Books like Trampoline: An Anthology

I wanted to dislike this book but I can't. I have a vague memory of buying it as a teenager (the cover, the inexplicably "random" title, and the feeling that I should read more short stories), and now, after finally getting around to reading it, I'm a little confused. First of all, I have no idea who the editor is, or who any of the twenty contributing authors are, or the publisher. Secondly—and maddeningly—there is no introduction and all the author bios are nauseatingly ironic and edgy. As I read more of the stories, I formed the hypothesis that this anthology is something of a vanity project for a bunch of MFAs to get publication credits for their weird short stories. Alas, with no introduction, I will never know...The stories in this collection are odd. Some are stylistically odd, some have strange subject matter, and some are a little from column A and a little from column B. I enjoyed a decent amount of the stories; however, I found many of them to be merely average, with the exception of "A Crowd of Bones" which is one of the worst pieces of fiction I have ever read, and is solely to blame for why it took me so long to slog through this book. I rarely read collections featuring more than one author, so I'm curious to see whether or not my 3-star rating will match up with the ratings for each individual story. "The Force Acting on the Displaced Body" (2/5) A man builds a "boat" out of corks to sail from Kentucky to Paris. Maps and names."Well-Moistened with Cheap Wine, the Sailor and the Wayfarer Sing of Their Absent Sweethearts" 3/5A group of Tinas study Chinese dialect symbols and attempt to give meaning to the ideograms. Weird lesbian stuff and goddess delusions. "Angel" 4/5Taxidermy, animal cruelty, dead boy's body, art theory, masturbating."Impala" 1/5VR prizefighting, hacking, gambling, AI to simulate a child, murder. Extremely irritating style (see: AI to simulate a child)."Famous Men: Three Stories" 4/5Fable-like. Interesting ideas."A Crowd of Bone" 0/5A story that makes no goddamn sense. Wannabe old-timey language ("thou dost...") and so many sentence fragments. Characters, places, and lore with no context. Nearly impossible to discern any plot...witches and a contrived love story/pregnancy?"Fuming Woman" 4/5A trapeze artist is transmigrated during a performance. Surreal and light existentialism."Eight-Legged Story" 3.5/5Story of a blended family, told in eight parts."The King of Spain" 1/5The protagonist has cancer and uses it as an excuse to be an asshole drunk. Also, for no apparent reason he has a pet monkey that defecates on everything."Bumpship" 4/5Space colonization. Capitalism > human rights."The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet" 3.5/5Exactly what it sounds like. "Shipwreck Beach" 2.5/5 A 23-year-old ex-convict convinces his cousin to visit him in Hawaii. All characters, especially minor characters, are annoying."The Yellow Chamber" 2/5Post-modern story about "probability researchers." The quack scientist invents a machine that invents him. So meta."Destroyer"5/5I loved this story so much but I don't want to write anything down, because I would love to forget it and re-read it as if it were the first time."God and the Three Wishes" 3.5/5Fable-like (with a shitload of parentheses). Do things happen because of God or because of chance? "Dead Boy Found" 2/5Death and existentialism. Pretty boring and meaningless except for the last page."Insect Dreams" 2/517th century. A lepidopterist travels to Suriname for a field study. Subtext about slavery."Ash City Stomp" 4.5/5 A woman and her boyfriend go on a roadtrip and pick up a hitchhiker who is either the devil or someone who is pretending to be the devil. Characters are slightly fucked up for the sake of entertainment. "King Rat" 1/5Very short story about a kid who accidentally befriends one of her father's colleagues. AVERAGE RATING: 2.25/5