Reviews with content warning for Grief - Blackout

An incredible concept. A beautiful read. Thank you to Dhonielle Clayton for bringing together Team Blackout Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon to write beautiful love stories. I couldn’t put it down & I didn’t want it to end. It was lovely to read love stories that normalize Black and queer relationships of all types. Love is love and this book shows that love can come to us in many forms, which is truly the beauty of it all.

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arireadsitall's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book just filled my heart with so much YA happiness. It’s a story of black love, black loss, black joy, and it’s all centered around a blackout in New York on a hot summer day. The cast of characters written by these amazingly talented authors are unforgettable despite being featured in short stories. They’re the characters you root for as they search for themselves during this night en route to a summer block party. I loved the connection between stories and how they led to this one event!

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sdupont's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book is a compilation of interconnected short stories that occur during a Blackout in New York City. I had a harder time getting into this book because of the short nature of the stories and their quick timelines. My favorite story was “Made to Fit” which was a sweet story featuring a meet cute at a senior living facility and a meddling grandfather.

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emmaward55's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was everything I wanted and didn't know that I needed. More people need to be making noise about this wonderful little collection of stories.

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courtneyfalling's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was really cute, and I loved how the stories and characters intertwined! There was also a really sweet sense of intergenerational connection, supportive friendships, and friends-to-lovers arcs across the stories.

Tammi and Kareem (written by Tiffany D. Jackson): I feel like a lot of their storyline hinged on miscommunication, and the final "reveals" didn't pay off enough for me. There were still so many things it felt like they each needed to talk through! I also wonder a little bit about the choice to intersperse their scenes with the other stories, vs. to just do six stories.

JJ and Tremaine (written by Nic Stone): I love them. I love how past moments between the characters got woven in. I actually gasped aloud at one point

when Tremaine said JJ looked better without his mask

. Possibly my favorite of the stories.

Nella and Joss (written by Ashley Woodfolk): I also totally love them. A little insta-love but I really liked the setting for this story and the other context that allowed them to open up to each other. Also good sapphic rep around confusing friendships and finding romantic love!

Lana and Tristán (written by Dhonielle Clayton): Childhood friends to lovers arcs kept popping up! I guess it makes sense with the phase of life (final summer before college, reflecting on who they are and who they want to be) that the characters are in. I also related a lot to Lana's struggle to find the perfect book and moment to tell Tristán about her feelings, only to have that perfectionist drive become what made the moment more difficult for her.

Kayla, Tre'Shawn, Micah, and Jazmyn (written by Angie Thomas): I wasn't sold on the love triangle/quadrangle at the beginning of this, but it grew on me a lot by the end.

I liked how Kayla was able to discover that her real fear was not knowing who she was not as "Tre'Shawn's girlfriend," especially as someone who's been in that kind of young, serious, long-term relationship and had very similar anxieties. I feel like they were depicted well and we leave Kayla in a good headspace.

Seymour and Grace (written by Nicola Yoon): I liked them! They had a sweet meet-cute and this felt like the most traditionally YA romance story out of them all. (Two strangers with existential thoughts pushed together by coincidence and able to finally open up, only to realize they want to take those feelings into their real lives.)

Overall: I did expect to get a final chapter with all the characters at the block party, to wrap up some of the loose ends, mostly because all of the stories felt very fast-paced with bringing their characters together. I wanted to know, for example,

if Kayla gets to meet up with her cousin, or if Kareem pulls off DJing, or if JJ and Tremaine arrive together in a public way, and so on.

Nothing is too glaringly outstanding, but it's all these small details!

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mallory10100's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

this was such a cute book!! very lighthearted while also tackling tough subjects. fun format too! highly recommend :)

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maddy_s's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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? No

4.0

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melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

4.5

Wow, I really loved this book! The stories were all woven together expertly and I loved to see the little ways in which all the various characters interacted. These authors are all amazing and they did an incredible job putting this together! Each individual story was really well done and beautiful to read!

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