A review by lifeofaliterarynerd
Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America by Hannah Moskowitz, Amy Reed, Tracy Deonn Walker, Sandhya Menon, Ellen Hopkins, Amber Smith, Sona Charaipotra, Somaiya Daud, Stephanie Kuehnert, Julie Murphy, I.W. Gregorio, Tracy Deonn, Anna-Marie McLemore, Martha Brockenbrough, Christine Day, Jaye Robin Brown, Aisha Saeed, Alexandra Duncan, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Brandy Colbert, Maurene Goo, Nina LaCour

4.0

"Ours are the marginalized voices they refuse to listen to. This book, this act of resistance, says our stories matter. Our lives matter. Our voices will not be silenced."

This anthology review is going to be a little different than my other ones because it’s nonfiction stories, and it feel weird reviewing and rating each story individually when it’s someone’s personal experiences. I’ve been looking forward to this anthology since I read The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed last year and I discovered that she was editing an anthology about race, religion, activism, feminism, and the female experience.

I found many of the stories to be captivating and raw. Some of my favorites in the collection was “My American Dream” by Sandhya Menon celebrating everything that makes you who you are. “Finding My Feminism” by Amy Reed who shared a moving condemnation of rape culture and what being an activist means to her. “Tiny Battles” by Maureen Goo detailed the “tiny battles” that makes up your life’s journey and the powerful motivator anger can be. “Myth Making: In the Wake of Hardship” by Somaiya Daud discussed the complexities of intersecting identities. These stories all felt incredibly personal, while also universal - which I think is the highest praise I can give this anthology.

Overall, I really did enjoy this anthology. Now it can start to make you emotional, I drifted between sadness and anger a lot, but it does pull you in. And this was really one of my first experiences with nonfiction, but I was invested because it was stories from authors I love or subject matter that I value. Our Stories, Our Voices is a powerhouse collection of truths that need to be shared from an incredibly diverse range of YA authors that allows their voices to shine in an uncertain time.


I received a copy of the book from Simon Pulse via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.