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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
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Overall, these short stories ranged from okay to nice, with the occasional tug at the heartstrings. I did love the theme of LGBTQ+ throughout history—it reflects how being queer isn’t a modern idea, we’ve always been here.
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Very sweet collection of queer stories that span between different genres and moments in history. My favorites were El Lobo, the Robin Hood one, the dresser and the chamber maid, and the one with the former child star. Honorable mention to The Night Circus But Gay.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
hopeful
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
You know, I usually don’t like anthologies as much as collections or single novels, because there are almost invariably one or two (or three or four or...) complete duds. There was not a single complete dud in this whole collection, and if some were stronger than others, not a one was weak.
It’s not all five-star work, but I am so impressed with the quality of the selection that I think the whole body deserves five. Hats off the Saundra Mitchell for her obviously great perceptive powers of choosing and to the authors for writing great stories.
It’s not all five-star work, but I am so impressed with the quality of the selection that I think the whole body deserves five. Hats off the Saundra Mitchell for her obviously great perceptive powers of choosing and to the authors for writing great stories.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really enjoy reading short story anthologies so I picked this one up as part of my Pride month reads.
Obviously no short story collection can truly be a perfect 5 stars(at least I haven't encountered any myself) as there are bound to be a few misses in there but this one had a lot more misses than I was expecting.
Most of the stories I felt rather meh about as there wasn't anything particularly outstanding in them. My favourite ones were definitely the two with the asexual main characters but that's a huge bias on my part since I'm ace too. I loved that they had romantic relationships too being an alloromantic ace myself.
I think what detracted from my enjoyment of a lot of the stories was the insta love factor that seemed really illogical to me but then again there's only so much you can do with the restrictive layout of short stories. There was also a lot of sexual content that made me quite uncomfortable especially cause this is a YA book.
The stories were also all set in either Europe or North America which was disappointing since I was looking forward to historical fiction from all across the world.
Overall I did like sampling the works of so many authors, some of whom I've already read from and more whom I haven't encountered before. But the book definitely didn't live up to my expectations and I hope that the next collection I read will be better than this.
Obviously no short story collection can truly be a perfect 5 stars(at least I haven't encountered any myself) as there are bound to be a few misses in there but this one had a lot more misses than I was expecting.
Most of the stories I felt rather meh about as there wasn't anything particularly outstanding in them. My favourite ones were definitely the two with the asexual main characters but that's a huge bias on my part since I'm ace too. I loved that they had romantic relationships too being an alloromantic ace myself.
I think what detracted from my enjoyment of a lot of the stories was the insta love factor that seemed really illogical to me but then again there's only so much you can do with the restrictive layout of short stories. There was also a lot of sexual content that made me quite uncomfortable especially cause this is a YA book.
The stories were also all set in either Europe or North America which was disappointing since I was looking forward to historical fiction from all across the world.
Overall I did like sampling the works of so many authors, some of whom I've already read from and more whom I haven't encountered before. But the book definitely didn't live up to my expectations and I hope that the next collection I read will be better than this.