A strong collection, although I liked rather than loved many of the stories. That said, I must register my continual gripe about literary fantasy anthologies eschewing secondary-world fantasy.

Favorite stories:
“Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar
“A Kiss with Teeth” by Max Gladstone (I LOVED this story)
“The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu
“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado ( )

A lot of these stories were meh. ( )

This is a collection of short stories by various fantasy authors. As it happens with all collections, I liked some stories way more than others, but I do think this is a good way to find authors that will be for me if I like the writing style, themes and characters. However, the best works of the authors aren’t usually in these collections. This book has 19 stories each by a different author and I liked 8 of them.
"Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" by Alyssa Wong - 3/5
"Selkie Stories are for Losers" by Sofia Samatar - 2/5
"Tornado's Siren" by Brooke Bolander - 2/5
"Left the Century to Sit Unmoved" by Sarah Pinsker - 3/5
"A Kiss with Teeth" by Max Gladstone - 2/5
"Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon - 4/5
"The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees" by E. Lily Yu - 1/5
"The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate" by A. C. Wise - dnf
"The Tallest Doll in New York City" by Maria Dahvana Headley - 1/5
"The Haunting of Apollo A7LB" by Hannu Rajaniemi - 3/5
"Here Be Dragons" by Chris Tarry - 1/5
"The One They Took Before" by Kelly Sandoval - 4/5
"Tiger Baby" by JY Yang - 2.5/5
"The Duck" by Ben Loory - 2/5
"Wing" by Amal El-Mohtar - 4/5
"The Philosophers" by Adam Ehrlich Sachs - 1/5
"My Time Among the Bridge Blowers" by Eugene Fischer - dnf
"The Husband Stitch" by Carmen Maria Machado - 3/5
"The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn" by Usman T. Malik - 3/5 ( )

Beautiful collection of short stories, there wasn't a single one that I didn't like. ( )

This collection started off strong, but really petered out about halfway through.

Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers (Alyssa Wong) - 5 Stars
Selkie Stories Are for Losers (Sofia Samatar) - 4
Tornado’s Siren (Brooke Bolander) - 4
Left the Century to Sit Unmoved (Sarah Pinsker) - 5
A Kiss with Teeth (Max Gladstone) - 4
Jackalope Wives (Ursula Vernon) - 4
The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees (E. Lily Yu) - 4
The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate (A.C. Wise) - 2
The Tallest Doll in New York City (Maria Dahvana Headley) - 4
The Haunting of Apollo A7LB (Hannu Rajaniemi) - 4
Here Be Dragons (Chris Tarry) - 4
The One They Took Before (Kelly Sandoval) - 3
Tiger Baby (JY Yang) - 3
The Duck (Ben Loory) - 3
Wing (Amal El-Mohtar) - 2
The Philosophers (Adam Ehrlich Sachs) - 2
My Time Among the Bridge Blowers (Eugene Fischer) - 3
The Husband Stitch (Carmen Maria Machado) - 1
The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn (Usman T. Malik) - 1 (technically DNF at 25%)

Average: 3.26 Weighted: 2.8 Rounded up to 3 stars ( )