dark carnival by ray bradbury

You can't say something like this is corny when they were written before most of the genre conventions even existed. The ones I wanted to reread the most were The Homecoming and Cistern.

vanishing world by sayaka murata (trans. ginny tapley takemori)

 I think this would have affected me as much as Convenience Store Woman did if I had managed to read it at the right time in my life. At my age, it's pretty good and observational - and not a page too long! - but that's it.

the will of the many by james islington

 I only finished this book because I was on a 13 hour flight with no other entertainment. You'd think something that owed 90% of its existence to The Name Of The Wind would have better prose. 

perdido street station by china mieville

 I enjoyed reading this, but a lot of the "quirkiness" of the world served only to make the book even longer and not really mean anything in the story. Also, Isaac was the main narrator yet he literally had no backstory and no motives. It got to a point where it just became about fixing Isaac's mistakes and ends as soon as they're fixed. Also, the Yagharek reveal is super underwhelming because it's kind of obvious from page one. 

Embassytown is similar, obviously, and maybe less exciting, but has more to think about in the end.

hell is dark with no flowers 1 by yoru michio (trans. taylor engel)

I understand that this is a thriller and that's why the story beats are the way they are, but I don't particularly like it. The epilogue chapter impressed me a little by departing from this, but overall, I found the humor in the writing style to be very poor and the atmosphere not particularly memorable. I do think it was better than Yami-Hara, another Yen On light novel with a similar premise. But why are there multiple novels using supernatural elements as window dressing on a banal tale about the dark side of mundane life? What are stories like these trying to say about "normies" in the first place?

human sacrifices by maria fernanda ampuero (trans. frances riddle)

 I thought it was effective social commentary "gothic" and most of the stories were individually very good - tight and suspenseful but not whiplashy, interpolating critique on gender, race, class, and nationality - I've just read a lot of this genre before.

stations of the tide by michael swanwick

Very, very similar to The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe. Its major strength is that and its prose. This is the first book I've read in a while that I've learned new words through, and there were a lot of fun passages that insinuated a "punchline" before a reveal. But The Fifth Head of Cerberus still left more of an impression on me.