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Reviews tagging 'Death'
Being Ace: An Anthology of Queer, Trans, Femme, and Disabled Stories of Asexual Love and Connection by Madeline Dyer
12 reviews
emily_mh's review against another edition
4.0
“It’s the only thing that keeps my head up when others in the village behave as though I do not belong, simply because I sing in a language they’ve forgotten and love in a way they refuse to understand.”
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia
Moderate: Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Medical content, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Cursing, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Sexism, Animal death, and Murder
Minor: Bullying, Gun violence, Alcohol, Racism, Blood, Sexual content, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Torture, Homophobia, Death of parent, Vomit, Grief, Classism, Rape, Body horror, Cancer, Suicide, Gore, War, Islamophobia, and Physical abuse
Moderate: calorie counting, "mercy killing", loss of a loved one, explosion, internalised acephobia Minor: toxic masculinity, earthquake, volcano, drowningbookishmillennial's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
With any anthology, people will have favorite stories and others that were just fine. However, I mostly felt grateful reading this, as I have been exploring my own demisexuality, and it’s just so lovely to read about others’ experiences, whether it is via essays or fictional short stories! Art is so impactful, and authentic representation matters.
My favorites out of this bunch were:
- Across the Stars by Akemi Dawn Bowman
- Well Suited by Rosiee Thor
- Moonspirited by Anju Imura
- No Cure for Doubt by Jas Brown
I found a lot of new-to-me authors by reading this! 🥹
Acephobia/Arophobia, Death, Eating disorder
Graphic: Death, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Ableism, and Bullying
daryn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia and Death
sarah_shelf's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
How to Love a Sidewinder
Across the Stars
Give Up the Ghost
Smells Like Teen Virgin
The Third Star
The Mermaid’s Sister
No Cure for Doubts
Minor: Ableism, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Death, Death of parent, Bullying, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse
Content warnings from the book: "Sexual assault, sexual violence, and coercion; abuse (sexual, verbal, emotional, mental, physical); acephobia; transphobia; misgendering; ableism; abduction; death of a parent, a love interest, a sibling, and best friend; bullying; and mental illness including depression, suicidal ideation, and eating disorders with discussion of calorie counts"elwirax's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
It makes me so happy to see myself represented more in literature. However, I was really hoping that the representation would be more natural and not as 'forced' for lack of a better word. Many of the stories centred around the main characters thinking there was something wrong with them and that they had to force themselves to have sex or other characters tried to force them. While these are real and valid asexual experiences, I was looking for some more self-acceptance, normalisation and lightness in these stories. I got some of that from Smells like Teen Virgin but the plot itself fell into much of the same aforementioned issues. Sealights was perhaps the closest I got to representation that felt natural and I really enjoyed it for that aspect.
Overall, there were definitely a few stories that I really enjoyed such as Across the Stars, Well Suited, Sealights and The Witch of Festa Falls. A few didn't work out but such are the ways of anthologies. I really hope to see more ace rep in the coming years.
How to love a sidewinder: 3.5
Across the stars: 3.75
Well Suited: 3.75
Nylon Bed Socks: 3
Give up the Ghost: 3.5
No Such Thing as Just: 1
Smells Like Teen Virgin: 3.75
Sealights: 3.75
Moonspirited: 3
The Third Star: 2.5
The Mermaid's Sister: 2
The Hazards of Pressing Play: 1
No Cure for Doubt: 2.5
The Witch of Festa Falls: 4
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
ellie_debney's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Graphic: Death, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Sexual violence
thehomiemona's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia and Death
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Ableism, War, and Grief
Minor: Animal death and Blood
ashylibrarian's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I think this honestly was a case of "It's me, not you." Most of the stories were great, and I even wished a few of them were longer, even full-length stories, to spend more time with the characters in their worlds. I think the reason this fell a little flat for me is because I'm not a huge short-story reader. I have a difficult time finding a good transitional pace between stories and sometimes find myself rushing through them.
All this being said, I still enjoyed reading these stories and exploring the variety of world-building and character creation. It was so nice to experience so many ace stories with other awesome rep, as well. I will definitely keep this book on my recommending radar.
Graphic: Ableism, Eating disorder, and Acephobia/Arophobia
Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death
mfrisk's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
That being said I do want to highlight 3 of the stories from this collection which I quite enjoyed:
- Well Suited - this was a lovely story of friendship, magic, and of rising above expectations set about by those around you.
- Smells like Teen Virgin - this was a take on the Slayer-verse which introduced some new lore and took us in an empowering direction of self-discovery and of helping others see new possibilities.
- Across the Stars: this was a story of family, friendship, and overcoming fear and a slice of life in space.
Graphic: Death of parent, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Ableism, Kidnapping, Acephobia/Arophobia, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Bullying, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and Eating disorder
Minor: Animal death
chronically_theo's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
AHHH!
I loved this!!
First all the things I likes about it:
- There was an Ace Electric Wheelchair User MC!! It's so rare I see wheelchair users as main characters let alone LGBTQIA ones that are actually written by Wheelchair Users. I've been a wheelchair user for a while and I did a little happy dance when I first read it. I will definitely be reading any books Lara Ameen writes in the future!
- How many gender diverse Aces and side characters there were. There was also Neopronoun rep in one or two of the stories which was great. Plus casual mention of a character wearing a binder and gender neutral pronouns without any of the big speeches or explanations
- So many Ace Autistics! Again I love seeing myself representated on page especially because the representation was written without it sounding like the poor Autistic character that can never find love that you can sadly find in a lot of books.
- Aces in historical contexts is really comforting to read about too. Especially because Asexuality is seen as a very modern thing.
- I know this is basically the last three points but it was so amazing to see so many non white abled cis het Asexuals.
- And that they weren't all Aromantic too. (I am Aro just the stereotype or ignorance people have that all Aces are Aro too is really frustrating)
Now to things I didn't really like
- Some dived into the story too quickly. I know they are short stories but I had absolutely no clue what was happening at points and often had to reread from the start of the short story to understand what was happening. Eg I'd start one story and put it down and by the time I started reading again nothing made sense.
- no content warnings or author notes warning about what would occur at the start of each story. Some covered and talked about death or other potentially traumatic subjects with no warning.
- How much detail was given about the only wheelchair user in the book. Given how none of these trans characters had to give so much personal information it would've been really cool to have they were a wheelchair user and not give the entire medical history. (Just my own opinion as a wheelchair user and how strangers feel entitled to my medical history.)
Overall I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to Aces who want to see themselves represented.
Moderate: Death, Ableism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Bullying, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent