If you are a short story lover, you want to check out this collection. You want horror? It has some. You want sci-fi? It has some. You want fantasy? It also has some. There are bigger-name authors such as Tananarive Dune and some fresh to the scene as well - but the collection feels balanced in content as we get a sampling across the many areas of speculative fiction.

I tried to pick a favorite story and failed, as I kept finding things I wanted to point out in different stories. There are ones that feel like they’ve been lifted out of a folktale, and there are others that feel like a tantalizing taste of an enormous imagined world. Maybe “Housewarming for a Lion Goddess” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga? Or “Exiles of the Witchery” by Ivana Akotowaa Ofori? Oh, or “Hanfo Driver” by Ada Nnadi; that one made me grin. The breadth of stories available here is phenomenal, and there are so many vibrant tales packed into these pages. Not to mention that the cover itself is gorgeous (applause to artist Manzi Jackson).

If you aren't familiar with many African or African diaspora authors here is a chance to find 33 of them in concert, arrayed and edited to a stunning degree (although of course there are plenty outside of this collection too). Even as someone who isn’t a horror fan I devoured the stories here that fell into that genre.