Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

A Universe of Wishes by Dhonielle Clayton

2 reviews

emily_mh's review against another edition

4.0

Overall, this was a pretty solid anthology with a lot of perfectly fine stories, a few complete disasters, and a few outstanding narratives. My least favourite was A Royal Affair. My favourite was The Coldest Spot in the Universe. I’ve reviewed each story individually below. 

A Universe of Wishes, Tara Sim: This world had such a cool magic system. I also grew super attached to Sage and Thorn even though it was only a short story. This was my first experience with Sim’s work, and I can’t wait to read more. 

The Silk Blade, Natalie C. Parker: This was too instalove for my liking. I had a hard time believing the MC would want to throw all her dreams away for someone she met half an hour ago, and has had less than a conversation with. It would have worked better if the two had already known each other, and the MC had already begun experiencing her conflicting feelings. 

The Scarlet Woman, Libba Bray: Let it be known that I hate when short stories that are part of a separate series are included in unrelated anthologies, and this is one of them. There is a lack of depth and context which is impossible to get past. I also didn’t understand how it qualified as diverse. On top of that, it just suddenly ended?? I thought I was missing part of my audiobook or something. Definitely one of my least favourites. 

Cristal Y Ceniza, Anna-Marie McLemore: I liked the Cinderella vibes. However, the worldbuilding was a little plain and I thought the narrative would have worked better in a longer format. 

Liberia, Kwame Mbalia: One of my favourites from this anthology. It worked so well in a short story format. The characters and their dynamics were well illustrated, and I could really feel the tension of the situation our MC was in. 

A Royal Affair, V.E. Schwab: Again, I don’t like short stories that are part of a separate series being included in unrelated anthologies. There is no context or depth, which means the story itself feels boring and insignificant. On top of this, I felt like both main characters could have fought harder for each other so I had a hard time feeling sorry for them. My least favourite from this anthology. 

The Takeback Tango, Rebecca Roanhorse: I loved the premise of a space heist to take back stolen culture from an imperial force. I really want to read a full length book that furthers this idea! As for this story, I felt that the pacing was a bit unbalanced, but otherwise it was thoroughly enjoyable. 

Dream and Dare, Nic Stone: I genuinely still don’t understand what this story was about. Maybe I missed something, but it felt like most of the narrative was actually just Dream reflecting on her memories, and there was no actual explanation of what happened to Dare and why. One of my least favourites for this reason. 

Wish, Jenni Balch: This was over before I realised it had begun. It was fine overall, nothing wrong with it but nothing particularly captivating either. 

The Weight, Dhonielle Clayton: This had a really interesting Black Mirror-style concept! Great execution as well. 

Unmoor, Mark Oshiro: This was another sort of Black Mirror-esque narrative, but with a fantasy twist. It was tragic and poetic and really made me think about the two-way nature of relationships. Definitely one of my favourites. 

The Coldest Spot in the Universe, Samira Ahmed: My favourite story from this anthology! It had an absolutely fascinating format. It made me so emotional and sentimental that I cried, but also left me feeling weirdly hopeful?? 

The Beginning of Monsters, Tessa Gratton: This is kind of reminiscent of Scott Westerfeld’s “Uglies.” However, I did not care about the characters, their attraction felt very superficial, and I had no idea what the plot was supposed to be. One of my least favourites for sure. 

Longer Than the Threads of Time, Zoraida Córdova: I simply cannot get behind an adult/minor relationship that is disguised as the immortal/mortal trope, especially when the narrative itself points out its true nature!! Totally eclipses the otherwise intriguing Rapunzel retelling. 

Habibi, Tonyi Onyebuchi: This was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. My heart was broken and made whole at the same time. A close overall favourite behind The Coldest Spot in the Universe! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Blood, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, War, Police brutality, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, Sexism, Homophobia, Gore, Body horror, Genocide, Misogyny, Violence, Colonisation, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Grief, Murder, Racism, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Suicide, Animal death, Ableism, Bullying, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Slavery, Child death, Racial slurs, Classism, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Self harm, and Excrement

Graphic warnings for global warming/climate change and imprisonment. Moderate warnings for loss of a loved one, nuclear bombs and bombs. Minor warnings for drowning and menstruation.

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

“Also, foreigners who came to Gaza would bring books. And we would sometimes fight over them. They were portals to different worlds. And in them you could sometimes see yourself. Even though they were rarely about Arabs, and rarely about young Arab boys like me, if I squinted, I could see in the contours of their heroes something of my shoulders and my hair and my hands and feet. If I closed my eyes, I could imagine myself as the main character. And I was a hero who did not destroy things but saved them.” — from “Habibi”, by Tochi Onyebuchi

TITLE—A Universe of Wishes

AUTHOR—edited by Dhonielle Clayton

PUBLISHED—2020

GENRE—YA Fantasy / Sci Fi

SETTING—fantasy worlds; spaceships; the future; alternate contemporary worlds

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—lgbtqia+ themes, feminist themes, environmental themes, oppression, incarceration, human nature, love

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️; Quincy (Tochi Onyebuchi’s “Habibi”); Dare & Dream (Nic Stone’s “Dream and Dare”); Sage (Tara Sim’s “A Universe of Wishes”).

PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️; none of these stories were really about plot, which I thought was interesting? mostly about character development, worldbuilding, and philosophy—the only story whose plot kind of shook me was Zoraida Córdova’s Rapunzel retelling (“Longer Than the Threads of Time”)—there was a twist that made me sit up straight in my seat. Waiting for the full-length book for this one *for* *sure*.

BONUS ELEMENT/S—Samira Ahmed’s story, “The Coldest Spot in the Universe” was an archaeology story!! And it was philosophically *fantastic*.

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️; especially “Habibi”, “The Coldest Spot in the Universe”, and “Liberia” (Kwame Mbalia).

This was such a great collection of stories—a very good mix with every story being completely different from each of the others in all respects. It also lives up to its description of “diverse” with trans rep, An/Ans pronoun rep, queer themes, BIPOC-centered stories, etc. Maybe would have liked to see a story featuring explicit Neurodivergent rep but I appreciate what was accomplished nevertheless. Short story anthologies are also such a great way to discover new authors!

To be honest I was going to give this book a 4.5 star rating until I read Tochi Onyebuchi’s “Habibi”, which is the last story in the collection, and that story alone bumped this anthology up to an easy five stars. 😂<3 I’ve already reread it seven times. 🙈  If you were only going to read three stories out of this collection I’d recommend that one, “Liberia”, and “The Coldest Spot in the Universe”. “Dream and Dare” by Nic Stone was also a personal favorite of mine because the writing, characters, and setting felt like an actual dream I’ve had and I was just obsessed with it.

“Please write me back.
Even if you aren’t real."
— from “Habibi”

I also thought the worldbuilding was particularly cool in Tessa Gratton’s “The Beginning of Monsters”—I didn’t quite follow the storyline of this one (it was gorgeously complex and my brain wasn’t following, will need to reread) but I definitely think that the author’s vision deserved many many more pages and I would 100% read a full novel/series based on this premise. It would make for an extremely interesting and unique high-fantasy series. The worldbuilding was also pretty cool in Natalie C. Parker’s “The Silk Blade”.

“We study the ancient ones to learn about ourselves. They are not a monoculture, not a song with a single note. They are a collection of stories, an endless symphony, a galaxy of stars.” — from Samira Ahmed’s “The Coldest Spot in the Universe”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TW // physical abuse, domestic abuse, violence, blood, genocide, incarceration, torture, racism, police brutality, starvation, death, murder

Further Reading—

• A Phoenix First Must Burn, ed. by Patricia Caldwell
• How Long ’Til Black Future Month, by N. K. Jemisin
• Riot Baby, by Tochi Onyebuchi
• Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

Graphic descriptions of incarceration.