Popped is one of the strongest romance anthologies I’ve read in quite awhile, full of great first-time stories fWhat was the last anthology you read?
Popped is one of the strongest romance anthologies I’ve read in quite awhile, full of great first-time stories from some of my favorite LGBTQ indie romance authors working right now. Some dip into these authors’ existing universes and some look like they could be the start of something special all on their own in the future (I’m looking at you, Lily and Cora!).
My rating of this anthology isn’t rooted in anything more substantial than the quality of the anthology as a whole. I’m not looking to nitpick short stories included in a charity anthology that’s meant to go to a good cause. These authors donated their time, effort, and IP to this project, and others donated production materials and labor to put this all together. It’s an honorable project and I don’t think subjecting it to extended scrutinization is a worthy endeavor.
That being said, I’m going to go over the stories I loved best and tell you what I loved about them!
This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances (to be referred to as TSWOM from here on out in this review) is a set of four short stories centered arThis Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances (to be referred to as TSWOM from here on out in this review) is a set of four short stories centered around toxic and/or abusive relationships of different types, the ways in which such humans can harm one another, and the ways people develop coping mechanisms and/or certain obsessions in order to deal with the trauma and pain they’ve gone through.
LaRocca gives a clear warning that there are a couple of significant triggers in a letter at the beginning of the book, but if you’re the sensitive sort I suggest maybe trying to find a more comprehensive list of triggers and content online before you read.
This is a great short story collection, with imaginative and truly creepy tales. LaRocca manages to write truly beautiful horror prose, making things vile and wretched somehow sound almost poetic in their horrid tragedy.
I give kudos to the titular short story, “This Skin Was Once Mine”, for being one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. It’s not about the story’s topic or content, either. It’s all about the protagonist’s obsession and coping mechanisms. And the snakes. Yeah, there’s a warning for you: danger noodles all up in this story.
I’d also like to point right to “Seedling” for being one of the most touching, emotional, and beautiful horror stories I’ve ever read while still managing to be gross and freaky.
The last story in the collection, “Prickle”, is just plain creepy-weird and all I could keep thinking about is the word “cruelty”.
The low point in the book for me was the story “All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn”, which was a great story, but I didn’t totally understand the dynamic or the motivations in it.
I truly do recommend reading it if you’re a horror fan. It’s great and the stories are so lovely.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I’ve never rated an anthology five stars before, because they’ve all been really hit-or-miss for me. They usually end up being either three or four stI’ve never rated an anthology five stars before, because they’ve all been really hit-or-miss for me. They usually end up being either three or four stars, because you’re always going to have some stories that just don’t hit the mark or maybe just find some stories that just read like “dud” to you. Never Whistle at Night has maybe two or three stories out of 27 that I didn’t gel with completely, but it wasn’t because they weren’t well-written; it was just because they weren’t my jam. When the stories in this collection work, they really, really work. This anthology, as a whole, is worth every page. The quality of the work done and the absolutely captivating stories collected for it speak not only to the talent of the authors, but to the editors who pulled this project together as well. It should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that I love that this is an #OwnVoices anthology as well, because no one could or should be writing these stories and profiting off of them but indigenous peoples.
I don’t want to go too deep into what each story means to me because I feel like that’s wrong, since I’m white and these stories aren’t meant for me. I do, however, want to point out the stories I liked best and maybe a few words about why I liked it.
Kushtuka by Mathilda Zeller: Stolen artifacts + objectification of Native American women = Eff around and find out.
White Hills by Rebecca Roanhorse: Eugenics!
Quantum by Nick Medina: Is the worth of being Native American found entirely in DNA?
Hunger by Phoenix Boudreau: Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with a scary possession monster inside of a frat boy.
Snakes Are Born in the Dark by D. H. Trujillo: Deface sacred artifacts and see what happens.
Heart-Shaped Clock by Kelli Jo Ford: Sad story about drug addiction in indigenous communities.
Dead Owls by Mona Susan Power: A ghost story about how there can be layers of tragedies on the same land.
The Prepper by Morgan Talty: Horribly sad story about the mistreatment of mental illness in indigenous communities.
Collections by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala: What kind of bargain would you make for a foot in the door or a leg up in your industry?
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the editors. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Anthology/Horror/Short Stories/Own Voices ...more
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is a stellar collection of 13 stories (and one incredible bestiary–more on that later) from the spectacularly creativFifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is a stellar collection of 13 stories (and one incredible bestiary–more on that later) from the spectacularly creative and brilliant mind of GennaRose Nethercott, who wrote the equally spectacular novel Thistlefoot.
I don’t think I’ve read a collection by a single author where I loved so many stories to the extent I loved the stories in this one. With one exception (Fox Jaw), I ate every story in this book up with a really sharp grapefruit spoon and then licked the bowl clean.
A quick summary of my thoughts on the remaining stories:
Sundown at the Eternal Staircase - Spectacularly eerie, fascinating, and great symbolism on how some people are just heading in different directions in life.
A Diviner’s Abecedarian - Tween girls can be mean as hell when not in possession of the sight. Give them the sight and that’s just horrifying.
The Thread Boy - Poignant, emotional, and magical story about a life well-lived even though there was pain.
The War of Fog - I read in a book coming out soon that war is a place, not a time. This story reminds me of that. War is endless and eternal and you’re stuck there.
Drowning Lessons - Cynical, sad, but neat story about what it’s like to be responsible for a sibling’s well-being.
The Autumn Kill - This one is angry, visceral, and vengeful. I loved the ending.
A Lily is a Lily - This one is hard to sum up in little words. Let’s just say it’s a haunting story about what can happen when we build people up in our minds so much they take up our entire existence.
Dear Henrietta - Provocative, creepy, and downright wicked. Dude, this one is good.
Possessions - Don’t mess around with sketchy witchcraft books you find at thrift stores. This one is hard to describe but it’s beautifully written.
Homebody - Awful to read, awful to describe, awful to think about. It’s sad and tense and made me want to punch something.
A Haunted Calendar - Funny, horrific, and imaginative.
The Plums at the End of the World - This was incredible. It’s heartbreaking, evocative, and all about how people fear anything different.
My last note is on the titular “story”, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart. It isn’t a story so much as a bestiary and it’s the crown jewel of this collection. Complete with eerie, creep-tastic sketches, each beast is named and described with short, incredible paragraphs. They’re utterly fantastic in every way. I couldn’t get enough of them. The bestiary is practically worth the price of admission.
This collection isn’t to be missed.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This is a collection of essays about criminology and criminal justice I didn’t even know I needed. I feel like I’ve just been injected with a huge dosThis is a collection of essays about criminology and criminal justice I didn’t even know I needed. I feel like I’ve just been injected with a huge dose of knowledge that’s going to take some time to totally soak in, but it feels almost like a vaccine: now that I have read and know these things I can’t unknow them and unthink them. Honestly, I don’t want to. I would rather have this inoculation–this knowledge–in my system than not. Because I have taken a bite of this apple and even though that apple was bitter, I am all the better for that bitter apple. The bitterness will help me remember to stay angry and remind me of my sadness while reading some of these essays.
Evidence of Things Seen is split up into three parts: What We Reckon With (essays about the types of crimes that highlight the social inequities in this country and why they continue to be an issue); The True Crime Stories We Tell (essays about how social media intersects with true crime and how that can affect the time in which a crime is solved or how it can negatively affect the parties involved); and, Shards of Justice (essays featuring discourse on the future of criminal justice).
The first part of the book, What We Reckon With, is by far the largest section of the book, as it takes up almost half of the collection. None of the essays in this collection are bad, but in this section, I found that I was captivated and felt most passionate about an essay called “‘No Choice but to Do It’: Why Women Go to Prison”, by Justine van der Leun, which calls into question why women who are forced to commit heinous crimes by their abusers under extreme duress (like the threat of murder) are charged alongside their abusers as if they are just as guilty of the crime instead of the victim of one. “The Golden Age of White-Collar Crime” by Michael Hobbes is a long essay I thought would bore me (which is a point made about white-collar crime in the essay itself) but actually managed to ensnare me instead by explaining very well how is it that every time another old, white man gets arrested for doing something heinous with money and destroying a bunch of people’s lives all he seems to manage to get is a couple of years in Club Fed. It’s a long but rewarding read. “Picturesque California Conceals a Crisis of Missing Indigenous Women” by Brandi Morin reports on a phenomenon that’s well-known to anyone who lives in Northern California (which I do, though not as far north as she’s reporting on), and that’s the extremely high rate of indigenous Native American women who just up and disappear from reservation lands in the upper third section of the state. If you’ve ever seen the true crime docuseries “Murder Mountain” or read up on “trimmigrants” (the migrant workers, largely female, who make the trek up to the Emerald Triangle every year to harvest the marijuana crop), you might be familiar with how during harvest season it’s not only indigenous women who go missing. It’s a serious problem in general in Northern California; but for Native American women it’s so much worse, because they just get snatched up off their reservations and are never seen again.
In part two, The True Crime Stories We Tell, there’s only one essay I didn’t like too much, and that was “Who Owns Amanda Knox?” by Amanda Knox. The essay itself brings up plenty of valid points about how it feels sometimes that she has a doppelganger walking around that is the Amanda Knox everyone thinks she is instead of the Amanda Knox she actually is and that’s the Amanda Knox people keep thinking they can vilify and make money off of. The only reason I disliked this essay is because it felt a bit whiny. I understand she feels truly victimized after being wrongfully convicted by the Italian government twice, but she has her own podcast and a platform with which to voice her frustrations. I just felt like her essay wasn’t at the same level as the rest included in this collection. The other three essays in this section are all equally interesting and well-written.
In part three, “Shards of Justice”, the first essay, “Will You Ever Change?” by Amelia Schonbek completely floored me. It’s one of the best essays in this whole collection in part because it talks about restorative justice, which is one of my favorite rehabilitation tactics to avoid recidivism rates. In this case, the type of restorative justice they’re talking about is surrogate dialogue. Surrogate dialogue takes the victim of a crime and a perpetrator of the same crime (but a completely unrelated one), and puts them at the same table across from one another. Each of them has an advocate and there is a facilitator to keep everyone in line and stand witness for the non-profit running the program. In order to engage in this program, the victim has to approach the program themself and the perpetrator (who has to be out of jail and be evaluated before being approved for the program) has to want to use this surrogate dialogue to help victims heal. It’s a community service. I found this essay to be touching and thought-provoking, because even though programs like this show great potential to reduce recidivism rates, no one wants to fund them.
Another highlight of this section is “The Prisoner-Run Radio Station That’s Reaching Men on Death Row” by Keri Blakinger, which touches on how music is a universal language, even in prison. It’s a touching and emotional essay about how even the residents of Death Row, cut off from Gen Pop, can be part of the great prisoner community by being allowed to write into their prison radio station and have their words heard or their song requests played.
Don’t forget to read the introduction or the editor’s note. They’re both interesting and informational reads. The introduction has a whole lot to say about the late, great author James Baldwin, who was writing essays about how systemic racism ran long and deep in our criminal justice system long before anyone was willing to listen.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Anthology/Biography/History/Nonfiction/True Crime ...more
I’ve been obsessed with S. A. Chakraborty’s writing and the world of the Daevabad Trilogy ever since my little sister pressed her copy of “The City ofI’ve been obsessed with S. A. Chakraborty’s writing and the world of the Daevabad Trilogy ever since my little sister pressed her copy of “The City of Brass” into my hand and said, “You will love this.” (For the record, I ended up buying the next two books in the series before she did.) Not only do I love fantasy novels set in the Middle East, but I am always down to read epic fantasy written by female writers, since white males dominated that genre for so long. It’s gotten a lot better, but I will always want to be in line to read epic fantasy written by females. Even more so when the books aren’t even about white people (because we’ve been the stars of books for far too long).
Now, here’s where I tell you that what’s important to note about this book is the title. These are “tales” of the Daevabad Trilogy. You’ll see at the very beginning of the book that Chakraborty has a detailed explanation of what is in this book and how it came to be: during the pandemic, she was having trouble writing, so she went through her research notes and other writings she had done while writing the trilogy. Most of this was roughly written or only partially drafted, so she just worked on it so she was working on something, and out came these fully fleshed short stories from a world she loved and knew.
To speak of which story is which, and who stars in them would kind of be a spoiler in itself, because they go in chronological order. But, for all of you die hard Chakraborty fans, there is an alternative epilogue for “The Empire of Gold”, and I know I find alternative endings fascinating.
If you haven’t read the Daevabad Trilogy yet, please go and read it, and then read this, and it’ll make an epic fantasy lover out of you.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
File Under: Fantasy/Historical Fantasy/Epic Fantasy/5 Star Books/Collections/Fantasy Series/Historical Fantasy/OwnVoices ...more
“Pull” is actually a compilation of a few bonus scenes that comes after the original novel, “Push”, the novella “Pull”, which follows the Harper-Lockw“Pull” is actually a compilation of a few bonus scenes that comes after the original novel, “Push”, the novella “Pull”, which follows the Harper-Lockwood family as they attend their first Pride parade as a polyamorous throuple, and then a couple of more short stories that come after the time frame set in “Pull”. As the author states: You DO NOT want to read “Pull” if you haven’t read “Push”. Needless to say, you don’t want to skip “Push” anyway, because it’s a brilliant romance novel. One of my favorites of all time, in fact.
I’ve always wished for another novel to come after “Push”, even though I knew Nyla wrapped everything up nice and neat in the original novel, if only because the book was so scorching I just wanted more so I could revel in the hotness of it all. “Pull” does a great job of giving me what I want.. Which is mainly just more Ben and Ryan spicy goodness. I mean, just, whew! *fans self* Holy heck! Those two men! In the original novel they were already fogging up my glasses, but in this they take it to another level! The dirty talk is so on point. We get exhibitionism. We get role play. We get it rough and hard. We get it intense. And I loved it all.
I was surprisingly into the very first bonus scene in the book, which involves Ryan and Tate. I’m not going to spoil it, but for some reason, I thought it was hot. I guess that’s going to be a scene that’s not going to be for everyone, but I like what I like.
I love the dynamic between Ryan and Jess. They’re so similar, but not so similar that they’re the same person. And the way Jess gets turned on by her husbands is so similar to how I feel when I watch two guys makes her a really relatable character.
I’ve been a fan of Nyla K. ever since I read “Push” the first time, and I’m so glad this has been released to a wide audience. Polyamorous throuples deserve more love from the romance community at-large, in my opinion. Hopefully more authors start to pick up on polyamory soon. Us poly people would appreciate it. ...more
Come one, come all, to witness a horror anthology where not a single protagonist is a straight, white male! Where the key word is right there in the tCome one, come all, to witness a horror anthology where not a single protagonist is a straight, white male! Where the key word is right there in the title and it isn’t just lip service: INCLUSIVE. It was completely refreshing to read and was definitely the best anthology I’ve read so far this year by far.
Look: No anthology is perfect. You’re gonna have some stories you don’t fully understand, some that you feel are a little long, some you don’t feel fit the anthology’s theme, and some you’ll just find plain bad or boring. While not every story in this anthology hit it out of the ballpark, there were some standouts for me I made note of that I wanted to point out, and why.
“Other Fears” by Christina Sng is a poem at the very beginning of the anthology about domestic violence. It’s a very vulnerable piece… very raw. There’s a great sadness to the piece, a lot of self-blame and loathing, anger, burning rage, desperation, and utter hopelessness.
“Idiot Girls” by Jennifer McMahon is a suspenseful tale full of xenophobia, cultural stereotypes, trusting the wrong people, and being super careful when it comes to the people who essay they love you but only seem to want to keep you a secret.
“Night Shopper” by Michael H. Hanson is a absolutely brilliant satirical horror story about how those who are non-human might be more empathetic toward transgender persons and vice-versa when it comes to trying to fit into society when society doesn’t seem to want you around.
“Help, I’m a Cop” by Nathan Carson is a standout story about a life lived completely in the closet and how that poisons your entire person.
“Miss Infection USA” by Shanna Heath is a hoot of dark satirical genius that made me think of something like if Chuck Pahalnuik wrote a post-apocalyptic novel about “RuPaul’s Drag Race”. You better werk, girl!
“Black Screams, Yellow Stars” by Maxwell I. Gold both reminds us of horrifying deaths in the millions in the past, current terrifying deaths in the present, and inhuman prophetic visions of a possible future that seems more likely with each year that goes by. This story is profoundly sad and very grim.
“Invasive Species” by Ann Davila Cardinal is a weird but also relevant story about gentrification and cultural erasure.
“The Voices of the Nightingales” by M. E. Bronstein is a fantastic story about men and organized religion revising and rewriting women’s history when it doesn’t suit their needs and wants and those women finding a way to take their stories back.
(Also worth a mention is Stephen Graham Jones’ story “Tiddlywinks”).
Like I said, the whole anthology is a great read, but these are the stories that stood out the most to me. I recommend giving the whole thing a read.
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
Marissa Meyer starts off this anthology by dedicating it to all us incorrigible romantics. And that’s the type of people who wReal Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Marissa Meyer starts off this anthology by dedicating it to all us incorrigible romantics. And that’s the type of people who will want to read this book. I venture to guess that’s even the target audience for it. Unsurprisingly, I’m an incorrigible romantic marshmallow underneath my seriously jaded and cynical exterior. That’s why I was so interested in this anthology in the first place.
The largest issue I have with this anthology is the proclamation the book makes, stating they intend to take some of our most popular romantic literary tropes and to embrace them and then turn them on their heads. Thing is, most of these stories do indeed embrace their designated tropes with unabashed glee… but most (in my opinion) fail to turn the trope on its head.
I should point out none of the short stories in this collection are bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. For a collection of YA romantic short stories, they are all pretty cute and sweet. This is a book that could be read by the whole range of YA readers, from your tweens to your older teens, and not worry about truly offending anyone’s sensibilities (well, anyone worth their salt, anyway).
The stand out stories to me were: “In the Blink of the Eye” (trope: trapped in a confined space) - A story more about fixing a friendship and saving another’s relationship than the protagonist falling in love and “Liberty” (trope: the makeover) - A story where the makeover takes place before the story even starts and then another one is done by the protagonist herself, for herself, near the end.
If you read this on Kindle Paperwhite (as I did), you might have issues reading the graphic novel-style short story, “Keagan’s Heaven on Earth”. I could not increase the size of it on my version, and I have horrible eyesight, but even with my bifocals on I couldn’t read the small text and I couldn’t increase the size of the image (and therefore text).
The rest of the stories in the collection don’t turn their assigned tropes on their heads as much as they probably think they did, but it doesn’t mean they’re bad stories. “Bye Bye, Piper Berry” is a cute take on the trope of fake relationships, “Shooting Stars” (Meyer’s contribution) is a touching and sweet entry when it comes to the “one bed” trope, and “Zora in the Spotlight” manages to be both weirdly funny and somehow vulnerable.
It’s a solid collection. If they had actually managed to turn all the tropes on their heads successfully, I would’ve fallen in love with it. ...more
My review is solely for Sara Cate's novella "Sweet Blasphemy" that's included in this anthology.
Why does Sara Cate seem to know all my weak spots? I dMy review is solely for Sara Cate's novella "Sweet Blasphemy" that's included in this anthology.
Why does Sara Cate seem to know all my weak spots? I don’t know. All I know is that she’s brilliant at it.
This novella was a whole lot wrong, a whole lot right, and a whole lot of yes please and thank you. To see these two characters absolutely split apart at the seams in the presence of one another, their desire and devotion to one another eclipsing their faith after being reunited after some years apart is both romantic and a pressure cooker full of steam. A great read. ...more
What I love about short story collections is that you get smaller, more condensed, more tightly edited stories that have to get across what they have What I love about short story collections is that you get smaller, more condensed, more tightly edited stories that have to get across what they have to say or whatever message they want to convey in a much smaller amount of pages than a book would, and often it seems to me that a short story can seem much more satisfying in many ways to a book when you are looking for something to make you think. (Novellas do much the same thing, sometimes.)
Charlie Jane Anders is no stranger to science fiction, no stranger to short stories, and certainly no stranger to combining both. As such, it’s unsurprising that this collection is outstanding. I’ve long admired her work, and I think the manner in which she approaches science fiction (especially when it comes to gender, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexuality) is truly the perfect combination of something omnipresent and futuristic. We’re told science fiction has led to a lot of what has become science fact, and with her musings on everything from how robots might have gender and sexual orientations once they have sentience to how MMORPGs run by people whose brains work differently could be used to possibly solve global issues speak to questions scientists have only began to touch on, which makes these stories even more interesting to read.
There are a few stories that verge closer to horror or fantasy in here, including one laugh-out-loud funny TV vampire drama parody that had me snickering like crazy, but mostly this collection stuck to the science fiction path.
It was a well-rounded collection, with only one story I had to skip because Anders admitted that if you hadn’t read another title of hers you wouldn’t get it (probably). As always, her skills as a writer grow, and they’ll continue to grow. I look forward to it.
Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge for granting me access to this title for the purposes of reading and reviewing. ...more
This review is for Sara Cate’s contribution to this anthology, “A Boy of Fire and Ash”, made possible by Sara and by being a member of her street teamThis review is for Sara Cate’s contribution to this anthology, “A Boy of Fire and Ash”, made possible by Sara and by being a member of her street team. Thanks, Sara!
Whooooo! She does it again! This short-story, a spin-off from her full-length novel “Burn For Me”, takes the same tropes from that book and flip-turns it into a sexy, sinful male-on-male story. We have a young, traumatized, sexy mechanic/college student/rugby player and an older English professor who are drawn together with sizzling chemistry and a solid plot, which is always a bonus when you’re working on a shorter number of pages.
It was nice to see Everly and Cullen again, and to see them after their relationship has settled after “Burn For Me”, especially since it puts Everly in a position to be a foil for Thomas. She’s unapologetic and unashamed of her love for Cullen and how he treats her, which both lends what Thomas and Everly are doing an impish air about it (look what we’re getting away with!), while somewhat lessening the forbidden aspect of it (the administration seems not to care too much about it, so who’s going to say anything about it?).
I was thrilled to read this, because reverse age-gap? Professor/student? Versatile? Mechanic? An SS Impala? Yes. Yes to all of this. Ticking my boxes. Some of my favorite things. And they are done well, the Sara Cate way. ...more
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