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202 reviews for:
Three Sides of a Heart: Stories about Love Triangles
Natalie C. Parker, Rae Carson, Renée Ahdieh
3.12 AVERAGE
202 reviews for:
Three Sides of a Heart: Stories about Love Triangles
Natalie C. Parker, Rae Carson, Renée Ahdieh
3.12 AVERAGE
I consider myself well-versed in love triangles. Not from personal experience, but from the sheer amount of YA fiction I read. And while there were a few short stories in here that I did truly enjoy, the majority of them did not hold my attention. I did appreciate the loose interpretation that some of the authors used. Love triangles cannot come in all shapes, but they can come in all sizes, so that was fun. However, I did have to force myself to finish this book in its entirety. It could be the type of book that just shouldn't be listened to as an audiobook, I'm not sure. If you are going to explore this title, I'd recommend a print copy, not an audiobook.
This anthology looked at love triangles, subverting a few tropes and turning a few stereotypes on their heads. I liked some stories more than others (Riddles in Mathematics, Lessons for Beginners, Dread South, and Hurdles were my favorites) and some I didn't feel were necessary at all, but overall I enjoyed this collection.
Riddles in Mathematics by Katie Cotugno - this one was super cute and I loved it! Great story to start the book off.
Dread South by Justina Ireland - I was super invested in this story and loved the premise. Makes me want to read Dread Nation now.
Omega Ship by Rae Carson - WHOA, such a twist and I loved it.
La Revancha del Tango by Renee Ahdieh - this was good
Cass, An, and Dra by Natalie C. Parker - Cassandra could be a poly ship name and I’d be completely there for that story. This one however fell a bit flat, interesting concept though.
Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy - Reminded me of Easy A, was funny and I guessed the end
Triangle Solo by Garth Nix - okay, this was cute!
Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth - okay see I’d read more like this from VR. This was cute and real and I would super enjoy more of this story complete with the artwork and fan fiction, along with the comic.
Work in Progress by EK Johnson - read a page and then just really couldn’t enjoy it so I skipped it.
Hurdles by Brandy Colbert - this was good!
The Historian, The Garrison, and the cantankerous cat Woman by Lamar Giles - this was pretty epic and not what I expected at all.
Waiting by Sabaa Tahir- this was one of the only ones that didn’t end how I wanted or how I thought it would so kudos to Sabaa for that! It was a good story.
Vega by Brenna Yovanoff - interesting triangle, not my faves rite story but I appreciated what Brenna was trying to accomplish
A Hundred thousand threads by Alaya Dawn Johnson - read a bit and then skimmed most to see if I was right. I was and I wasn’t satisfied. It was too choppy and all over the place
Before she was Bloody by Tessa Grafton - had to skim this one too, just didn’t keep my attention
Unus, Duo Tres by Bethany Hagen - this was interesting. I am a sucker for a good vampire story (pun not intended but I’m keeping it)
Dread South by Justina Ireland - I was super invested in this story and loved the premise. Makes me want to read Dread Nation now.
Omega Ship by Rae Carson - WHOA, such a twist and I loved it.
La Revancha del Tango by Renee Ahdieh - this was good
Cass, An, and Dra by Natalie C. Parker - Cassandra could be a poly ship name and I’d be completely there for that story. This one however fell a bit flat, interesting concept though.
Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy - Reminded me of Easy A, was funny and I guessed the end
Triangle Solo by Garth Nix - okay, this was cute!
Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth - okay see I’d read more like this from VR. This was cute and real and I would super enjoy more of this story complete with the artwork and fan fiction, along with the comic.
Work in Progress by EK Johnson - read a page and then just really couldn’t enjoy it so I skipped it.
Hurdles by Brandy Colbert - this was good!
The Historian, The Garrison, and the cantankerous cat Woman by Lamar Giles - this was pretty epic and not what I expected at all.
Waiting by Sabaa Tahir- this was one of the only ones that didn’t end how I wanted or how I thought it would so kudos to Sabaa for that! It was a good story.
Vega by Brenna Yovanoff - interesting triangle, not my faves rite story but I appreciated what Brenna was trying to accomplish
A Hundred thousand threads by Alaya Dawn Johnson - read a bit and then skimmed most to see if I was right. I was and I wasn’t satisfied. It was too choppy and all over the place
Before she was Bloody by Tessa Grafton - had to skim this one too, just didn’t keep my attention
Unus, Duo Tres by Bethany Hagen - this was interesting. I am a sucker for a good vampire story (pun not intended but I’m keeping it)
a delightful collection of YA short story love triangles, with all sorts of variation on interpreting that theme. it was fun to try to pick out the angles of the love triangle as characters were introduced, and to be surprised sometimes when one side of the triangle was a non-person entity. the stories had a variety of sweet or bitter resolutions, too. i read one story at a time over lunch hours and they were always a nice break from work. it's hard to pick a favorite but i think i'd go with Omega Ship by Rae Carson, just because the ending was so not what i was expecting but the more i thought about it the more i loved it. Runners up: The Historian, The Garrison, and the Cantakerous Cat Woman by Lamar Giles, A Hundred Thousand Threads by Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Work in Progress by E. K. Johnston. but maybe that's just my preference for the speculative fiction genre. anyway this whole book is great fun and i would recommend it, there's bound to be a story that will resonate with every reader even if its not the same ones i preferred.
Fuck it. I don't feel like reading anymore books that I'm not enjoying. Here's what I have for what I read.
1. Riddles in Mathematics by Katie Cotugno. Easily a, if not THE, favorite of the bunch. This was really cute and I liked the inclusion of the inside-joke-riddles. This was more than just a romance though; it was more a story of the main character coming out and the aftermath that follows, especially her relationship with her mother. This is easily a story that could have been expanded into an entire book that I would have loved. I haven't read any Cotugno before but this story makes me want to read more of her work.
2. Dread South by Justina Ireland. Not really for me. I don't love zombie stories, and as this was clearly promo material for her upcoming full-length novel about zombies, I can already tell I won't be loving it. This did feature a really great zombie killing black girl love interest who I liked, though.
3. Omega Ship by Rae Carson. Okay so Gillian and Jessie had me VERY SCARED of this one and I think the negative hype made it so that this ended up not being offensive and terrible to me. BUT IT WAS STILL AWFUL OKAY. Not only was it incredibly heavy handed with the symbolism but it was also just... BAD. Everyone was naked and a LOT OF TIME was spent extrapolating on this nudity and like I get it, but this is a short story there is not a lot of time here. The heroine's choices were questionable and YIKES. Maybe if this was a longer novella that had time to explore the themes here, and if they were CLOTHED, this could have worked but as it stands it was just mind-boggling.
4. La Revancha del Tango by Renee Ahdieh. Probably one of the better ones in here but the writing was so boring to me, I just couldn't get into it. And it was LONG compared to the others.
5. Cass, An, and Dra by Natalie C. Parker. Natalie C. Parker being the editor and a contributor to this is one of the main reasons I picked it up. I love Parker's writing and her books are some of my faves. This story is one that worked extremely well for me, though I can see how others would dislike it. There was so much packed into this tiny story. I loved the weird psychic/magic stuff going on in here AND I loved that one of the love interests was a genderfluid character who used they/them pronouns. There was just so much life lived in these few pages and I really, really loved it.
6. Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy. So much to love here as well! This is about a fat main character (!!!) who gives kissing lessons and falls for one of the girls she helps. It's really sweet and adorable and I ship the ship. However, there's some violent homophobia at the end that was really jarring and I didn't think fit with the theme and tone of the short story or this collection overall.
7. Triangle Solo by Garth Nix. Ugh this was terrible. I didn't understand the world-building at all, first of all. This was science fiction and that part of it fell really flat. Also the main character was awful. The love interest is a girl he knew when he was young and she just moved back to their PLANET. So she's been home for like a day and he's already thinking about his romantic competition and it's making him ACTUALLY MAD. Sorry, buddy, but 1) let the girl breathe for a fucking minute, 2) it's a lot to assume she'd even be into you, and 3) even if she was, YOU'RE TREATING HER LIKE PROPERTY. It was gross. I skipped the second half and read the last few sentences to see how it ended. There was a LOT of work on Nix's part to get the triangle pun to work and it just didn't pay off the way he wanted it to.
8. Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth. This was a really solid little story. It has similarities to Cass, An, and Dra in that it explores different possible outcomes based on one decision. I really loved the fandom aspect to this: two of the characters are fan-creators, the main character being an artist and her friend being a fanfic writer. I'm not 100% sure this story fit the theme for the anthology though. This was mostly a story about rebuilding friendship and I actually really, really loved that part. The love triangle was very much sidelined. Also, I loved that the MC had anxiety. I think I'd have liked this one as a full length novel.
9. Work in Progress by E.K. Johnston. This was written in second person, the kind of second person where you are the main character. It was so, so confusing. The writing was muddy and vague and I had no idea what was going on. There was no mention of another character for a long while and by then I gave up. I have no idea what this was trying to do but it went right over my head.
1. Riddles in Mathematics by Katie Cotugno. Easily a, if not THE, favorite of the bunch. This was really cute and I liked the inclusion of the inside-joke-riddles. This was more than just a romance though; it was more a story of the main character coming out and the aftermath that follows, especially her relationship with her mother. This is easily a story that could have been expanded into an entire book that I would have loved. I haven't read any Cotugno before but this story makes me want to read more of her work.
2. Dread South by Justina Ireland. Not really for me. I don't love zombie stories, and as this was clearly promo material for her upcoming full-length novel about zombies, I can already tell I won't be loving it. This did feature a really great zombie killing black girl love interest who I liked, though.
3. Omega Ship by Rae Carson. Okay so Gillian and Jessie had me VERY SCARED of this one and I think the negative hype made it so that this ended up not being offensive and terrible to me. BUT IT WAS STILL AWFUL OKAY. Not only was it incredibly heavy handed with the symbolism but it was also just... BAD. Everyone was naked and a LOT OF TIME was spent extrapolating on this nudity and like I get it, but this is a short story there is not a lot of time here. The heroine's choices were questionable and YIKES. Maybe if this was a longer novella that had time to explore the themes here, and if they were CLOTHED, this could have worked but as it stands it was just mind-boggling.
4. La Revancha del Tango by Renee Ahdieh. Probably one of the better ones in here but the writing was so boring to me, I just couldn't get into it. And it was LONG compared to the others.
5. Cass, An, and Dra by Natalie C. Parker. Natalie C. Parker being the editor and a contributor to this is one of the main reasons I picked it up. I love Parker's writing and her books are some of my faves. This story is one that worked extremely well for me, though I can see how others would dislike it. There was so much packed into this tiny story. I loved the weird psychic/magic stuff going on in here AND I loved that one of the love interests was a genderfluid character who used they/them pronouns. There was just so much life lived in these few pages and I really, really loved it.
6. Lessons for Beginners by Julie Murphy. So much to love here as well! This is about a fat main character (!!!) who gives kissing lessons and falls for one of the girls she helps. It's really sweet and adorable and I ship the ship. However, there's some violent homophobia at the end that was really jarring and I didn't think fit with the theme and tone of the short story or this collection overall.
7. Triangle Solo by Garth Nix. Ugh this was terrible. I didn't understand the world-building at all, first of all. This was science fiction and that part of it fell really flat. Also the main character was awful. The love interest is a girl he knew when he was young and she just moved back to their PLANET. So she's been home for like a day and he's already thinking about his romantic competition and it's making him ACTUALLY MAD. Sorry, buddy, but 1) let the girl breathe for a fucking minute, 2) it's a lot to assume she'd even be into you, and 3) even if she was, YOU'RE TREATING HER LIKE PROPERTY. It was gross. I skipped the second half and read the last few sentences to see how it ended. There was a LOT of work on Nix's part to get the triangle pun to work and it just didn't pay off the way he wanted it to.
8. Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth. This was a really solid little story. It has similarities to Cass, An, and Dra in that it explores different possible outcomes based on one decision. I really loved the fandom aspect to this: two of the characters are fan-creators, the main character being an artist and her friend being a fanfic writer. I'm not 100% sure this story fit the theme for the anthology though. This was mostly a story about rebuilding friendship and I actually really, really loved that part. The love triangle was very much sidelined. Also, I loved that the MC had anxiety. I think I'd have liked this one as a full length novel.
9. Work in Progress by E.K. Johnston. This was written in second person, the kind of second person where you are the main character. It was so, so confusing. The writing was muddy and vague and I had no idea what was going on. There was no mention of another character for a long while and by then I gave up. I have no idea what this was trying to do but it went right over my head.
As with most anthologies, some of the stories speak to you and others don't. And that's okay. I did very much like that one of the stories referenced Pony Pals.
"There's a certain kind of magic to being a kid with someone. They always have this little private piece of you. They own your heart, even if you don't remember giving it to them." -Brenna Yovanoff
Anthologies are so hard for me to rate, yet I continue to read them. There were several stories in this anthology that I did not relate to and I didn't like. But, there were several stories that I really enjoyed. Personally, I really liked Triangle Solo by Garth Nix, Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth, and Waiting by Sabaa Tahir. There was a little bit of everything in these stories: contemporary, fantasy, historical, paranormal and science fiction.
I did like how these stories took the idea of a love triangle and changed it up from the typical love triangle many of us are used to: Katniss, Peeta, Gale or Bella, Jacob, Edward. These love triangles were quite different and some made more sense to me than others. One thing I was not prepared for was how steamy some of these YA stories got. Short stories can be difficult for me to connect with the characters anyway because they are so short in nature, but I was surprised by how intimate some characters got beyond a kiss in only 30 pages.
If you like anthologies, I'm sure you will enjoy this collection. I think this book would be best suited for high school readers and up due to some mature content.
Anthologies are so hard for me to rate, yet I continue to read them. There were several stories in this anthology that I did not relate to and I didn't like. But, there were several stories that I really enjoyed. Personally, I really liked Triangle Solo by Garth Nix, Vim and Vigor by Veronica Roth, and Waiting by Sabaa Tahir. There was a little bit of everything in these stories: contemporary, fantasy, historical, paranormal and science fiction.
I did like how these stories took the idea of a love triangle and changed it up from the typical love triangle many of us are used to: Katniss, Peeta, Gale or Bella, Jacob, Edward. These love triangles were quite different and some made more sense to me than others. One thing I was not prepared for was how steamy some of these YA stories got. Short stories can be difficult for me to connect with the characters anyway because they are so short in nature, but I was surprised by how intimate some characters got beyond a kiss in only 30 pages.
If you like anthologies, I'm sure you will enjoy this collection. I think this book would be best suited for high school readers and up due to some mature content.
Faves: Julie Murphy’s Lessons for Beginners, Alaya Dawn Johnson’s A Hundred Thousand Threads, and Tessa Gratton’s Before She Was Bloody.
Surprisingly few OT3 endings, some where of course I cheered for the other party, and a pleasantly surprising few where neither love option is picked.
Surprisingly few OT3 endings, some where of course I cheered for the other party, and a pleasantly surprising few where neither love option is picked.
Read by Liz at North Heart Hub
With big-name contributing authors like Roth, Johnston, and Ahdieh, I had high expectations for this volume. I will say I was not disappointed. This is great praise from me, since I hate both short stories and love triangles. I picked this book up because it promised new takes on the love triangle, which was certainly true.
I rarely pick up volumes of short stories. That's probably because I don't like them. I want to be sucked in and know everything about characters and their worlds. I love fanfiction, team. I want more of characters I love, not less. Short stories just aren't a great fit for me. Usually, when I just start warming up to the characters-- suddenly the story is over. I find it incredibly jarring. Then I have to go write fanfiction, which, I just don't have that kind of time, guys.
I'm also a vocal opponent of the consistent mishandling of love triangles. There's much written on this, if you're curious to find out more, give it a quick google. Any book that solves a love triangle with a good twist gets major kudos in my book (That Inevitable Victorian Thing by EK Johnston is a great example).
So, with those two huge hurdles in mind, this volume of stories really performed well. I was engrossed in almost all of them. I enjoyed the many scifi settings, the relative diversity of characters and sexualities, and the quality of the storytelling. The vast majority of the stories even did well with their love triangles! There were a few stories that ended without any kind of resolution-- which I know is like, a thing in short story writing. It is a thing that I hate. It seems like really enjoying 80% of a movie and then standing up and leaving.
The vast majorities of the stories were interesting, engaging, and creative. I would heartily recommend this volume to someone who does enjoy short stories. If you actually like short stories, this would be an amazing summer read for 2018.
With big-name contributing authors like Roth, Johnston, and Ahdieh, I had high expectations for this volume. I will say I was not disappointed. This is great praise from me, since I hate both short stories and love triangles. I picked this book up because it promised new takes on the love triangle, which was certainly true.
I rarely pick up volumes of short stories. That's probably because I don't like them. I want to be sucked in and know everything about characters and their worlds. I love fanfiction, team. I want more of characters I love, not less. Short stories just aren't a great fit for me. Usually, when I just start warming up to the characters-- suddenly the story is over. I find it incredibly jarring. Then I have to go write fanfiction, which, I just don't have that kind of time, guys.
I'm also a vocal opponent of the consistent mishandling of love triangles. There's much written on this, if you're curious to find out more, give it a quick google. Any book that solves a love triangle with a good twist gets major kudos in my book (That Inevitable Victorian Thing by EK Johnston is a great example).
So, with those two huge hurdles in mind, this volume of stories really performed well. I was engrossed in almost all of them. I enjoyed the many scifi settings, the relative diversity of characters and sexualities, and the quality of the storytelling. The vast majority of the stories even did well with their love triangles! There were a few stories that ended without any kind of resolution-- which I know is like, a thing in short story writing. It is a thing that I hate. It seems like really enjoying 80% of a movie and then standing up and leaving.
The vast majorities of the stories were interesting, engaging, and creative. I would heartily recommend this volume to someone who does enjoy short stories. If you actually like short stories, this would be an amazing summer read for 2018.
