I recently read my way through a collection of short stories by various authors, called the Trespass Collection. They were free to download on my Kindle, the covers were so pretty and splashy and colorful, and all had one central theme – nature, up close and personal, and not in a pretty “look at this flower” kind of way. These stories are quick reads, I think they took me about fifteen minutes each, except for one or two that sort of bored me, and those two took me a bit longer. Because these stories are so short, only like 40 pages or so each, my reviews are going to be mostly my impressions of the story more than a recap.

The Tiger Came to the Mountains by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: This was one of my favorites! It is the first in the collection and I figured I would love it, as I love Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic. And this little short story was amazing. Moreno-Garcia can really put the reader in a moment and make that moment feel so real. I felt the fear and anxiety, the protectiveness the young girl felt over her brother. If you only read one from this collection, I suggest that you make it this one.

Wildlife by Jeff VanderMeer: I had high hopes for this one, as this is my favorite cover! And it started off pretty good…however the end completely ruined things. I was totally lost when I finished it and felt like I had missed something. So I looked online at other reviews and yep, that seemed to be the consensus all around. So, this had a good start, but the ending was a bummer.

The Backbone of the World by Stephen Graham Jones: OOo, this one was crazy bonkers and I loved it!! I didn’t see this one coming and it was awesome. I was a little nervous to read this one, as I had DNF’d a book by Jones last year because it scared me too much but this one was just the right amount of weird. It reminded me of when I was a kid and discovered Stephen King for the first time. (this is high praise from me)

Stag by Karen Russell: This story was my least favorite. I was just so bored! And it kind of depressed me as well.

A Righteous Man by Tochi Onyebuchi: I enjoyed this one, although I must confess to being slightly confused by it. It was well-written, and engaging though. I think part of the issue with this particular story is that it just was too short! It needed more, it needed to be a full length novel maybe.

Bloody Summer by Carmen Maria Machado: The final book in the collection, and I loved it just as much as the first! And both involved tigers! This story kept me captivated all the way through – it was so good and a a fantastic story to end the collection with.

Overall, the stories were a mixed bag for me. Some I loved, some I disliked, and some I thought were just ok, which seems pretty par for the course when reading a short story collection, at least for me. I did like these brief introductions to new to me authors and their work, which was all of them except for Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Stephen Graham Jones. I will more than likely be picking up more by Carmen Maria Machado since I enjoyed her story so much, and I will probably give Tochi Onyebuchi another go as well.

Have you read this collection, or anything else by these authors?