The quote on the cover is true: astonishing and mesmerizing, for sure! Each story is so compact and original, I needed to let each one breathe before moving on to the next. Transports you to both real and fantastical places, as if to blur the lines in between. Many of the characters reappear in each other's stories, while some stories stand alone. I did at times struggle to keep the characters apart but maybe it would have been different for me if I'd read the whole thing in a shorter amount of time.