As to the stories, I'll content myself with discussing briefly a few of my favorites. I liked the first three stories a lot. "Island Lake," by E. Catherine Tobler, is set just after the Second World War, about a girl with a withered leg, and her older sister, and their father, just back from the war (after losing an arm and a brother). They live on a lake, and the story is about family, and loss, and a mysterious fish-boy, and about what lures her sister to the island. Nice work. In "The Puma's Daughter," Tanith Lee offers a strong story about a farm boy who is betrothed to a girl from a hill family, a girl from a family rumored to be shape-shifters -- pumas. He resists the match at first, but then comes to appreciate his new wife, only to learn that she does have another nature, a nature that he finds it hard to accept. And Christopher Barzak's "Map of Seventeen" is an engaging story about a girl, Meg, and her older brother, who has just returned home after some time away -- bringing back his lover, another man. This being a book about shape-shifters, it's easy to guess that his lover has another "difference" -- which is harder for Meg to accept. The story does indulge just a bit in the YA weakness of lecturing, but, as I suggest, in an engaging fashion.

Carol Emshwiller writes a lot about people living on the margins of society, and about other human-like species, and so "The Abominable Child's Tale" is a natural for her, about a child, a "Bigfoot," whose human mother has died and so who comes down from the mountains to civilization, to try to see where her mother came from. She meets a few local teens, some nice, some not, and causes a bit of a ruckus. Emshwiller is as ever humanistic and optimistic. The book's salamander tale is "The Salamander Fire," by Marly Youmans, which naturally enough concerns a glassblower who falls in love with the title fire creature, only to be concerned about her lack of a soul. Lucius Shepard's "The Flock" is one of the more original pieces here, at least in it conception of "Animal People," as it concerns a high school football rivalry in South Carolina that culminates in a game involving a flock of crows. What's best about the story -- a very fine one -- is the evocation of the life of the characters -- a convincing (to me) portrayal of South Carolina and of a couple of friends with different futures awaiting them.

That's not all, of course. There is nice work here from Peter S. Beagle, Richard Bowes, Steve Berman, Shweta Narayan, and many more. It's not my favorite of Datlow and Windling's books, but The Beastly Bride is a steady and enjoyable collection.