Reviews
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages by Saundra Mitchell
bledoux's review against another edition
3.0
Was good!
i enjoyed most of these, here are some of my favorites
The Sweet Trade by Natalie Parker
The Girl With the Blue Lantern by Tess Sharpe
The Secret Life of a Teenage Boy by Alex Sanchez
The End of the World As We Know It by Sara Farizan
Healing Rosa by Tehlor Kay Meija
i enjoyed most of these, here are some of my favorites
The Sweet Trade by Natalie Parker
The Girl With the Blue Lantern by Tess Sharpe
The Secret Life of a Teenage Boy by Alex Sanchez
The End of the World As We Know It by Sara Farizan
Healing Rosa by Tehlor Kay Meija
kiperoo's review against another edition
5.0
I've been reading this a story at a time for well over a year, but I've finally finished, and I loved it so much! Loved hearing all these diverse voices from the past.
andipants's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not really a big short story fan, but I got sucked in by the promise of queer! and historical! and not explicitly fantasy! And...it was okay. Some of the stories were really cute, some were pretty boring, and there was definitely more fantasy than I signed up for (magical realism is fantasy for people too pretentious to say they like fantasy, don't @ me). I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more diversity in terms of queerness; there are plenty of cis girls who like girls, and cis boys who like boys, plus one (1) trans boy and one (1) ace girl. There aren't any clearly non-monosexual characters (e.g. bi or pan) nor any nonbinary ones, and the lone trans character is not the POV character for his story. For a book bold enough to put "queer" right there on the cover, I was hoping for a little more exploration of the very broad collection of identities contained therein.
As far as the stories themselves, I'm not going to review each one, but I will say they all fell prey to the (very obvious) reason I don't tend to like short stories in the first place: they're not long enough. Short stories are useful for exploring a single character or concept. It's very, very difficult to do more than one of these effectively in a single story. But too often, authors seem to treat them like mini-novels, trying to have multiple characters or too much plot or what have you, and ending up with something that feels rushed and skimpy, or like a single chapter pulled out of context from a longer work that really ought to be put back. To be clear, there is a spectrum of quality represented in this collection, and some of these stories do feel much more focused and polished than others in this regard. But (and this is where it bleeds into personal preference) I personally didn't find any of then totally satisfying. What can I say? I find it hard to fully connect to a character in just a dozen pages.
That's not to say it was a total bust, by any means; some of the stories were very enjoyable. My favorite was Robin Talley's "The Dresser and the Chambermaid", because I love stories about people that usually get forgotten in history, like servants, and I thought the relationship was very sweet. I also really liked the concept of the Robin Hood retelling ("Every Shade of Red" by Elliot Wake), though that was definitely one that I felt should have been a novel. Overall, there were certainly some parts of this that I liked, but it did not make a short- story convert of me.
As far as the stories themselves, I'm not going to review each one, but I will say they all fell prey to the (very obvious) reason I don't tend to like short stories in the first place: they're not long enough. Short stories are useful for exploring a single character or concept. It's very, very difficult to do more than one of these effectively in a single story. But too often, authors seem to treat them like mini-novels, trying to have multiple characters or too much plot or what have you, and ending up with something that feels rushed and skimpy, or like a single chapter pulled out of context from a longer work that really ought to be put back. To be clear, there is a spectrum of quality represented in this collection, and some of these stories do feel much more focused and polished than others in this regard. But (and this is where it bleeds into personal preference) I personally didn't find any of then totally satisfying. What can I say? I find it hard to fully connect to a character in just a dozen pages.
That's not to say it was a total bust, by any means; some of the stories were very enjoyable. My favorite was Robin Talley's "The Dresser and the Chambermaid", because I love stories about people that usually get forgotten in history, like servants, and I thought the relationship was very sweet. I also really liked the concept of the Robin Hood retelling ("Every Shade of Red" by Elliot Wake), though that was definitely one that I felt should have been a novel. Overall, there were certainly some parts of this that I liked, but it did not make a short- story convert of me.
zluke's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
A bit hit and miss but there are some really good stories. I especially likes the. Fantasy themed ones.
stormyday's review against another edition
4.0
Favorites out of this anthology:
- “The Girl With the Blue Lantern” by Tess Sharpe
- “Walking After Midnight” by Kody Keplinger
- “Healing Rosa” by Tehlor Kay Mejia
- “The Girl With the Blue Lantern” by Tess Sharpe
- “Walking After Midnight” by Kody Keplinger
- “Healing Rosa” by Tehlor Kay Mejia
topaziumm's review against another edition
5.0
Each story is quite different but all have such an incredibly captivating premise, it’s hard to put the book down even if you’re not normally a fan of short stories. I can’t say I loved every single story in there, but I enjoyed all of them and the ones that I did love, I absolutely ADORED and will likely keep thinking about them for years to come. Overall a great read when looking for some quick and engaging queer romance.
hereistheend's review against another edition
4.0
Anthology of stories of queer teens throughout history and fairytales. I love the concept, and the writing is wonderful. It’s cool. I’ve never been into the instantaneous love or infatuation of fairytales though, so the nature of this book isn’t always my favorite. Such a cool book though.
kikide778's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
finalefile's review against another edition
3.0
I wish I liked this more. :/ I got bored near the end, didn't pick up the book for a while, and ended up just skimming the last few stories.
My favorite story was The Sweet Trade - teenage girls running off to be pirates together! I would read a whole book of that. And I loved the first sentence: "Clara Elizabeth Byrd had been married twice by the age of sixteen and she had decided she had no taste for it."
Asexual stories: And They Don't Kiss at the end had an ace character, but was not interesting to me. I liked Walking After Midnight - the main character there seemed to be ace or demi. And Every Shade of Red was pretty good - a queer Robin Hood retelling, where Friar Tuck seems to be ace!
My favorite story was The Sweet Trade - teenage girls running off to be pirates together! I would read a whole book of that. And I loved the first sentence: "Clara Elizabeth Byrd had been married twice by the age of sixteen and she had decided she had no taste for it."
Asexual stories: And They Don't Kiss at the end had an ace character, but was not interesting to me. I liked Walking After Midnight - the main character there seemed to be ace or demi. And Every Shade of Red was pretty good - a queer Robin Hood retelling, where Friar Tuck seems to be ace!