If you like fantasy but think you don't like short stories, you should give Karen Russell a try. You might change your mind. She's currently my favorite short story writer because I'm in awe of her creativity and how she sees connections between random things. Her stories always start out bizarre, and I'm not sure where they're going, but then everything snaps together in the end, and I suddenly understand. It's brilliant.

It's hard to pick favorite stories in this collection. I liked "The Prospectors," which is about two thieves who take the wrong ski lift and find themselves at a haunted lodge. "The Bad Graft" stars a woman whose body is taken hostage by a Joshua tree. (If you want to read "The Bad Graft," it's free on The New Yorker website.) "Bog Girl: A Romance" is about a teenage boy who falls in love with an ancient corpse that he yanks out of a bog. The title story, "Orange World," features a group of new mothers who band together to defeat a fox demon. If I was forced to choose a favorite story, it would probably be "Bog Girl." It's both funny and horrifying.

If you like vivid, unsettling fiction, then you need to read this collection.