 We're used to hearing the term world building when we talk about novels. This author does it in the tiny span of a short story. He does it better than probably anyone else I've ever read and he does it over and over and over again. Not only does he use this tiny space to create a world completely unlike the one we actually live in, each new one he creates is completely unlike the one before. At the same time he introduces all new characters, makes you understand them, even care about them, and then hits you with ideas that you never could have imagined if you lived to be a hundred. And let me tell you, these new characters that you care about so much, the author is not sentimental about them. When you read Basakalupi, you have to be prepared for an ending that will kick you in the gut like a mule, but you will always come back. That's it for the short recommendation. Now let me talk a little bit more about this book. As I said in my August roundup, I sought out this book exclusively on the strength of one story I had read ten years earlier. It's the second story in this collection. It's called The Fluted Girl. This is a story that I honestly cannot describe to you without just telling you the whole story. And in this collection, stories one and three were equally as impressive, in some ways equally as shocking. And I just, I can't tell you enough how much I love it when I cannot tell what's going to happen next. And Basakalupi does it every time. Now I have to warn you before you go get a copy of this book, these stories are intense. Basakalupi does not censor himself and he does not hold back. He only has a few pages in which to get across to you what kind of world he's talking about here and he's not gentle with you. Ten years ago, when I first read The Fluted Girl, I recommended it to a friend of mine and she couldn't get through it. Not because she didn't appreciate the technique, but because she couldn't stomach the way these characters were being treated. I have to tell you, if you don't have the stomach for stories in which children and animals are in very real danger, you will seriously want to think twice before you look up this book. There are a handful of moments that involve sexual situations, but this book contains nothing like porn or romance. It's just a very frank portrayal of a whole series of very ugly worlds. I do have to thank the author though for closing the collection with a story that was actually funny.