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diamondxgirl's review against another edition
4.0
Three Sides of a Heart is a recently released anthology based on a fav YA trope - The ❤️🔺. Come on, we all have read one (I just finished my reread of New Moon - TRIANGLE CITY).
What I loved about this anthology is the authors took the trope and played with it. This is not a 16 story rehashing of girl meets boy...meets another boy and DRAMA ENSUES. Oh no, this is a magnificent set of multi-faceted stories that prove the triangle is so much more than girl/boy/boy.
My favorite stories are Omega Ship by Rae Carson (explores how one girl owns the traditional love triangle), Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy (a girl who offers kissing lessons need I say more), Hurdles by Brandy Colbert (this one explores how the love triangle isn’t even always about romantic love), and Unus, Duo, Tres by Bethany Hagen (this is the vampire love story we all needed but never got).
This anthology is special because it contains more diverse stories featuring sex positive characters than we’ve likely ever gotten altogether in YA. It features a diverse set of authors across genres. There’s almost nothing else out there like it (ahem, have you read Feral Youth? Because you should). Contemporary readers will find comfort here but so will readers of SFF, historical, and more.
Oh, and the audio is fab and narrated by multiple narrators.
What I loved about this anthology is the authors took the trope and played with it. This is not a 16 story rehashing of girl meets boy...meets another boy and DRAMA ENSUES. Oh no, this is a magnificent set of multi-faceted stories that prove the triangle is so much more than girl/boy/boy.
My favorite stories are Omega Ship by Rae Carson (explores how one girl owns the traditional love triangle), Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy (a girl who offers kissing lessons need I say more), Hurdles by Brandy Colbert (this one explores how the love triangle isn’t even always about romantic love), and Unus, Duo, Tres by Bethany Hagen (this is the vampire love story we all needed but never got).
This anthology is special because it contains more diverse stories featuring sex positive characters than we’ve likely ever gotten altogether in YA. It features a diverse set of authors across genres. There’s almost nothing else out there like it (ahem, have you read Feral Youth? Because you should). Contemporary readers will find comfort here but so will readers of SFF, historical, and more.
Oh, and the audio is fab and narrated by multiple narrators.
thebookorder's review against another edition
3.0
Giving this a 3.5 out of 5! its always hard to rate these since some stories were better than others. overall I did really love how diverse these stories were! not just the genre's but the actual characters.
I think my favourites were:
-Dread South by Justina Ireland
This one was amazing, and its made me interested in picking up the book that this short story is set in.
-Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth
I loved how nerdy this story was, and the power of friendship.
-The Historian, The Garrison, and the Cantakerous Catwoman by Lamar Giles
Um this one was so weird in a good way! and so amazing! I really want a full length novel for this one!
-Unus, Duo, Tres by Bethany Hagen
This one was probably my favourite! it had a boarding school, vampires, and an interracial gay couple. Also this one left me the most hearbroken....
I think my favourites were:
-Dread South by Justina Ireland
This one was amazing, and its made me interested in picking up the book that this short story is set in.
-Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth
I loved how nerdy this story was, and the power of friendship.
-The Historian, The Garrison, and the Cantakerous Catwoman by Lamar Giles
Um this one was so weird in a good way! and so amazing! I really want a full length novel for this one!
-Unus, Duo, Tres by Bethany Hagen
This one was probably my favourite! it had a boarding school, vampires, and an interracial gay couple. Also this one left me the most hearbroken....
tyheronthorn's review against another edition
2.0
Okay, I enjoyed a couple of stories in this - namely "Riddles in Mathematics" by Katie Cotugno, "Dread South" by Justina Ireland, and "Lessons for Beginners" by Julie Murphy. Of these, "Dread South" was definitely my favourite - zombie apocalypse AND historical fiction? Um, sign me up? (Can you guess what these three share in common lmao.) I wasn't really jazzed on most of the rest. I guess I came in with some expectations that these would radically subvert love triangles, and for the most part, I, ah, did not feel like that was the case.
Of course there were some really interesting concepts. I liked "Cass, An, and Dra" by Natalie Parker which was cool as it integrated a psychic paranormal narrative into the love triangle story. I'm not usually a fan of love triangles or psychics but it was interesting how that played out. And I found "Unus, Duo, Tres" cool as well with its depiction of vampires. I really appreciate how diverse the characters and stories were, in both marginalized people as well as genre and writing.
Of course there were some really interesting concepts. I liked "Cass, An, and Dra" by Natalie Parker which was cool as it integrated a psychic paranormal narrative into the love triangle story. I'm not usually a fan of love triangles or psychics but it was interesting how that played out. And I found "Unus, Duo, Tres" cool as well with its depiction of vampires. I really appreciate how diverse the characters and stories were, in both marginalized people as well as genre and writing.
porqueerestanvicky's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
curlyandcarbonated's review against another edition
2.0
Although I did enjoy some of the stories in Three Sides of a Heart: Stories About Love Triangles, I didn't find any that I think will truly stick with me.
There is a lot of diversity in the characters, both in their ethnicities and sexual orientations. I also thought the idea for the collection was great: thematically related but in completely different genres. Because of the different genres of short stories, this collection offers something for everyone; however, I don't think many people would like the majority of the stories.
As a middle school teacher, I don't think that I'd recommend this collection in its entirety to any of my students, even the mature ones, although I do think I could recommend one or two individual short stories. It would be really interesting for any writer who is looking at how others have addressed the love triangle, and one of the stories, "Work in Progress" by E.K. Johnston is one written in 2nd person-- students always want to know if 2nd person narration is an option for a narrative, and I've never had an example up until now.
There is a lot of diversity in the characters, both in their ethnicities and sexual orientations. I also thought the idea for the collection was great: thematically related but in completely different genres. Because of the different genres of short stories, this collection offers something for everyone; however, I don't think many people would like the majority of the stories.
As a middle school teacher, I don't think that I'd recommend this collection in its entirety to any of my students, even the mature ones, although I do think I could recommend one or two individual short stories. It would be really interesting for any writer who is looking at how others have addressed the love triangle, and one of the stories, "Work in Progress" by E.K. Johnston is one written in 2nd person-- students always want to know if 2nd person narration is an option for a narrative, and I've never had an example up until now.
beckyleew's review against another edition
3.0
A book of short stories? YA authors? Love triangle theme? Sign me up.
This book had a lot of different genres and a lot of diversity. While I did appreciate that there were short stories and many of them had great, quickly captivating story lines, I was thrown off every now and then by a short story that I just could not become attached to. Sometimes with short stories, you are pushed into the middle of the story and there just simply is not enough time or detail to support the context of that particular story. For that, I had to skim through a few stories.
Overall solid C effort. I'm always happy to try new books in different formats and hope that this will encourage readers to pick up more short stories. I also think that for anyone who appreciates love triangles (I understand this is not a topic that everyone likes) then it is worth reading!
For students: Not recommended based on sexual content.
Special thanks to Edelweiss for the advance copy!
This book had a lot of different genres and a lot of diversity. While I did appreciate that there were short stories and many of them had great, quickly captivating story lines, I was thrown off every now and then by a short story that I just could not become attached to. Sometimes with short stories, you are pushed into the middle of the story and there just simply is not enough time or detail to support the context of that particular story. For that, I had to skim through a few stories.
Overall solid C effort. I'm always happy to try new books in different formats and hope that this will encourage readers to pick up more short stories. I also think that for anyone who appreciates love triangles (I understand this is not a topic that everyone likes) then it is worth reading!
For students: Not recommended based on sexual content.
Special thanks to Edelweiss for the advance copy!
whispertragedy's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked these four stories:
• Cass, An, and Dra - Natalie C. Parker
• The Historian, the Garrison, and the Cantankerous Cat Woman - Lamar Giles
• Before She Was Bloody - Tessa Gratton ⭐️
• Unus, Duo, Tres - Bethany Hagen
• Cass, An, and Dra - Natalie C. Parker
• The Historian, the Garrison, and the Cantankerous Cat Woman - Lamar Giles
• Before She Was Bloody - Tessa Gratton ⭐️
• Unus, Duo, Tres - Bethany Hagen
lpcoolgirl's review against another edition
5.0
This was a fantastic anthology! I enjoyed a lot of these stories, though a few were really weird-like Work in Progress, totally didn't understand that one! I wish we could've had individual synopsis' for these stories, but yeah, I enjoyed reading this anthology!
bookscriticism's review against another edition
2.0
I sadly only enjoyed 2 of those short stories. Its not because of the other stories, characters or what not - its just sometimes very difficult to flesh out characters so you will feel with them when those stories are so short. Only two stories made me feel something. All the others were fine.
Writing wise it was okay - most of them were.
What I liked is that all of those stories aren't those stereotypical love triangles - they are more atypical and kinda different. That didn't really change my opinion though. I just didn't enjoy my time as much.
Writing wise it was okay - most of them were.
What I liked is that all of those stories aren't those stereotypical love triangles - they are more atypical and kinda different. That didn't really change my opinion though. I just didn't enjoy my time as much.