"The Friend Zone isn't just one uniform assembly line of people with the 'just a friend' label stamped on their foreheads. It is a landscape of mountains and valleys and multi-dimensional terrains depending on the quality of each person's relationship with each friend. And 'friend' itself is an elastic term that can be applied to family members, classmates, BFFs, soulmates, pets, acquaintances, even virtual strangers. Thus the plural: Friend Zones—it never just occupies one space. What could my writer-friends tell in stories that explore the Friend Zones?
"Here's an assortment of fourteen stories, studying all the permutations of friendship, detailing the development of new ties or the deepening of loyalties. In these stories—told in different modes of realist fiction, romance, horror, science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and myth—I hope you find some that you'd love to read, and read again."
– from the Introduction