This is an outstanding anthology of speculative fiction from voices that aren't heard often enough, and it was fascinating and enlightening to see how these very different stories were brought together by the author's backgrounds and experiences, and it made for a cohesive yet expansive offering of fantasy/sci-fi and a touch of horror. It is a buffet of incredible stories, and each one had it's own strengths. There were a couple that didn't work as well for me, largely as it felt as though they were part of something bigger or needed a longer format to reach their full potential, but in any collection there will always be at least a couple of stories that don't mesh so well with the reader, and it certainly didn't detract from the impact of this collection.

The overall tone of the collection is dark, and I would not necessarily recommend this to more sensitive readers as it explores many disturbing themes including but not limited to violence, sexual assault and racism in varying levels of detail. For me, while it was horrifying and disturbing in places, it didn't alter the fact that this was a beautiful, thought-provoking anthology that I will be revisiting a few times to get the full impact from the stories.

My stand out story was 'A Mastery of German' which I just found engrossing from start to finish.