Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by April Genevieve Tucholke (ed.) (2015)

Oh my goodness, I LOVED this collection of YA short stories, which are spooky stories that are all inspired by various works of horror movies, fiction and even songs. Not a single dud in this collection and some of the stories are legit spooky. And each story names its references (in upside down print at the end of the story). So fun to figure them out while reading. 

I adored so many of them, but the standout was Sleepless by Jay Kristoff (inspiration: Psycho!). I'm going to name all the authors, though, cause they're ALL good: Nova Ren Suma, Carrie Ryan, Cat Winters, Leigh Bardugo, Megan Shepherd, Danielle Paige, April Genevieve Tucholke, Jonathan Maberry, Jay Kristoff, Stefan Bachmann, Marie Lu, McCormick Templeman, A.G. Howard, and Kendare Blake.

Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet (2018)

Oh my goodness, I loved this collection of YA short stories which are all stories of 'meeting cute.' 

I love the fabulous diversity of the characters: gay, straight, trans, all colors. It's just a gorgeous and romantic little collection that will restore your faith in humanity and love.

Listing every single one here because they are all worthy of mention and LOVE. 

Siege etiquette / Katie Cotugno

Print shop / Nina LaCour
Hourglass / Ibi Zoboi
Click / Katharine McGee
The intern / Sara Shepard
Somewhere that's green / Meredith Russo
The way we love here / Dhonielle Clayton
Oomph / Emery Lord
The dictionary of you and me / Jennifer L. Armentrout
The unlikely likelihood of falling in love / Jocelyn Davies
259 million miles / Kass Morgan
Something real / Julie Murphy
Say everything / Huntley Fitzpatrick
The department of dead love / Nicola Yoon

Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny (2015)

It's been a while since a collection of short stories has grabbed me as much as this collection did.  

Fabulous characters and really interesting meditations on the nature of love and infidelity and unrequited love and inappropriate relationships. Amazingly insightful and funny to boot.

Happiness, Like Water by Chinelo Okparanta (2013)

A collection of short stories centering around Nigerian women as they build lives out of hope, faith, and doubt, following such characters as a young woman faced with a dangerous decision to save her mother and a woman in love with another despite the penalties. The ten stories range from being set in Port Harcourt to people dreaming of America to being set in America.

Okparanta’s writing is spare and lyrical--the stories are very readable. Her settings are vividly evoked from power outages to big oil to immigrant life in America. One of the most chilling stories evokes a girl and her mother trying to escape domestic violence, but are turned down for their lack of a visa. Beautifully depicts both the Nigerian experience and the experience of Nigerian immigrants. The author was born in Nigeria and moved to America when she was around 10 or so.

 Lovely dedication: “For home.”

Miracle and other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis (1999)

If you love Miracle on 34th Street and hate It's a Wonderful Life, this is the Christmas story collection for you.  Willis, a fantasy author, writes lovely, touching, romantic and funny Christmas stories.  She also includes annotated lists of 12 favorite Christmas movies and 12 favorite Christmas books.  Lovely collection that I read about every year at Christmas.

Shirley Jackson - Adored Author

I love pretty much everything Jackson has written.  I adore her short stories, and one of the best is Just an Ordinary Day, which varies between chilling horror tales and regular, domestic fiction.  You don't know which the story is until the end so a hint of menace clouds the whole book in a delicious way. Also love her novels like The Haunting of Hill House, which is probably the best haunted house story ever; and We Have Always Lived in the Castle about Merricat, her sister and her uncle who live in fairly cheerful isolation far from suspicious neighbors and townsfolk. Why? Read it and find out. Deliciously creepy.  One more great story collection is Come Along With Me, which includes a few excellent essays on writing and a fascinating essay on the public's response to her short story The Lottery.

My Date With Satan by Stacey Richter (1999)

Fabulous, inventive, winning short stories, with varied, unusual narrators and characters. Loved the story of a woman who tries to get a grant to become a crazy cat lady, the story of the guy who hooks up with a Swedish goth band to play heavy metal, and the story of an aged teen idol.  

See also Twin Study, which includes the title story about grown-up twins, one about a lapdog who gets a taste of freedom, another about a suburban couple trying to resist the pressure of Christmas decorations, and one about cavemen wandering into a contemporary California town.