If you're looking for a series of fantastical stories with a diverse cast of characters, Falling in Love with Hominids might be right up your alley! Most characters were ethnically diverse and/or LGBT, and the stories delve into mythological fare ranging from Shakespeare to Caribbean lore. 
 Like any short story collection, there were some hits and misses among these 18 stories. A few felt half-finished, like character studies that still needed expansion. Still others were so strange that they seemed beyond my comprehension. But Hopkinson's hits are REALLY hits! 
 Stories I liked: 
 The Easthound: In a vaguely post-apocalyptic future, children survive in fear of a transformation called "sprouting." 
 Soul Case: A colony of former Afro-Caribbean slaves uses magic to defend against their ex-"owners". 
 The Smile on the Face: In a twist on the old urban legend about swallowing fruit seeds and growing plants in your stomach, a teenage girl goes to a house party and faces an unexpected transformation. 
 Old Habits: Ghosts trapped in a mall long for life. 
 Stories I LOVED: 
 Message in a Bottle: An artist has a bizarre encounter with his friend's unsettling child. This one has a dash of science fiction; there's talk about speciesism, art, legacy, and the incomprehensible world of the future. 
 Left Foot, Right: A teenage girl, wearing a single high-heeled shoe, visits a river. I remember feeling viscerally stunned when I figured out what this story was actually about. (Sorry to be cryptic! It's tough to summarize these stories without spoilers.) 
 Stories that were so bizarre, I didn't know how to feel about 'em: 
 Herbal: An elephant bursts into a woman's house. 
 A Raggy Dog, A Shaggy Dog: An eccentric collector of parasitic orchids tries an unusual impromptu dating service. 
 Stories that didn't work for me: 
 Emily Breakfast: A pair of kinky husbands lose one of their chickens. 
 A Young Candy Daughter: A woman and her daughter seem to be at the center of magical, altruistic happenings.