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618 reviews for:
A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope
Patrice Caldwell
3.94 AVERAGE
618 reviews for:
A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope
Patrice Caldwell
3.94 AVERAGE
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
I'm not huge on short stories. I prefer to really nestle into a story and have many different levels. I obviously knew my preferences before reading this book of short stories so I won't ding the collection for that. I loved the premise of the collection. Black woman deserve to be leads of stories so much more and black woman write black woman the best. I liked more stories than most, especially the stories with soft magic systems and had a more traditionally fantasy feel. I am still tippy toeing into modern/urban fantasies, so I don't usually love the high school aged girl with a cellphone discovers she has magic vibe. I much prefer the maenad vibe of sun girls who eat men's souls alive and fly to the sun as a game. Mega slay, ultra cunty.
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A Phoenix First Must Burn has themes that range from folklore-ish to sci-fi to slice of life. There's romance, there's plot twists, there's magic and technology and super powers and more. The stories that stand out as being exceptional really stand out. They're stories that are rich and powerful and moving.
My most common criticism of a good half or so of these stories is that they all felt too short for me. I really feel like they could have benefited from just a little bit more. A couple of the stories suffer from an abundance of fantasy or sci-fi jargon, which is fine for a longer work where readers will have repeated exposure to the words, but for short works like this it just kind of made it hard to follow. Even some of the stories that don't have that jargon still sometimes lost me: sometimes the drama/conflict escalated way too quickly and was resolved even quicker. It's hard to make a short story not feel rushed, but it definitely felt like a few of these stories just happened way too quickly. I think the worst example of this is Melie. It feels like it's supposed to be humorous and jovial and not take itself too seriously, but the feeling that comes across is that of a total lack of interest or passion. I didn't feel like I had any reason to care about any of it.
There's a lot of really cool experimental stuff too. All The Time In The World is written in second person. It's also beautifully short and sweet. The Curse of Love alternates between third and first person but centers around one character the entire time. It's also a fantastic concept for a story: A few of these stories center around the theme of love being dangerous. The execution of that idea in The Curse of Love is phenomenal. Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls Her First Death And, Subsequently, Her Best Life is probably my favorite of all the stories here. I think of all the stories, this is the one that's going to haunt me and always live on in the back of my mind.
Overall, I think a solid 13 out of the 16 stories are absolutely worth anyone's time, and I don't think the three, maybe four, that I found lacking are a deal-breaker at all, so I would 100% recommend A Phoenix First Must Burn.
My most common criticism of a good half or so of these stories is that they all felt too short for me. I really feel like they could have benefited from just a little bit more. A couple of the stories suffer from an abundance of fantasy or sci-fi jargon, which is fine for a longer work where readers will have repeated exposure to the words, but for short works like this it just kind of made it hard to follow. Even some of the stories that don't have that jargon still sometimes lost me: sometimes the drama/conflict escalated way too quickly and was resolved even quicker. It's hard to make a short story not feel rushed, but it definitely felt like a few of these stories just happened way too quickly. I think the worst example of this is Melie. It feels like it's supposed to be humorous and jovial and not take itself too seriously, but the feeling that comes across is that of a total lack of interest or passion. I didn't feel like I had any reason to care about any of it.
There's a lot of really cool experimental stuff too. All The Time In The World is written in second person. It's also beautifully short and sweet. The Curse of Love alternates between third and first person but centers around one character the entire time. It's also a fantastic concept for a story: A few of these stories center around the theme of love being dangerous. The execution of that idea in The Curse of Love is phenomenal. Wherein Abigail Fields Recalls Her First Death And, Subsequently, Her Best Life is probably my favorite of all the stories here. I think of all the stories, this is the one that's going to haunt me and always live on in the back of my mind.
Overall, I think a solid 13 out of the 16 stories are absolutely worth anyone's time, and I don't think the three, maybe four, that I found lacking are a deal-breaker at all, so I would 100% recommend A Phoenix First Must Burn.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3.5 stars rounded up. I wish they had used two narrators for the audiobooks and alternated them between stories because these were very short short stories and sometimes it was hard to tell when one story started and another began if I wasn’t completely zoned in. This book is anthology of powerful, impactful and amazing POC authors and reading them all in one place was surreal at times. As with any short story collection, there were some I liked, some I loved that I wish had becomes more and some that were just not for me.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
inspiring
fast-paced
Beautifully written powerful stories make up this anthology. I always struggle with short stories because I want more of the world and the characters. That was true for every story in this collection - I just wanted to keep reading!
A Phoenix First Must Burn has been on my mind for a while. Okay, like a month or two but still. I really really wanted to jump into this book. So, I did what a normal reader would do - buy the damn audiobook. A couple of days later, aka today, I decided to take the leap and watch the magic happen right before my very eyes.
Okay, ears but still - you get the picture, right?
Within this, you get 16 magical short stories. Each one is set in their own unique world with characters that you will either like or love. A few confused me and hurt my head, but the rest were very easy to devour. Probably way too easy because I flew through this book.
I definitely had favored a few though. For example, Hearts Turned to Ash and Kiss the Sun. I still enjoyed the rest of the stories but those two stuck with me after finishing the book. I'm really happy that I finally dove into this anthology and look forward to my next one. Love the chances of getting to meet new authors.
Okay, ears but still - you get the picture, right?
Within this, you get 16 magical short stories. Each one is set in their own unique world with characters that you will either like or love. A few confused me and hurt my head, but the rest were very easy to devour. Probably way too easy because I flew through this book.
I definitely had favored a few though. For example, Hearts Turned to Ash and Kiss the Sun. I still enjoyed the rest of the stories but those two stuck with me after finishing the book. I'm really happy that I finally dove into this anthology and look forward to my next one. Love the chances of getting to meet new authors.
I usually shy away from anthologies, but I'm so glad I finally picked this up. It was just the right book to travel with. Short digestible stories written by phenomenal authors. I left wanting more from each one.