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A review by sam_riccio
A Universe of Wishes by Dhonielle Clayton
4.0
A Universe of Wishes; We Need More Diverse Books
An anthology in which we travel across many different types of magic and love! This book is written by multiple authors, some of which have works I’ve read and hold dear to my heart and some that from what I know will be new to me. I was thankful enough to be given an ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) so that I can read this book and review it! Now, when I write reviews I don’t usually go into this much detail; we’ve all read the summary and we know what it’s about, I don’t feel like I have to get into much detail over that stuff and go straight into how I feel about the book.
For this anthology I felt that it would be better to review by chapter, so that it’s easier to see what each individual story is about, and a title of the other books these authors have written!
• This is of no importance to the book at all and has nothing to do with anything; but this book marks the 500th book in my READ Goodreads column so that’s neat to me.
• Authors in this book that I have read previously include; Libba Bray, Victoria Schwab, Zoraida Cordova, Rebecca Roanhorse
• Chapter One: Tara Sim (has also written ‘Scavage the Stars’)
o We are starting out very strong with magic that deals with death and wishes, which I think is very good.
o I have never actually heard of the process of filling a dead body with cotton; it’s the first time I remember hearing about it.
o A body weighs so much when the person it belongs to has passed away so imagine the sheer force and panic it takes to shove a body off a table and then run away.
o Why not just make him like, an official employee, give him a salary and he can get his magic collected and have a steady income at the same time??
o I like the subtle hint that Thorn is a bisexual, as he was staying with a woman before she found herself a girlfriend and now his romantic interest is a male. It’s a very small but appreciated hint.
o The last few pages felt a little rushed to me, but it’s a short story and that’s okay. I would take this as the base book review of a bigger book even if we never got the bigger book. It was a cute little story that was a little sad but we got a good ending to it and all that anyone can ask for is a happy ending.
• Chapter Two: ‘The Silk Blade’ by Natalie C. Parker (Also by Parker ‘Seafire’)
o First person POV.
o I think this is going to be the first WLW story of the book, in which both women are fighting for the hand of the crown but in the end they run away together.
o I like the way this is being told but I can really go for more information instead of being thrown into what feels like the fourth of fifth chapter of a really cool WLW book in which they go from enemies to lovers.
o Please for the love of god just tell me what The Bloom is. Is it what we’re calling the crown prince or is it generally it’s own thing I don’t know.
o ‘While you were off being heterosexual, I was off learning the way of the sword’ I cannot believe I found a way to put this meme into a book review.
o I do have to admit that in a short story I do not care for action. It takes up too much time and we could likely be doing something else with the story and the allotted pages.
o So…neither of them really won? One of them could surely have taken the other as a mistress if they had more time…
• Chapter Three: ‘The Scarlet Woman’ by Libba Bray (Also by Libba Bray ‘The Diviners’)
o This is a Gemma Doyle Story and after some investigation I found out that Libba Bray has already written a whole book series about this woman and so this story is one that won’t make sense to anyone really unless they’ve read that series…which I have not.
o I really hope that this is a Sherlock Holmes type of story where our Sherlock character is a bisexual icon. I’m saying this because I genuinely don’t know anything about her Gemma Doyle series and now I feel like I have to read 3 books just to understand this one short story.
o She’s going on with her theme of putting things in NY and idk if this is because she loves the state or doesn’t know any other states exist really.
o “I love one man, but we really are not talking about that,” I mean we all have our issues but alright Gemma.
o I can see the cover of this book being a painting of The Tree of All Souls.
o Okay so at least one of the three is into women which is an interesting part of the story but are all three of them into women and men?
o That ending made no sense to me, I don’t understand this at all.
• I don’t mean to have a biased opinion on any authors in this series of work that I have already read, when you read someone’s books before and you love them your brain tells you that the new things they put out are easy to get excited about!! And so when I see something that an author I know puts out I know their style and I have a level of expectation, I know what not to get my hopes up for and what I can casually see in their worlds; but when I read a short story by an author I don’t know there’s a small part of me that wants to know more about everything. I feel like I hold these unknown authors in my mind to a higher expectation of what is to come from their stories and what they can bring to the table.
• Chapter Four: ‘Cristal y Ceniza’ by Anna-Marie McLemore (Also by McLemore ‘Dark and Deepest Red’)
o Cinderella vibes heck yeah baby
o I love that we got a king and queen who openly accepted their son, and then threw a ball for him that’s so great.
o I loved this story, it was such a nice Cinderella retelling that was possibly the most diverse in the series of work by now; we have a world where there are same sex couples more frequent than not even if there’s a law surrounding it, a trans prince, and the Main Character of this story was a girl of color with two moms.
o They ride off into the distance together at the end, I want to know how they live the rest of their lives even if they don’t end up together.
• Chapter Five ‘Liberia’ by Kwame Mbalia (Also by Mbalia ‘Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky’)
o From my experience about books like this, where they have to set up a colony in space, it never ends well!! But we can be wrong here and it’s gonna be fine.
o A love letter to your elders, and a nudge to people who don’t understand how important gardening is to small communities.
o It wasn’t the happiest ending but it wasn’t the saddest ending either, but it can bring further growth if Mbalia continues with this as a book later on!
• Chapter Six: ‘A Royal Affair’ by Victoria Schwab (Also by Victoria Schwab ‘The Archived’)
o The story of Alucard and Rhy’s love affair
o How do I really talk about this story? We know the base of it already from the second and third books of her ‘Shades of Magic’ series.
o I have missed Alucard and Rhy, they were a good comfort to me while I read the series for the first time.
o I have also missed Kell and Lila, they’re both absolute bastards and that’s why I love them so much.
• Chapter Seven: ‘The Takeback Tango’ by Rebecca Roanhorse (Also by Roanhorse ‘Black Sun’)
o ‘My Heart Will Go On’ is the best thing to name a ship, good for her. She’s doing fantastic.
o A pirate has to do what a pirate has to do
o People who steal ancient artifacts back from the people who killed them stay together.
o Use a metal straw as a weapon? Good for the planet and a cool weapon, good job.
o That was so cute, I love them.
• Chapter Eight: ‘Dream and Dare’ by Nic Stone (Also by Stone ‘Dear Martin’)
o Her name is Dream, how cute.
o Running away to be free to live the life she’s always wanted?
The Princess that they all thought they could tame turned into a monster and started to kill all the men who came to hunt her and I think that’s a good example of why women shouldn’t be viewed as trophies because you never know when the person you’re objectifying is going to turn around and crush you under their heel.
o Dare not killing Dream because she smells like a girl and she starts to remember things is the peak of wlw culture.
o Having a romance build in the woods really is the gay agenda, isn’t it? I love the concept of love being formed in the woods because it adds onto the natural behavior of love and loving whoever your heart tells you to love. You love someone like the woods; naturally.
o Honestly? My favorite story in this book so far, it’s charming and makes me smile like an idiot.
• Chapter Nine: ‘Wish’ by Jenni Balch (I believe that Balch is the winner of a short story contest, making this her first published work!)
o A magic lamp situation!!!
o I understand why this would be the winner of a short story contest; it’s unique and the characters are lovable in the short time that we have them.
o Him staying with her because he thought it was the best idea, you know, for Wish purposes, is the cutest thing I want to know more about them so much.
• Chapter Ten: ‘The Weight’ by Dhonielle Clayton (Also by Clayton ‘The Belles’)
o I believe this is the story about the weight of someone’s heart after they pass, which is part of the Egyptian culture if I’m not mistaken.
o You know, I would love to see what my heart says. If I can do this without a romantic partner, I think I would do it. I would be anxious about it - but I would like to do it.
o One fumbles, and the other catches, I think that’s a good sign for Marcus and Grace! To me, that means that when one of them fails the other is there to make sure they’re okay.
o That story made me so anxious, I need more of it. What do you mean it just ENDED THERE??? Please, Miss. Clayton can I just have more of this story?
• Chapter Eleven: ‘Unmoor’ by Mark Oshiro (Also by Oshiro ‘Anger is a Gift’)
o In the beginning, this story made no sense, and I looked up Oshiro and I found out he has a series where he reads Harry Potter and I want to read that instead…
o I have to give him props for making a functioning brain cell joke about Oreo’s, good job buddy.
o Don’t erase your memories of something that has hurt you, or the people who have hurt you because that means that you’ve given them an opening back into your mind!!! They can hurt you all over again!
o This one made me angry, and I can’t understand why.
• Chapter Twelve: ‘The Coldest Spot in the Universe’ by Samira Ahmed (Also by Ahmed ‘Internment’)
o 2031!! It is the future that’s only…10 years away and I hope that I don’t wake up one day and it’s suddenly 2031 for me.
o This one is maybe a little too accurate for us and I don’t know how I feel about it.
o That one has absolutely given me a panic attack, and I’m just going to think about it at 3 a.m. for a while.
• Chapter Thirteen: ‘The Beginning of Monsters’ by Tessa Gratton (Also by Gratton ‘Blood Magic’)
o Gratton has never been my favorite author, I couldn’t get through any of her books before so I am going to politely pass on this chapter.
• Chapter Fourteen: ‘Longer Than The Threads of Time’ by Zoraida Cordova (Also by Cordova ‘The Vicious Deep’)
o This takes place in the same world as her Brooklyn Bruja series, and if you haven’t taken the time to read it I recommend that you do; for me I get these books and I devour them as soon as I get them.
o A modern day Rapunzel story, and I loved it. I read all of this in one setting while I was doing errands so all I can say is that if she were to continue with this as a standalone book I’d take it.
• Chapter Fifteen: ‘Habibi’ by Tochi Onyebuchi (Also by Onyebuchi ‘Beasts Made of Night’)
o I like that it’s written in the form of letters between two people who don’t seem to know each other but know each other on a much deeper level.
o The quotes in this one are really good as well.
o Quincy and Omar speak to each other with so much mutual respect that it brings me joy.
o That ending absolutely wrecked me!! I loved it!!
A general review for the book as a whole? I think that there were two stories of this book that shouldn’t be in here, because if you haven’t read the books they go with you’re out of luck on getting context. Some of them didn’t resonate with me personally, I wouldn’t go back and read them to read them but I would get this as a gift for a loved one. I love that this was as diverse as advertised, that we had threads of diversity in every story. I think by my bullet points you understand how I feel about these stories, as those are the things I felt while I read it. I feel like that’s the best way to review an anthology.
An anthology in which we travel across many different types of magic and love! This book is written by multiple authors, some of which have works I’ve read and hold dear to my heart and some that from what I know will be new to me. I was thankful enough to be given an ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) so that I can read this book and review it! Now, when I write reviews I don’t usually go into this much detail; we’ve all read the summary and we know what it’s about, I don’t feel like I have to get into much detail over that stuff and go straight into how I feel about the book.
For this anthology I felt that it would be better to review by chapter, so that it’s easier to see what each individual story is about, and a title of the other books these authors have written!
• This is of no importance to the book at all and has nothing to do with anything; but this book marks the 500th book in my READ Goodreads column so that’s neat to me.
• Authors in this book that I have read previously include; Libba Bray, Victoria Schwab, Zoraida Cordova, Rebecca Roanhorse
• Chapter One: Tara Sim (has also written ‘Scavage the Stars’)
o We are starting out very strong with magic that deals with death and wishes, which I think is very good.
o I have never actually heard of the process of filling a dead body with cotton; it’s the first time I remember hearing about it.
o A body weighs so much when the person it belongs to has passed away so imagine the sheer force and panic it takes to shove a body off a table and then run away.
o Why not just make him like, an official employee, give him a salary and he can get his magic collected and have a steady income at the same time??
o I like the subtle hint that Thorn is a bisexual, as he was staying with a woman before she found herself a girlfriend and now his romantic interest is a male. It’s a very small but appreciated hint.
o The last few pages felt a little rushed to me, but it’s a short story and that’s okay. I would take this as the base book review of a bigger book even if we never got the bigger book. It was a cute little story that was a little sad but we got a good ending to it and all that anyone can ask for is a happy ending.
• Chapter Two: ‘The Silk Blade’ by Natalie C. Parker (Also by Parker ‘Seafire’)
o First person POV.
o I think this is going to be the first WLW story of the book, in which both women are fighting for the hand of the crown but in the end they run away together.
o I like the way this is being told but I can really go for more information instead of being thrown into what feels like the fourth of fifth chapter of a really cool WLW book in which they go from enemies to lovers.
o Please for the love of god just tell me what The Bloom is. Is it what we’re calling the crown prince or is it generally it’s own thing I don’t know.
o ‘While you were off being heterosexual, I was off learning the way of the sword’ I cannot believe I found a way to put this meme into a book review.
o I do have to admit that in a short story I do not care for action. It takes up too much time and we could likely be doing something else with the story and the allotted pages.
o So…neither of them really won? One of them could surely have taken the other as a mistress if they had more time…
• Chapter Three: ‘The Scarlet Woman’ by Libba Bray (Also by Libba Bray ‘The Diviners’)
o This is a Gemma Doyle Story and after some investigation I found out that Libba Bray has already written a whole book series about this woman and so this story is one that won’t make sense to anyone really unless they’ve read that series…which I have not.
o I really hope that this is a Sherlock Holmes type of story where our Sherlock character is a bisexual icon. I’m saying this because I genuinely don’t know anything about her Gemma Doyle series and now I feel like I have to read 3 books just to understand this one short story.
o She’s going on with her theme of putting things in NY and idk if this is because she loves the state or doesn’t know any other states exist really.
o “I love one man, but we really are not talking about that,” I mean we all have our issues but alright Gemma.
o I can see the cover of this book being a painting of The Tree of All Souls.
o Okay so at least one of the three is into women which is an interesting part of the story but are all three of them into women and men?
o That ending made no sense to me, I don’t understand this at all.
• I don’t mean to have a biased opinion on any authors in this series of work that I have already read, when you read someone’s books before and you love them your brain tells you that the new things they put out are easy to get excited about!! And so when I see something that an author I know puts out I know their style and I have a level of expectation, I know what not to get my hopes up for and what I can casually see in their worlds; but when I read a short story by an author I don’t know there’s a small part of me that wants to know more about everything. I feel like I hold these unknown authors in my mind to a higher expectation of what is to come from their stories and what they can bring to the table.
• Chapter Four: ‘Cristal y Ceniza’ by Anna-Marie McLemore (Also by McLemore ‘Dark and Deepest Red’)
o Cinderella vibes heck yeah baby
o I love that we got a king and queen who openly accepted their son, and then threw a ball for him that’s so great.
o I loved this story, it was such a nice Cinderella retelling that was possibly the most diverse in the series of work by now; we have a world where there are same sex couples more frequent than not even if there’s a law surrounding it, a trans prince, and the Main Character of this story was a girl of color with two moms.
o They ride off into the distance together at the end, I want to know how they live the rest of their lives even if they don’t end up together.
• Chapter Five ‘Liberia’ by Kwame Mbalia (Also by Mbalia ‘Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky’)
o From my experience about books like this, where they have to set up a colony in space, it never ends well!! But we can be wrong here and it’s gonna be fine.
o A love letter to your elders, and a nudge to people who don’t understand how important gardening is to small communities.
o It wasn’t the happiest ending but it wasn’t the saddest ending either, but it can bring further growth if Mbalia continues with this as a book later on!
• Chapter Six: ‘A Royal Affair’ by Victoria Schwab (Also by Victoria Schwab ‘The Archived’)
o The story of Alucard and Rhy’s love affair
o How do I really talk about this story? We know the base of it already from the second and third books of her ‘Shades of Magic’ series.
o I have missed Alucard and Rhy, they were a good comfort to me while I read the series for the first time.
o I have also missed Kell and Lila, they’re both absolute bastards and that’s why I love them so much.
• Chapter Seven: ‘The Takeback Tango’ by Rebecca Roanhorse (Also by Roanhorse ‘Black Sun’)
o ‘My Heart Will Go On’ is the best thing to name a ship, good for her. She’s doing fantastic.
o A pirate has to do what a pirate has to do
o People who steal ancient artifacts back from the people who killed them stay together.
o Use a metal straw as a weapon? Good for the planet and a cool weapon, good job.
o That was so cute, I love them.
• Chapter Eight: ‘Dream and Dare’ by Nic Stone (Also by Stone ‘Dear Martin’)
o Her name is Dream, how cute.
o Running away to be free to live the life she’s always wanted?
The Princess that they all thought they could tame turned into a monster and started to kill all the men who came to hunt her and I think that’s a good example of why women shouldn’t be viewed as trophies because you never know when the person you’re objectifying is going to turn around and crush you under their heel.
o Dare not killing Dream because she smells like a girl and she starts to remember things is the peak of wlw culture.
o Having a romance build in the woods really is the gay agenda, isn’t it? I love the concept of love being formed in the woods because it adds onto the natural behavior of love and loving whoever your heart tells you to love. You love someone like the woods; naturally.
o Honestly? My favorite story in this book so far, it’s charming and makes me smile like an idiot.
• Chapter Nine: ‘Wish’ by Jenni Balch (I believe that Balch is the winner of a short story contest, making this her first published work!)
o A magic lamp situation!!!
o I understand why this would be the winner of a short story contest; it’s unique and the characters are lovable in the short time that we have them.
o Him staying with her because he thought it was the best idea, you know, for Wish purposes, is the cutest thing I want to know more about them so much.
• Chapter Ten: ‘The Weight’ by Dhonielle Clayton (Also by Clayton ‘The Belles’)
o I believe this is the story about the weight of someone’s heart after they pass, which is part of the Egyptian culture if I’m not mistaken.
o You know, I would love to see what my heart says. If I can do this without a romantic partner, I think I would do it. I would be anxious about it - but I would like to do it.
o One fumbles, and the other catches, I think that’s a good sign for Marcus and Grace! To me, that means that when one of them fails the other is there to make sure they’re okay.
o That story made me so anxious, I need more of it. What do you mean it just ENDED THERE??? Please, Miss. Clayton can I just have more of this story?
• Chapter Eleven: ‘Unmoor’ by Mark Oshiro (Also by Oshiro ‘Anger is a Gift’)
o In the beginning, this story made no sense, and I looked up Oshiro and I found out he has a series where he reads Harry Potter and I want to read that instead…
o I have to give him props for making a functioning brain cell joke about Oreo’s, good job buddy.
o Don’t erase your memories of something that has hurt you, or the people who have hurt you because that means that you’ve given them an opening back into your mind!!! They can hurt you all over again!
o This one made me angry, and I can’t understand why.
• Chapter Twelve: ‘The Coldest Spot in the Universe’ by Samira Ahmed (Also by Ahmed ‘Internment’)
o 2031!! It is the future that’s only…10 years away and I hope that I don’t wake up one day and it’s suddenly 2031 for me.
o This one is maybe a little too accurate for us and I don’t know how I feel about it.
o That one has absolutely given me a panic attack, and I’m just going to think about it at 3 a.m. for a while.
• Chapter Thirteen: ‘The Beginning of Monsters’ by Tessa Gratton (Also by Gratton ‘Blood Magic’)
o Gratton has never been my favorite author, I couldn’t get through any of her books before so I am going to politely pass on this chapter.
• Chapter Fourteen: ‘Longer Than The Threads of Time’ by Zoraida Cordova (Also by Cordova ‘The Vicious Deep’)
o This takes place in the same world as her Brooklyn Bruja series, and if you haven’t taken the time to read it I recommend that you do; for me I get these books and I devour them as soon as I get them.
o A modern day Rapunzel story, and I loved it. I read all of this in one setting while I was doing errands so all I can say is that if she were to continue with this as a standalone book I’d take it.
• Chapter Fifteen: ‘Habibi’ by Tochi Onyebuchi (Also by Onyebuchi ‘Beasts Made of Night’)
o I like that it’s written in the form of letters between two people who don’t seem to know each other but know each other on a much deeper level.
o The quotes in this one are really good as well.
o Quincy and Omar speak to each other with so much mutual respect that it brings me joy.
o That ending absolutely wrecked me!! I loved it!!
A general review for the book as a whole? I think that there were two stories of this book that shouldn’t be in here, because if you haven’t read the books they go with you’re out of luck on getting context. Some of them didn’t resonate with me personally, I wouldn’t go back and read them to read them but I would get this as a gift for a loved one. I love that this was as diverse as advertised, that we had threads of diversity in every story. I think by my bullet points you understand how I feel about these stories, as those are the things I felt while I read it. I feel like that’s the best way to review an anthology.