bay22's review

Go to review page

  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kalira's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.75

This collection of stories is utterly fascinating and absolutely delightful, from the very first story (magical space princesses! in love or perhaps at war, or both?) to the very last (cursed gods, mysterious gifts, darkness and love and being true to oneself).

I enjoyed the whole thing (all three sections - in the stars, in our world lit with magic, and in various new worlds) and was quite pleased that most of the stories have a hopeful if not actually happy ending, with even the more sorrowful ones not exactly an unhappy conclusion.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

maple_dove's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

rensreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

each and every single story in this was so profound and scratched the latinx magical realism itch i’ve had for quite a while.

the story that had me shaking as i read was “this is our manifesto” by mark oshiro. i took a small break halfway through it and came back with goosebumps raising up and down my arms again. it was THAT good. even in space, racism and classism still exist. in this story though, we are only in space due to those reasons. children in space jail for simply standing up for what is right, for supporting those who would not bite their tongues, for being a person of color at the wrong place and wrong time. in the long run, it isn’t quite different from what has been happening in real life. this is our manifesto served as a reminder that even the places we might sometimes wish to escape to won’t be as forgiving or free as we imagine. 

there were so many different writing styles and i loved that. each author had their own voice that entranced me from the start and getting to read about so many queer brown people in space and our world with just a dash of magic was something i could not begin to explain correctly. not every ending was what i wished it to be and i did find it strange that there wasn’t even one achillean love story included here, but these are very minor concerns. it was very obvious that short stories are not what many of these authors are used to and yet that didn’t ruin anything about the book as a whole either.

mostly, this book served to remind me that we latinx people hold plenty of magic in ourselves and in the land we once respected before we assimilated. magical realism is not just a genre for some of us but a way of thinking. many of us grew up on folk lore and medicine from our abuelitas y tias y ancestros and never once questioned why. its always felt the most natural and that seems to be for a reason. whatever the reason might be, this book only further enables the mystical world view we were raised to have.

i need to run out and get a physical copy of this book for myself since it was definitely a 5 star read for me (:

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sj_54's review

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Context: I love sci-fi, I love fantasy, and I love short stories. So this ticked the boxes for me.

Overall a beautiful collection, the stories were varied and each easy to read in one sitting. Some were more interesting to me than others, as is true of all collections.

The diversity of points of view, characters, cultures, and myths was what held my attention the most. 
What bothered me most were the numerous errors in the text: typoes, words missing or repeated, paragraphs with multiple verb tenses. It detracted from my enjoyment, as it felt careless and unpolished, and I am very much hoping it was an error in the eBook copy only and not the print.

I will note here that some reviewers have stated concerns about a few included authors who have had previous controversies. While I don't believe this is a reason alone to disregard a diverse collection, it is important to acknowledge. 

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for access to the eBook ARC.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...