FREE with your KU subscription or just a few bucks each, The Trespass Collection is an Amazon Original Series edited by Jeff Vandermeer worth checking out. I just read all 6 stories and I'll rank them for you and share a little bit about what I liked. These are a quick read, like 50 pages or less. You can listen to or read them.

1. The Tiger Came to the Mountains by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - narrated by a strong, thirteen-year-old girl trying to be brave and protect her mother and siblings during the Mexican Revolution. I could see this developed into a much larger novel. The main protagonist and her brother were so endearing.

2. Wildlife by Jeff Vandermeer - a woman who has a passion for gardening, nature, and wildlife moves to this house with a ravine shared by some neighbors-one of which is the complete opposite of her-destructive and careless, even threatening and the other neighbor is suspicious. I loved the way this escalated. I could read more.

3. The Backbone of the World by Stephen Graham Jones- an Indigenous woman is responsible for caring for some land, home to a few horses. She discovers it's riddled with holes, prairie dog habitats. She must deal with the situation before she or the horses step into a hole and injure themselves. I had no idea where this was going; totally unexpected and creepy!!

4. Bloody Summer by Carmen Maria Machado- at first I was confused by the setup of this story. Once I realized it was written like real journalistic notes of a documentary, I started over. So don't make my mistake! I actually loved the way this was told as research notes. The journalist is looking into an urban legend known as "Bloody Summer" where all the kids and teens in this one town turned into tigers that go on a killing spree. Loved it.

5. A Righteous Man by Tochi Onyebuchi - has really strong religious themes that might be a huge turnoff for most readers but I like religious horror (Exorcist, Midnight Mass) a missionary is passionate about ministering to the needs of a village. The slow progression of his hope and excitement as it transitions into other emotions as he settles into the reality of his situation was really powerful and interesting

6. Stag by Karen Russell- I haven't read anything by this author so I was excited to experience her storytelling. I did enjoy the style of the writing and the subject of this larger-than-life divorce party as this huge celebration (the opposite of a wedding but just as elaborate) was hilarious and entertaining, but this story felt completely separate from the rest of the collection. It didn't fit. I struggled to understand its meaning. The only reference to anything regarding nature was a turtle roaming around at the divorce party.