Author: Multiple
Publication Date: September 18, 2018
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages: 320
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//I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review//
A YA Anthology of short stories featuring disabled teens, written by #OwnVoices disabled authors. The stories reflect a range of genres and disabilities; contributors include bestselling authors Kody Keplinger and Francisco X. Stork, as well as newcomers Fox Benwell, Keah Brown, and more.
It's been a hot minute since I've read an anthology, and a pretty good one at that. I love the fact that this book involves people with disabilities! The disabilities include physical, mental, and emotional aspects.
As an added bonus, these stories are also own voices as the authors also have some form of disability as well as their characters. I do not specifically know if each author's characters are based on their own personal disability or not.
I honestly did not personally connect with too many of these stories as I, myself, do not have any disabilities, but I still think it is crucial to readers like me to be able to read about characters like this. It really helps put things in perspective and makes us think about how others deal with challenges and day-to-day things with a disability.
While most of these stories are realistic, what I was not expecting was some fantasy and sci-fi thrown into the mix. I was so confused at first reading one story until I actually realized that it was a fantasy story and not meant to be realistic. I liked how there was a mix of genres, but it did make some of the stories very abstract and sometimes hard to follow at times.
There was one story that I didn't quite get, but asking a few fellow bloggers I was able to figure out what was going on. It started out really slow and nothing really seemed to happen, so it confused me a little bit.
Out of all the stories in this book, I think Britt and the Bike God by: Kody Keplinger was probably my favorite. The main character is partially blind and rides a tandem bike with different members of her biking team, including the really fast and hot Bike God.
All in all, I am very happy that there are more stories out in the world that includes characters like this. I cannot wait for others to read this and actually feel seen and included, which is such a wonderful feeling. I almost wish that I could have complete books of all these stories because I want to know more about these characters and to delve deeper into what makes them unique and essentially "them".
