If the silkworm-women and the living, mutable tattoo gripped you, you’ll love how Her Body and Other Parties lets bodies rewrite reality—whether it’s a dress that won’t let go or a story that splices urban legend with desire. Machado channels that same eerie tenderness you felt watching Russell’s characters mutate under pressure, balancing haunt and heart with razor precision.

Like Russell’s vampire couple nursing lemons and ex-presidents reborn as horses, Link’s tales tilt the everyday until the uncanny spills out—think boyfriends who may be ghosts and pocket universes hiding in hotel rooms. You get the same compact jolt of wonder and pathos in each story, each one a strange, satisfying capsule.

If you loved how Russell threads quiet magic through ordinary settings—a citrus grove, a massage studio—Bender’s stories will feel like the next inhale. She turns small moments luminous: tailors mixing colors for a princess’s dress, cravings that reshape reality—gentle, uncanny touches that shift how you see the world.

Saunders brings that same blend of oddball premise and deep compassion you felt watching presidents whinny and scheme in a barn. His stories are funny-sad in the best way—failed schemes, wonky tech, and tender misfits—leaving you laughing even as your heart pinches.

If the silkworm metamorphosis struck you as a vivid, unsettling allegory, Carter’s reimagined fairy tales will land just as hard—women recast from victims into agents, bodies and myths refashioned to expose power’s teeth. It’s lush, feral storytelling that turns symbol into sensation.