This book features a wide variety of short stories featuring bi characters. They are all ages, genders, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, in time periods ranging from historical (Civil War and earlier) to the 1960s to contemporary settings. Some of the stories left me wondering "What just happened here?", as I was uncertain if the character was hallucinating or dreaming or having a psychotic episode. Most refreshingly, these stories focused less on eroticism and more on getting inside the head and relationships of bi characters. Each character seemed to defy the demand of society that they identify as gay or straight by embracing their nature. My only complaint: that there weren't more stories. Many of these would have expanded quite well as a book (especially the one set during the Civil War). A truly marvelous addition to an under-served and oft-ignored demographic of the GLBTQ community.

Previously reviewed on The Good, The Bad, & The Unread and to be reviewed in Bi Community News:

I tend to find anthologies a little hit and miss, and generally pick them up only when I recognise more than one of the authors as someone whose short stories I’ve read and enjoyed before. This time, however, it was the theme that attracted me; the bisexual experience is one that gets neglected in fiction compared to the slightly greater representation of characters who act bisexually in ménage stories (generally, in my reading experience, without any engagement with the wider bisexual community) or whose bisexuality is a step on the way to a complete change of identity. Plus, we sometimes get bisexual characters in the background, offering words of wisdom to the protagonists. In this anthology, though, each story’s central characters are in the main very much rooted in their bisexual identities, or are getting there by the end of the story. While not all stories were precisely to my taste, there were some definite stand-outs and no total flops.

The anthology opens with Storm Grant’s Dual Citizenship, which may very well have been inspired by Due South fandom back in the day, but is nevertheless a delightful story of life in the time of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in its own right – and also laugh-out-loud funny at times. So yes, some of the stories in here have been around for a while, but they’re all very well worth reading in the present day. As well as showcasing bisexual characters, this book also covers diversity in a lot of its other forms. There’s a great racial and cultural mix, as well as a number of stories dealing with gender beyond the binary.

Coyote Takes a Trip by Deborah Miranda is another title that is familiar to me, although I don’t remember where I came across it before, and it’s also another that merits multiple reads, dealing as it does with sexual, gender and racial minorities in the US through the eyes of a long-term drifter. Conversely Cecelia Tan’s Dragon’s Daughter gives us a modern retelling of old Chinese legends through as experienced by an Asian-American adoptee who discovers she has unusual talents, and then has to undo the mistake she made in the course of that realisation.

Not all the stories are romances: Alone, As Always by Jenny Corvette would fit well in an anthology of classic domestic suspense stories I read recently, while Charles Bright’s Mother Knows Best is about a different experience of death. Kathleen Bradean’s Challenger Deep also deals with death in that it’s a tale about paying last respects to a beloved family member, but offers up the possibility for a happier story in the future as the protagonist makes discoveries about their gender and sexuality.

All in all, this is a splendid book to either read in one sitting or dip into from time to time and almost all the stories are ones I’d want to reread repeatedly in print. I think there’s enough in the anthology to satisfy most readers, so I’d recommend giving the whole a chance, even if not all the stories appeal on first glance.

I'm so glad I got to read an ARC of this! What a great book of little bi stories. So many queer and genderqueer romances that filled my heart with joy. Some of the stories are stronger than others, but that happens in all anthologies. Oddly, one of my top favourites was the shortest of all. Each story takes the reader on a different journey, and there is no need to have read any other novel by the authors included in the book. Some books were a little dirty, some were more romantic, and some were sad and lonesome. All were queer, and all were lovely, and all will be read by me again.

It is difficult to write about an anthology of short stories for two reasons. One I think since you are reading a number of different authors with a number of different styles you run the risk of letting one or two shape how you feel about the whole anthology. Two the nature of short story collections/anthology is that they lend themselves to being put down and picked up like a snack - something for when you are feeling peck-ish but might not want the full meal of a novel. So if you feel that is what I am doing here stop reading ;). First off let me say how I excited I am about an anthology of this nature. I have not had a chance to read to read many bi stories and these were absolutely amazing. There is such a wide variety of genres here and such a varied way of looking at gender and sexuality. And yet they all work so well together, complimenting each others strengths and weakness making this anthology wonderfully full. I often found myself going to read one story and staying for three or four more. There were times when I found myself wondering if would better be labeled best queer short stories since many of them dealt more with gender fluidity than bisexualism which was intriguing and might be a tad more all encompassing. I loved that as the editor mentioned in the preface of the book - these authors and stories showed more than just the stereotypical side of bisexuality (although on that note it would have been nice to have a few more male authors included although that just might not be who’s writing right now). I am so excited to read more from these authors!