A review by gettyhesse
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 by John Joseph Adams, Carmen Maria Machado

4.0

I took so long to work through this collection that I don't even remember how I felt about all the early stories. What I can say is that "Hard Mary" by Sofia Samatar was probably my favorite. There was I think only one story I actively disliked, a few others that I had mixed feelings about. I was expecting this collection to be my favorite in the series thus far-I adore Carmen Maria Machado's work and trust her literary taste. I'm not sure if this collection just isn't as good as some previous years' (was 2018 a meh year for genre short stories?) or if my own taste has become more demanding.

To be clear, this is still an excellent collection overall, with some truly exemplary stories. It just wasn't as good as I remembered, say, 2016 being.