It's a sad, but a realistic situation that our kin, down the road may really face some day. I like the story just not the method it was told in. ymmv.

"Forgive yourself your decisions, daughter. We all do what we must. I must wait here, as it all winds down; you must search the stars, in your rushed and improbable lifeboat."

-- An Ever After Diverged by Carlie St. George (3/24) - DNF
Author Story Notes: I've always enjoyed the idea of stories told backwards. I wanted to write one where either prophecy or time travel figured heavily into the plot. But I didn't quite have an actual story until one night, I was thinking some about A) the doomed fate of countless fairy tale mothers, and B) how the health of actual expectant mothers is often dismissed in favor of saving the fetus. And then structure and anger collided, and this story is what came out.

I couldn't follow along. I though it started out quite interesting but then I got lost. "Let me spoil the ending: you're going to try and kill me tonight."

-- One Man's Trash by Gordon Sun (3/25) - 1*
super fast flash fiction, 5 lines
I don't get it at all!

-- The Mirror of Her Eyes by Lise Fracalossi (3/26) - 3.5*
I liked much about it but I am confused by the ending.
Male twins have an alchemical binding. Only one suffers effects of bad choices. The dominant twin assigns the weaker one a task that mixes things up completely. Or maybe it's more accurate to call in an ending rather than a mixing things up.

-- The Shepherd by Lynne Lumsden Green (3/29) - 3.5*
super fast flash fiction. Well done. Vampire.

Other stories this month:
- How Not To Time Travel by Melody Rose (3/1)
- Bite by K.C. Shaw (3/2)
- Funny Baby by Ellen L. Saunders (3/3)
- Last Laugh by Jamie Lackey (3/5)
- Things I Learned Today: by Kyle Aisteach (3/8)
- I Can Be a Hero Too by Carol Scheina (3/9)
- On The Measurement Of Existential Truth by K.S. O'Neill (3/10)
- What We Found on the Way to Alpha Centauri: A Miniature Novel by David Paul Rogers (3/11)
- The Harmonia by Angela Teagardner (3/12)
- Pop And The Pirates by Floris M. Kleijne (3/17)
- Inoculation by Dawn Sperber (3/18)
- Three Wishes by Robert Bagnall (3/19)
- Changing by Shoshana Edwards (3/30)
- Economic Principles of the Zombie Apocalypse by Wendy Nikel (3/31) ( )