Call and Response: Stories of the Fantastic

Caldwell organizes his excellent debut collection into two halves: part one, “Call,” introduces characters, themes, and settings that are expanded upon in the loose sequel stories that make up part two, “Response.” For example, the queer outlaw couple on the run from magical law enforcement in the voicey opener, “Femme and Sundance,” return for one last encounter with magic in the surprisingly tender final entry, “Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride.” The enslaved eight-year-old protagonist of the moving “The Lonesome Shore” finds his way to freedom with help from an ocean deity, Agwé, then reappears in a minor but crucial role in “Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan,” about the evils of whaling. The flowers in a garden tell their origin stories to a young girl, Cleo, in “The Beekeeper’s Garden,” an eerie allegory about who controls history and what gets remembered. Then, in the deeply emotional “Counting Her Petals,” an adult Cleo follows her trans girlfriend into the simulated utopia she’s built as an escape from the cruel realities of the world. The fun “Serving Fish” puts a drag spin on a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, while its tragic follow-up, “Deep Like the Rivers,” revisits the theme of aquatic animal transformation from the perspective of a homophobic mother. Throughout, Caldwell brings his all-Black, mostly queer protagonists to vivid life while exploring the collision of the natural and the supernatural. This stuns. (Oct.)