125 reviews for:

Common Bonds: An Aromantic Speculative Anthology

C.T. Callahan, B.R. Sanders, Claudie Arseneault, RoAnna Sylver

3.92 AVERAGE

maybemountains's review against another edition

4.5

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

olliesf's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

e_is_for_emma's review against another edition

3.5

hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I backed this anthology on Kickstarter years ago and finally got around to reading it. It's a very cute little collection of stories (and a few poems) that center aromantic characters, in various speculative genres (primarily, if my memory serves, fantasy).

My favorites from the collection were "Half a Heart" by Ren Oliveira and the poem "Not Quite True Love" by Syl Woo. Those are both solid five stars, easily.

riffmonkey's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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One of the best short story collections I have read. So many of them were amazing and almost all of them made me feel. The poems mostly were really not for me, but other than that, all the stories were either enjoyable enough or fucking amazing. The ones I loved the most were The Aromatic Lovers, Cinder and Fishing Over the Bones of the Dragon. Honable mentions to Dracamót Council of Human Study Report compiled by Usander Greystart, Asteria III and Seams of Iron. Honestly, there were too many excellent ones. 

pearlc's review against another edition

4.0

medium-paced

curlyghost307's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

templetoncecelia's review against another edition

4.5

inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

paperbrownies's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

skyhai's review against another edition

4.0

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Reviews for anthologies are tricky as there's almost always a guarantee that one or two of the stories won't hit for you. It's true for me in regards to this anthology, but most of the short stories really hit for me. As this is speculative fiction, basically all the stories have a sci-fi/fantasy bent which I do enjoy, but can also be real confusing when the author is trying to introduce a magic system, unique world, and a complete story in 20 pages or less. The first story I still don't fully understand, but there were a lot of gems in this book too.

My verdict as a whole is, if you like anthologies, pick it up!

And Happy Pride month to all you amazing Aromantic folks out there!

minisupernovax's review against another edition

3.0

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I liked some stories, didn't like others