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A review by thebookishfeminist
Come On In: 15 Stories about Immigration and Finding Home by Adi Alsaid
5.0
COME ON IN is an empowering, honest, compassionate look into the lives of a diverse group of authors who have shared short stories about their lives or characters whose lives they relate to. They are stories of family relationships, friendships, young romance, of trying to figure out who we are and hoping people will see us and accept us for it. The stories tackle the complex and layered identities of immigrants, moving away from home, micro-aggressions and their effects on young people's identities, and so many more situations that young folx experience. COME ON IN truly lets us into the authors' worlds so that the reader can feel less alone and can see a way forward if they are struggling to find acceptance - from others or from themselves.
These stories have stuck with me in ways I didn't expect. I am not a BIPOC or an immigrant, so while I cannot claim that my experiences mirror those described in this collection, I do think these stories will resonate universally with an age group that can feel so lonely and isolating. For own-voices readers, this collection will provide representation of diverse experiences that are not always represented in literature and that is an empowering thing. Non-OV readers will also get that sense of being less alone, since there are universal truths about adolescence, but it will also encourage those readers to think about other adolescents' perspectives and experiences.
The nature of teenagers that can sometimes come across as being self-absorption is really beautifully illustrated within COME ON IN. It gets at the heart of the struggles and also the gifts of being a teen, and does a remarkable job of situating those experiences within the context of diverse identities. I didn't see any stories from disabled or trans/two-spirit folx, which would have been a nice inclusion, but my research could also have missed that. If not, I'd love to see the next collection like this include even more inclusive voices.
I would recommend COME ON IN not only to anyone who is a YA reader but also to adults. It's a very readable short-story collection, includes information about each author, and a lot of the stories tapped right into all of the things I remember feeling as a YA myself. This collection will also prompt some really important and rich conversations about identity and acceptance - the layers of identities we carry with us, people's reactions to and expectations of us based on their perception of those identities, how our friendships and relationships are impacted by our own acceptance of our identities - and I can see this being incredibly useful in a classroom setting.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance e-copy. I look forward to purchasing a physical copy so I can come back to these stories. I'm also excited to look up other works by these authors; each of them is a brilliant storyteller. My review is posted on my blog (linked below) and will appear on my Instagram account, The Bookish Feminist, in August.
These stories have stuck with me in ways I didn't expect. I am not a BIPOC or an immigrant, so while I cannot claim that my experiences mirror those described in this collection, I do think these stories will resonate universally with an age group that can feel so lonely and isolating. For own-voices readers, this collection will provide representation of diverse experiences that are not always represented in literature and that is an empowering thing. Non-OV readers will also get that sense of being less alone, since there are universal truths about adolescence, but it will also encourage those readers to think about other adolescents' perspectives and experiences.
The nature of teenagers that can sometimes come across as being self-absorption is really beautifully illustrated within COME ON IN. It gets at the heart of the struggles and also the gifts of being a teen, and does a remarkable job of situating those experiences within the context of diverse identities. I didn't see any stories from disabled or trans/two-spirit folx, which would have been a nice inclusion, but my research could also have missed that. If not, I'd love to see the next collection like this include even more inclusive voices.
I would recommend COME ON IN not only to anyone who is a YA reader but also to adults. It's a very readable short-story collection, includes information about each author, and a lot of the stories tapped right into all of the things I remember feeling as a YA myself. This collection will also prompt some really important and rich conversations about identity and acceptance - the layers of identities we carry with us, people's reactions to and expectations of us based on their perception of those identities, how our friendships and relationships are impacted by our own acceptance of our identities - and I can see this being incredibly useful in a classroom setting.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance e-copy. I look forward to purchasing a physical copy so I can come back to these stories. I'm also excited to look up other works by these authors; each of them is a brilliant storyteller. My review is posted on my blog (linked below) and will appear on my Instagram account, The Bookish Feminist, in August.