'For three days in a row, there is not a single victim in the entire precinct. No rapes. No murders. No rape-murders. No kidnappings. No child pornography made, bought, or sold. No molestations. No sexual assaults. No sexual harassments. No forced prostitution. No human trafficking. No subway gropings. No incest. No indecent exposures. No stalking. Not even an unwanted dirty phone call. Then, in the gloaming of a Wednesday, a man wolf-whistles at a woman on her way to an AA meeting. The whole city releases its held breath, and everything returns to normal'.

The quote is taken from the fourth and longest story in this collection, Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU. I should say that this was the story I enjoyed the least, possibly because I haven't not watched a single episode of Law & Order (and have no burning desire to do so anytime soon). But I would say that it encapsulates what is so brilliant about Machado's writing: without ever falling into moralism or preachiness she relentlessly brings out the absurd and the unjust in society. To my mind, this one of the best quality a book can have.

There are several themes running through the collection. Sex, a lot of sex: good sex, bad sex, violent, explicit, queer. The female body: a haunted house with no doors but a hundred windows, as the beautiful quote by Jacqui Germany says at the start of the book. And myths and fairy tales, in the broades sense of the world: isn't Law & Order one of those? The Husband Stitch, Eight Bites and The Resident were my favourites.