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A review by thebooklender
Proud by Juno Dawson
5.0
Proud is an anthology of short stories and art by queer YA creators, both established and emerging. Compiled by Juno Dawson, the range of styles featured in these twelve stories is as broad as the identities represented within them. There's poetry, fantasy, romance, tragedy, sport, comedy, magic realism, music, Dungeons & Dragons, activism and a lesbian retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in an American high school.
Something, I'm sure you'd agree, for everyone.
Cythia So's "The Phoenix's Fault" - in which a Chinese lantern-maker's daughter follows her phoenix to world of possibility - and Moira Fowley-Doyle's "Love Poems To The City" - a magical-realist not-love story set in Dublin during the build up to the Marriage Equality referendum - were the stand outs for me. David Levithan's "As The Philadelphia Queer Youth Choir Sings Katie Perry's 'Firework'..." was one of the more stylistically interesting pieces - internal monologues of each of the members of the titular choir while they performed, flitting back and forth between characters with each paragraph. And as a music obsessive, I related strongly to Tanya Byrne's protagonist in "Almost Certain", and her use of music as a force for creating community and healing (it also helped that this story was set in my local city!).
I really enjoyed this collection, and have already been recommending it to my students.
Something, I'm sure you'd agree, for everyone.
Cythia So's "The Phoenix's Fault" - in which a Chinese lantern-maker's daughter follows her phoenix to world of possibility - and Moira Fowley-Doyle's "Love Poems To The City" - a magical-realist not-love story set in Dublin during the build up to the Marriage Equality referendum - were the stand outs for me. David Levithan's "As The Philadelphia Queer Youth Choir Sings Katie Perry's 'Firework'..." was one of the more stylistically interesting pieces - internal monologues of each of the members of the titular choir while they performed, flitting back and forth between characters with each paragraph. And as a music obsessive, I related strongly to Tanya Byrne's protagonist in "Almost Certain", and her use of music as a force for creating community and healing (it also helped that this story was set in my local city!).
I really enjoyed this collection, and have already been recommending it to my students.