a) Sex...lots of it. From squeaky adolescent fumbling to a burning desire to do it with a Tourette’s syndrome sufferer; from steaming cyber-sex gone sour to a lesbian peepshow worker; from a goth beauty who knows men in ways you never imagined to a teenybopper who screws her boyfriend’s biker father. Lots of dripping, vital, reckless, heartbreaking, icy sexuality of every stripe, gender, and preference. Some of it enervating, some unrequited and depressing, all beautifully rendered without a hint of “porno” (unless, of course, you mean that in a good way... hehehe).

b) Truly fine writing... not a dud in the bunch... and mostly from people I never heard of before. It renews one’s faith that great literature is alive and kicking.

c) Really impressive credentials, academic and otherwise, from a number of the contributors.

d) Very engaging stories about all manner of real life. This is not escapist shizola here, this is reality so there you can’t deny it. You actually know a lot of the characters you find here and their tales of woe and elation. You get everything from high school girls shoplifting while ripped on angel dust to a gay boy discovering San Francisco for the first time to tragicomic misadventures with the neighbors down the suburban street to gothic gloom, doom and etherea. The tales are easily read in one sitting for the most part.

e) Hipness. Damned if I don’t want to hang out with a lot of these people!

f) Did I mention great editing? My aunt on my father’s side was a pretty reknowned anthologist in her day and my sister is an award winning children’s writer, so I am not inexperienced in this assessment.

What this book doesn’t have:

a) Any reason for you not to read it forthwith.