plumeriade's review
3.0
i got this for free through kindle unlimited, which was a nice find!
good:
- for the most part, these all have positive endings, though some may fall more under hopeful or bittersweet.
- this includes an excerpt of beebo brinker! that was a nice surprise.
- there are nice scenes/mentions of recognizing each other as lesbians through history; many of the characters in these stories have histories with women and with lesbian social circles--it's not all "first time i've ever liked a girl" stories
- "with ball due respect" is delightfully packed with softball metaphors/slang for E V E R Y T H I N G. it could have really been annoying or hard to understand, but it matched with the feel and pace of the story and instead was just really fun.
- this anthology has a lot of respect for older lesbians. some of the stories contain brief footnotes/afterwords about the kind of legacy the protagonist left. "honeydew moon" is narrated entirely by an elderly lesbian (still with her wife) and talks about how finding an older lesbian couple as friends when they were younger was so important to seeing their own future. yeah i may have gotten a little misty.
not so great:
- stories are all white, taking place in the united states and europe (england, greece, and italy). really, this is historical fiction but you couldn't include one non-white person?
- some of the stories felt repetitive after a while; young women, with some difference in station, fall unexpectedly in love until the expectation that one marries a man comes between them.
- the shortcoming (pun intended) of all short story anthologies, for me, is that you can't craft really plotty, complex stories, which is what i enjoy more; but that's the fault of the medium, not these writers.
in all, while i wasn't blown away by this, it was a light enjoyable read and i'm glad i found it.
good:
- for the most part, these all have positive endings, though some may fall more under hopeful or bittersweet.
- this includes an excerpt of beebo brinker! that was a nice surprise.
- there are nice scenes/mentions of recognizing each other as lesbians through history; many of the characters in these stories have histories with women and with lesbian social circles--it's not all "first time i've ever liked a girl" stories
- "with ball due respect" is delightfully packed with softball metaphors/slang for E V E R Y T H I N G. it could have really been annoying or hard to understand, but it matched with the feel and pace of the story and instead was just really fun.
- this anthology has a lot of respect for older lesbians. some of the stories contain brief footnotes/afterwords about the kind of legacy the protagonist left. "honeydew moon" is narrated entirely by an elderly lesbian (still with her wife) and talks about how finding an older lesbian couple as friends when they were younger was so important to seeing their own future. yeah i may have gotten a little misty.
not so great:
- stories are all white, taking place in the united states and europe (england, greece, and italy). really, this is historical fiction but you couldn't include one non-white person?
- some of the stories felt repetitive after a while; young women, with some difference in station, fall unexpectedly in love until the expectation that one marries a man comes between them.
- the shortcoming (pun intended) of all short story anthologies, for me, is that you can't craft really plotty, complex stories, which is what i enjoy more; but that's the fault of the medium, not these writers.
in all, while i wasn't blown away by this, it was a light enjoyable read and i'm glad i found it.
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