Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today I’m sharing with you my review of A Universe of Wishes, an anthology of stories put together by We Need Diverse Books, and an absolutely beautiful read.
Synopsis
In the fourth collaboration with We Need Diverse Books, fifteen award-winning and celebrated diverse authors deliver stories about a princess without need of a prince, a monster long misunderstood, memories that vanish with a spell, and voices that refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. This powerful and inclusive collection contains a universe of wishes for a braver and more beautiful world.
AUTHORS INCLUDE: Samira Ahmed, Libba Bray, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Tessa Gratton, Kwame Mbalia, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tochi Onyebuchi, Mark Oshiro, Natalie C. Parker, Rebecca Roanhorse, Victoria Schwab, Tara Sim, Nic Stone, and a to-be-announced debut author/short-story contest winner.
Review
This collection of short stories allows a full range of emotions and magic to move through you when reading. From a girl called Dream who wants to climb trees all day, to a boy desperate to not miss his past love, and a wish granter who finds himself in a futureistic setting, the stories weave through all manners of time and space, while keeping the very spirit of being human alive within the pages.
I haven’t read a short story collection for a while, and this was a genuinely enjoyable reminder of how brilliant they can be. It takes talent to write anything of course, but being able to write a short story that captures the imagination yet still manages to say everything it wants to before the word limit is reached is a skill I have never been able to master, so I am always in awe of people who are. In this book we have such a wonderful range of authors, all of whom are incredibly skilled, and it’s their individual skills that make this collection very much come alive.
Throughout the pages, the idea of wishes and what it means to wish for something is a constant theme in different ways. It’s present in all the stories with unique appearance, and I find it so interesting how so many authors could have taken the theme and each come up with something so completely different.
We absolutely do need more diverse books, and anthologies like this are a great place to start if you’re wanting to branch out but feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. Equally because of the selection of authors we have, there are so many themes and genres covered too, so even just wanting to shake up your regular reading habit is a great reason to pick up this book. I can’t wait for more.
Thanks for joining me for another review. Stop by again soon for more of everything all things book related; I’ve got some amazing books that I’ve reviewed coming up soon!
And On She Reads 