A great collection of crime stories that all start from the classic premise and explore the many ways strangers can change everything.
Sarah
Yap's stories dance between horror and rom com, fantasy and cultural critique. These stories are haunted by magic and Filipino mythology and I just ate them up.
Meaghan
This book is incredible. After each story, I had to stop and stare at a wall for at least 24 hours just processing until I could move on and read the next one. Several times I found myself forgetting that this was, in fact, a book of short stories and not a full length novel where I could spend all 256 pages in any one of Alaya Dawn Johnson's unique and engrossing worlds, and the first story, A Guide to Fruits of Hawai'i immediately captured my vampire loving heart.
Katherine
Enthralling, smart, and relatable, these stories offer commentary on society, gender, and power...and feature ghosts. Each story in this book is a retelling of a traditional Japanese ghost tale. A thin thread connects them, growing gradually stronger until the end, making this a superb choice for those novel-enthusiasts looking to try more short stories.
Marika
Enthralling, smart, and relatable, these stories offer commentary on society, gender, and power...and feature ghosts. Each story in this book is a retelling of a traditional Japanese ghost tale. A thin thread connects them, growing gradually stronger until the end, making this a superb choice for those novel-enthusiasts looking to try more short stories.
Marika
These stories are haunted not with ghosts, but with the loss of innocence, the debts that get demanded of girls when their hips start to curve, and the terror of not quite knowing what happens to the girls who venture behind closed doors with boys.
Meaghan
Yamashita continues to make her case as one of our of greatest living writers with this collection of stories, narratives, and imaginative engagements with Jane Austen. Yamashita's intelligence, sense of humor, and mastery over multiple prose styles cracks open our notions of identity, culture, and community creating space for new ways of reading about and thinking about how we become who we are.
Josh
My favorites in this collection are The Summer People, The Lesson, and The New Boyfriend, but they're all fantastic (and fantastical), with strong female leads to boot. Kelly Link has a wacky, clever, bizarre imagination. Perfect for curling up with during the next thunderstorm.
Catherine, Writer in Residence for Adults
Roxane Gay called this collection "outstanding" and "nearly flawless," so that should tell you something. The writing is beautiful, and each story so emotionally intense I had to take breaks while reading. Quade's strong and scrappy characters face their troubled lives with heart and tenacity in rural New Mexico.
Catherine, Writer in Residence Adult
Gorgeous language and moments of beauty in a collection of stories set in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Sarah
