Cover Image: Out There

Out There

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Member Reviews

This collection has a few of my favorite current YA authors in it, but I'm really not a science fiction person so I had a lot of trouble with the collection overall. Leah Johnson's story was, unsurprisingly, my favorite.

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Wow, this volume has lots-many stories and many characters of various LGBTQ+ persuasions (including quite a few T).
As with most anthologies, you probably won't love them all but I would be surprised if you didn't find at least one that you could admit liking. Variety really is the name of this game-some funny, some "classic" Sci-Fi, some textbook short stories, some clever, many melancholy. Personally, I feel the first half was a bit stronger.
If you like queers and space, you should read this.
I think it's technically teen/young adult but adults can certainly enjoy it as well.
#NetGalley

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Thank you for the opportunity to have read this advanced copy!

I have never read an anthology before, but this was a great first! Story after story that I was satisfied that it ended, but I totally could have read more of each one. I loved the LGBTQIA+ representation in each. It is nice that probably anyone can read this and find SOMEONE they relate to. Fantastic young adult book! Thank you to all who collaborated on it.

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One of the things I appreciated the most about "All Out", the first in this 'series' of anthologies, was the variety in the stories. The same was true here - while all of the stories stuck to the basic theme of the collection, there was a wide variety of relationships and identities, a notable range of future time periods, and varying degrees of believable 'reality' vs. more fantasy-leaning sci-fi, and many stories in-between.

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I enjoyed this book a lit. It was my treat to myself before bed and some of the stories were better than others. It was imaginative, brought me to new worlds but always landed safe somewhere in the LGBTQ2s+ family!

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I’ve really enjoyed the past two collections in this series (All Out was my favorite, although I’m biased towards historical stuff), but this one didn’t really do it for me in the same way. There were some strong stories in the collection (particularly the ones by Alex London, Z.R. Ellor and K. Ancrum), but overall I didn’t feel like the stories worked well together, and some of them I just didn’t even finish because of the writing style. Nevertheless, I’m glad collections like this exist, and that there was representation from all across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Out June 2022.

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I really enjoyed the first two anthologies in this series, so it's probably no surprise that this one also knocked it out for the park for me. I loved the variety of new authors editor Saundra Mitchell gathered together for this collection, along with the diverse representation across the queer spectrum.

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Got about halfway through and realized that I was seeing reading this as a chore rather than enjoyment and decided to stop torturing myself. None of the stories in the first half stuck with me. Like so many of these short story collections I've been reading lately, some of these stories just seem to stop rather than have a conclusive ending. The Queer YA aspect seemed to be an afterthought in most of these stories. I should have known better before picking this one up.

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One of the things I appreciated the most about "All Out", the first in this 'series' of anthologies, was the variety in the stories. The same was true here - while all of the stories stuck to the basic theme of the collection, there was a wide variety of relationships and identities, a notable range of future time periods, and varying degrees of believable 'reality' vs. more fantasy-leaning sci-fi, and many stories in-between. Some were set in worlds that were not at all far into the future and very similar to our own, or so far ahead that the tech was unimaginable, or not on Earth at all. This kept the collection from getting repetitive or bland, and there were enough standout writing styles from the authors to keep that part of the experience interesting, too. The characters and worlds were diverse and, while there are hard scenarios and questions raised, the collection is still what I sometimes call 'true YA', meaning that while reading it, I could imagine just how much my teenage self would have enjoyed it, either more or just differently than my adult self, which of course makes sense. I think Saundra Mitchell and the authors know their target audience, which is always a good trait to have.

That being said, I would put a gentle warning for those planning on diving into this collection, especially young readers. I'll admit that I made some assumptions going into this - with it being an entirely queer-themed *future* collection, I expected more...optimism, for lack of a better word. While not every story fell into this category, it felt as if there were an almost shocking amount of tales with central themes of homophobia, transphobia, et cetera, as either the main driving conflict or a character-defining experience for the teen protagonists. It was kind of a downer, honestly, to read about how in 100 years or so, in a fictional world, there are still teens risking their lives for transitional medical care, or being disowned by their parents in an apocalyptic scenario over their identity. I was hoping for more of an escapist collection, and while there's nothing wrong with themes of resilience or projected realism, it got to be a lot to read about back-to-back at times, so I'd just advise being aware of this going into the book, if it's a topic any readers are particularly sensitive to.

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I got this off of Netgalley these opinions are my own. I been really getting into the idea of anthology books lately. I was excited to get Out There. Queer shirts stories all with sci-fi perspectives sign me up! I enjoyed all of these stories! Was really excited to read the stories by Adam Sass and Mason Deaver! Adam Sass’s Reshadow- about escapes rooms but with a sci-if twist. With the message of holding on to the ones you love. Mason Deaver’s Crash Landing- about about a girl who meets an alien and learns gets some truths about love from an outside perspective. Then there’s Abdi Nazemian’s Concerto- Where people have to go to the future or the past and and telling the story of love that transcends time. K. Ancrum’s Home about two people stuck in a time loop reliving the same day over and over again and bonding as a result! But I think the story that I found the most interesting was Present: Tense: by Jim McCarthy- a story in which some people disappear for a very specific reason, thinking about what it would be like to live in the world after people had disappeared was really interesting! I enjoyed reading the short stories and will enjoy reading them again!

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