Reviews

Dates! An Anthology of Queer Historical Fiction Stories by Cat Parra, Zora Gilbert

xoa's review

2.0

Cute little anthology. I was pleasantly surprised by how many trans characters it had. Not much to say about it, really! I liked some of the stories and though some others weren't so good, as one might expect from an anthology. Nothing stood out to me as particularly extraordinary. A lot of the art and layout in the comics was rough - some of them were pretty difficult to parse because of the paneling (or lack thereof).

alainajreads's review

4.0

Decent collection of short (< 6 pages) comics with LGBTQ characters throughout history. I do wish some of the stories were longer rather than just getting a small taste of the characters. It was hard to get too invested because I only got little snippets that didn’t feel like complete stories.

All in all, very relevant to my interests of LGBT historical fiction and there were some really beautiful comics in here!

Favorites:
- Farewell (Ancient Greek, wlw)
- Mór Ríoghain (500s Ireland, trans woman mc)
- Cast Off (1700s(?), trans man mc)
- Marie by the Sea (early 1800s/Regency, wlw)
- Lulu and Diana (1910s USA, black wlw)
- Emes (early 1900s, Jewish trans man mc)
- Freedom of Expression (1950s Russia, wlw)

oworthyfool's review

4.0

Fantastic collection. Most of the stories, I want to read more. Any anthology with lady pirates, trans immigrants, and queer heroes is worth a read, but this collection delivers the goods.

kparrbooks's review

4.0

I really enjoyed this graphic anthology. While a few art styles did throw me off, the stories ultimately made me happy! I especially loved the trans or androgynous tales which even now are fresh in my mind. I'm excited to read volumes two and three, knowing this is the caliber of talent for queer historical storytelling!

viktorreads's review

fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review

2.0

Sadly this anthology was pretty disappointing. Some of the art, especially the full page colour introductions to a few pieces, was lovely, but the stories themselves...weren't really stories? The majority of them didn't have a narrative and a few of them I just plain didn't understand what was happening. I admire the impulse to have happy queer historical fiction, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be narrative tension!

ce_read's review

3.0

Cute compilation. Writing / comic / artistic skill varies greatly between stories. I even recognized some of the art from Filthy Figments.

I may have gotten my expectations up thinking that these would be longer form. Oh well. A quick injection of happy queer romance does the body good.

Notable stories for me included "This is Not A Metaphor" (struck a chord with me, and even used the archaic "androgyne" with which I refer to myself) and "Punch Drunk Love" (flawed and interesting characters).

rainsage's review

3.0

I think this is a really sweet collection of vignettes, but I will say I felt like every time one of the stories started to gain momentum, they were already over! I was curious to follow several of the couples for a bit longer and see some substantial character development, but with page restrictions, I can see that's probably hoping for too much. I will read the second volume and see how that collection comes together.

kstericker's review

4.0

I really enjoyed this collection; the diversity of artistic styles and huge range of geographic/temporal settings made for a compelling reading experience. However, I agree that the limited space allocated to each artist meant that several stories felt underwhelming or incomplete. For this reason, my favourites were the ones focused on capturing small, specific moments that hinted at a larger story, like "Farewell," "Marie by the Sea," and "Emes." "Freedom of Expression" and "Lulu and Diana" were also stand-outs for me.

sondosia's review

5.0

I straight-up cried my way through this entire book. That's how powerful it was to see people like me and my friends and partners finally represented WITHOUT ANYONE DYING AT THE END. (Yes, that was actually one of their guidelines for submissions: no Tragic Queer narratives. How awesome is that?)

If you're queer, read this to maybe start to heal a little bit. If you're not, read it anyway.