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1.04k reviews for:
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
Saundra Mitchell
3.92 AVERAGE
1.04k reviews for:
All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages
Saundra Mitchell
3.92 AVERAGE
As far as the stories themselves, I'm not going to review each one, but I will say they all fell prey to the (very obvious) reason I don't tend to like short stories in the first place: they're not long enough. Short stories are useful for exploring a single character or concept. It's very, very difficult to do more than one of these effectively in a single story. But too often, authors seem to treat them like mini-novels, trying to have multiple characters or too much plot or what have you, and ending up with something that feels rushed and skimpy, or like a single chapter pulled out of context from a longer work that really ought to be put back. To be clear, there is a spectrum of quality represented in this collection, and some of these stories do feel much more focused and polished than others in this regard. But (and this is where it bleeds into personal preference) I personally didn't find any of then totally satisfying. What can I say? I find it hard to fully connect to a character in just a dozen pages.
That's not to say it was a total bust, by any means; some of the stories were very enjoyable. My favorite was Robin Talley's "The Dresser and the Chambermaid", because I love stories about people that usually get forgotten in history, like servants, and I thought the relationship was very sweet. I also really liked the concept of the Robin Hood retelling ("Every Shade of Red" by Elliot Wake), though that was definitely one that I felt should have been a novel. Overall, there were certainly some parts of this that I liked, but it did not make a short-story convert of me.
Roja - Anna-Marie McLemore 4 stars
The Sweet Trade - Natalie C. Parker 3 stars
This was too insta-lovey for me and I just felt like it was really weird.
And They Don't Kiss at the End - Nilah Magruder 4.5 stars
I loved this! It was really cute and captivating.
Burnt Umber - Mackenzi Lee 5 stars
This was so embarrasing but so adorable and I want more!
The Dresser and the Chambermaid - Robin Talley 3 stars
I liked the beginning, but it got worse as the story progressed and I thought the ending was terrible.
New Year - Malinda Lo 2 stars
I found this really uninteresting. The story was random and didn't make much sense.
Molly's Lips - Dahlia Adler 5 stars
The Coven - Kate Scelsa 3 stars
This was a bit weird but enjoyable nonetheless.
Every Shade of Red - Elliot Wake 5 stars
This was absolutely amazing and the ending killed me! I need more!
Willows - Scott Tracey 3 stars
This was really confusing and the ending was pretty bad but I liked the writing.
The Girl with the Blue Lantern - Tess Sharpe 4 stars
I really liked this.
The Secret Life of a Teenage Boy - Alex Sanchez 2.5 stars
I liked the beginning but after that is was just terrible. Way too insta-lovey, really cringey, kind of creepy and bad ending.
Walking After Midnight - Kody Keplinger 5 stars
Wow!
The End of the World As We Know It - Sara Farizan 4 stars
This was cute but nothing special.
Three Witches - Tessa Gratton 1 star
This was confusing, uninteresting and weird.
The Inferno and the Butterfly - Shaun David Hutchinson 5 stars
This was so good and I'm still emotional!
Healing Rosa - Tehlor Kay Mejia 4 stars
A really interesting story, captivating.
All in all, a good anthology with a few really good stories.
Actual rating is closer to 3.5 because there were four stories that really stood out, while the rest never dipped below a 3.
I liked that all the characters harbored very little doubt about who they were. I guess that's the concept of being All Out, but I never fully appreciated what being closeted meant until I read a tweet that criticized how young gay people view being "closeted" as being "gay but incognito" instead of being self-doubting and self-hating.
While all of the stories were strong, I'll briefly describe a few favorites:
- "The Coven" by Kate Scelsa brings us to Paris, 1924, where a WLW couple gets blessed by Gertrude freaking Stein
- "Molly's Lips" by Dahlia Adler about a WLW pairing gets together over the death of Kurt Cobain. It hews a bit close in tone to Sara Farizan's "The End of the World As We Know It," in which two friends make up (and make out) on the eve of the Y2K "crisis." Still, both felt extremely down-to-earth compared to the others. No magical elements. All teenaged angst. Delicious.
- "New Year" by Malinda Lo was one of the few Asian-American experiences represented in the anthology. A girl named Lily is ambiguously gay, but she sees a possibly trans Asian man in her family restaurant. She begins her journey into San Francisco's vibrant LGBTQ community.
But the three that really blew me away in terms of writing, plot, and representation were Anna-Marie McLemore's "Roja," Elliott Wake's "Every Shade of Red," and Tessa Gratton's "Three Witches." These stories fulfilled the cover art's promise with themes about queer history, folklore, and magical realism. These were the ones I really was here for. (And before anyone comes at me, I will acknowledge that "Willows" by Scott Tracey had the same potential. It was beautifully written but was ultimately too confused. How was Benjamin queer? Admittedly I haven't read enough trans literature, but surely transness isn't just living alongside the dead spirits inside of you in Colonial America?)
For me, the more modern settings felt out of touch with the other stories around them, though that could just be me buying into the cover design's promises than the editor's fulfilled promise of hearing the "stories of queer teens throughout the ages."
Either way, this was a good read.
