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ajb24's review against another edition
3.0
My 3.5 stars comes from rating each individual story and then averaging the total. Like any short story collection, there are stories I really liked and then those I disliked. Most of my ratings are right in the middle. There’s nothing really wrong with any of them, but I found that since some of the stories are sooo short, it was hard for me to feel very strongly about the characters or writing.
I realized while reading all these stories with monsters and mermaids and myths that perhaps genre stories are not really my favorite thing in the world. I think my overall enjoyment might be different if there were fewer stories with more depth. A Quantity vs Quality situation. BUT. I’m torn by this position because I realize that the authors’ goal with this collection/project is to increase the number of genre fiction YA with lesbian main characters. And I’m totally here for that!! I 100% understand why that’s important and I really appreciate the effort! It’s exhausting and boring to read about heterosexuals in every. single. novel. In both YA and regular fiction. It’s really great that there’s more and more books getting published with queer characters, but compared to alll the books that are published, it’s still a small percentage. So that sucks.
In conclusion, I really wanted to enjoy these stories, especially because the focus is on lesbian main characters and that means everything to me. But I found so many of the stories to be average, and their shortness didn’t help.
For representation purposes, the collection does a lot. I think for someone younger than me, the sheer volume of stories could inspire a big emotional impact. But for my tastes, I would have enjoyed fewer stories if it meant that the individual worlds and characters could be further developed within each.
That might also help me to appreciate the “genre” piece too, because there were several stories where I really liked the mermaids or angels or myth integration. (“Kyrie” was my favorite story by far and not just because it’s set in college; and “Peals Enough” and “Falling Home” were my other 5/5 stories) However, there were some stories where I felt the underdeveloped world the characters existed in didn’t do it any favors and I found myself rolling my eyes at the speed at which emotional attachement happened and/or how quickly weird shit was accepted (I’m thinking of “Melusine” and “Two Salt Feet”, but there’s others).
I think I really could’ve liked and gotten into stories like “Dreaming Green”, “A Bit of Space”, “Breaking the Ice”, or “Surfacing” if they were longer. As they are, I enjoyed these stories, but I want to know more! Hmm, actually when I think about it, I don’t even know if some of these would do well in a longer format, I just feel like it’s so hard to feel strongly about X or Y story when it all happens in a few pages.
I realized while reading all these stories with monsters and mermaids and myths that perhaps genre stories are not really my favorite thing in the world. I think my overall enjoyment might be different if there were fewer stories with more depth. A Quantity vs Quality situation. BUT. I’m torn by this position because I realize that the authors’ goal with this collection/project is to increase the number of genre fiction YA with lesbian main characters. And I’m totally here for that!! I 100% understand why that’s important and I really appreciate the effort! It’s exhausting and boring to read about heterosexuals in every. single. novel. In both YA and regular fiction. It’s really great that there’s more and more books getting published with queer characters, but compared to alll the books that are published, it’s still a small percentage. So that sucks.
In conclusion, I really wanted to enjoy these stories, especially because the focus is on lesbian main characters and that means everything to me. But I found so many of the stories to be average, and their shortness didn’t help.
For representation purposes, the collection does a lot. I think for someone younger than me, the sheer volume of stories could inspire a big emotional impact. But for my tastes, I would have enjoyed fewer stories if it meant that the individual worlds and characters could be further developed within each.
That might also help me to appreciate the “genre” piece too, because there were several stories where I really liked the mermaids or angels or myth integration. (“Kyrie” was my favorite story by far and not just because it’s set in college; and “Peals Enough” and “Falling Home” were my other 5/5 stories) However, there were some stories where I felt the underdeveloped world the characters existed in didn’t do it any favors and I found myself rolling my eyes at the speed at which emotional attachement happened and/or how quickly weird shit was accepted (I’m thinking of “Melusine” and “Two Salt Feet”, but there’s others).
I think I really could’ve liked and gotten into stories like “Dreaming Green”, “A Bit of Space”, “Breaking the Ice”, or “Surfacing” if they were longer. As they are, I enjoyed these stories, but I want to know more! Hmm, actually when I think about it, I don’t even know if some of these would do well in a longer format, I just feel like it’s so hard to feel strongly about X or Y story when it all happens in a few pages.
wanderlustlover's review against another edition
5.0
Sarah and Jenn set out with an amazing goal this year: To write two stories a week about lesbian young adults, showcasing them in dozens of places, situations, worlds, settings, to give young adult women a place to know they are strong, magical, and utterly supported in their choice of loving other girls.
That they'd put out books collecting the sets of different types of stories, each with extra books in them. And then a full volume of it.
And they did it. And I think everyone should read them. Go forth, love and support this whole thing. I know I have and did and will as they go into more.
That they'd put out books collecting the sets of different types of stories, each with extra books in them. And then a full volume of it.
And they did it. And I think everyone should read them. Go forth, love and support this whole thing. I know I have and did and will as they go into more.
ashsavc's review against another edition
4.0
Very much enjoyed it. Lots of grammatical errors, unfortunately.
miraeli's review against another edition
4.0
The first volume of Project Unicorn is a good collection, even though as one would expect with such a large number of stories in one place, there are some that are weaker than others. They aren’t weak enough to bring down the book as a whole, though, and there are some really great stories that I’ll likely read again and again. It’s a cohesive collection; while all the stories are different genres, a lot of them share similar themes that make them all fit together in one book.
While sometimes Sarah’s sentences ran a little long, and Jennifer overused ellipses to punctuate her writing, overall the writing was really good. The style changed depending on what kind of story they were telling, and they pulled it off well. Some writers can only write in one certain style or tone; Sarah and Jennifer have proven that they can write in several.
The stand outs of the collection were In The Garden I Did Not Sin, Two Salt Feet, Poppy and Salt (Sarah), A Craving, Mirrors, The Girl on the Mountain (Jennifer). Interestingly, most of the ones I liked the most were the ones that could be expanded into full length novels or novellas, with the exception of possibly Two Salt Feet, Mirrors and A Craving.
I would love to see In The Garden I Did Not Sin made into a full length novel; the idea and the writing were just spectacular, and I want to know more about the two girls it features, one a daughter of Eve, another the daughter of Lillith. It’s a very daring short story, but it’s so good it’s worth the risk of offending someone.
Two Salt Feet was one of the stories that felt the most compact and complete out of the collection. It’s a simple, lovely story about a girl saving a mermaid and the mermaid turning into a human due to a new evolutionary step, since her kind are being over fished. I liked the depth between the mother and the main character. The Mom sometimes makes some mistakes, but overall she’s supportive and loving to her daughter. Seeing the mermaid try to figure out the world around her was cute, too.
Poppy and Salt had really interesting world building--an organization of vampires hunting other vampires who go on rampages and kill humans or feed without a human’s consent. I’d love to see it explored more, as well as the relationship between the two main characters, Celia and Alice. There’s a lot of good things here I want to see more of.
A Craving was another retelling of the Snow White fairytale. Jennifer’s taken on this particular tale before in Sappho’s Fables, but I thought she did much better with this one than the other. A story about a girl who’s told to refuse the young apple seller who comes to the cottage every day, and what happens when one day she doesn’t. Very lovely in its simplicity.
Mirrors was a story about a girl who sees another girl in a compact mirror she recently bought, and how that eventually leads her to the girl herself. It was a little hard to read in places though, due to a realistic portrayal of bullying that the main character faces at school for being gay. It ends on a happy note, though.
The Girl on the Mountain is a very dreamy, almost mythic story about a young girl seeing another fly from the sky one day, and how the MC--Kivrin--grows up to love her. The worries Kivrin has about how to possibly tell the girl, Laurel, she loves her when Laurel is considered a goddess by Kivrin’s village was well done and cute. “
If I had to chose my least favourite out of the bunch, it would be Mermaid Circus by Sarah and Pearls Enough by Jennifer. For Mermaid Circus, it felt just a little cliche for a circus story--you’ve got the main character who’s grown up in the circus and wants to leave it all behind. It also didn’t seem to have much of a point or general story, in the end.
Pearls Enough irritated me due to the main character constantly talking badly about her sister, who she’s been living with. Given the time period, which seems to be somewhere in the 19th century, her complaints about her sister being a typical woman of the time grated on me badly. It just seemed set up to make the main character more special, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Overall though, I loved the collection. The extras at the end of the book--author’s notes on each story and interviews with both Sarah and Jennifer--were cute. Project Unicorn is one I’ll keep coming back to, and it’s definitely worth a look.
See more of my reviews at On The Nightstand!
While sometimes Sarah’s sentences ran a little long, and Jennifer overused ellipses to punctuate her writing, overall the writing was really good. The style changed depending on what kind of story they were telling, and they pulled it off well. Some writers can only write in one certain style or tone; Sarah and Jennifer have proven that they can write in several.
The stand outs of the collection were In The Garden I Did Not Sin, Two Salt Feet, Poppy and Salt (Sarah), A Craving, Mirrors, The Girl on the Mountain (Jennifer). Interestingly, most of the ones I liked the most were the ones that could be expanded into full length novels or novellas, with the exception of possibly Two Salt Feet, Mirrors and A Craving.
I would love to see In The Garden I Did Not Sin made into a full length novel; the idea and the writing were just spectacular, and I want to know more about the two girls it features, one a daughter of Eve, another the daughter of Lillith. It’s a very daring short story, but it’s so good it’s worth the risk of offending someone.
Two Salt Feet was one of the stories that felt the most compact and complete out of the collection. It’s a simple, lovely story about a girl saving a mermaid and the mermaid turning into a human due to a new evolutionary step, since her kind are being over fished. I liked the depth between the mother and the main character. The Mom sometimes makes some mistakes, but overall she’s supportive and loving to her daughter. Seeing the mermaid try to figure out the world around her was cute, too.
Poppy and Salt had really interesting world building--an organization of vampires hunting other vampires who go on rampages and kill humans or feed without a human’s consent. I’d love to see it explored more, as well as the relationship between the two main characters, Celia and Alice. There’s a lot of good things here I want to see more of.
A Craving was another retelling of the Snow White fairytale. Jennifer’s taken on this particular tale before in Sappho’s Fables, but I thought she did much better with this one than the other. A story about a girl who’s told to refuse the young apple seller who comes to the cottage every day, and what happens when one day she doesn’t. Very lovely in its simplicity.
Mirrors was a story about a girl who sees another girl in a compact mirror she recently bought, and how that eventually leads her to the girl herself. It was a little hard to read in places though, due to a realistic portrayal of bullying that the main character faces at school for being gay. It ends on a happy note, though.
The Girl on the Mountain is a very dreamy, almost mythic story about a young girl seeing another fly from the sky one day, and how the MC--Kivrin--grows up to love her. The worries Kivrin has about how to possibly tell the girl, Laurel, she loves her when Laurel is considered a goddess by Kivrin’s village was well done and cute. “
If I had to chose my least favourite out of the bunch, it would be Mermaid Circus by Sarah and Pearls Enough by Jennifer. For Mermaid Circus, it felt just a little cliche for a circus story--you’ve got the main character who’s grown up in the circus and wants to leave it all behind. It also didn’t seem to have much of a point or general story, in the end.
Pearls Enough irritated me due to the main character constantly talking badly about her sister, who she’s been living with. Given the time period, which seems to be somewhere in the 19th century, her complaints about her sister being a typical woman of the time grated on me badly. It just seemed set up to make the main character more special, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Overall though, I loved the collection. The extras at the end of the book--author’s notes on each story and interviews with both Sarah and Jennifer--were cute. Project Unicorn is one I’ll keep coming back to, and it’s definitely worth a look.
See more of my reviews at On The Nightstand!
jacemchale's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this so much, I think Kyrie might have been my favorite story
itsnkbitch's review against another edition
4.0
This is SO good that immediately after finishing Project Unicorn Volume 1 I downloaded the Volume 2. I can live in these stories forever because (as stories) they are all so diverse and different and exciting and reading so many lesbian stories all at once make it seem not as a huge thing. Not so ostracizing. Like there are other lesbians that exist, around every corner, and that your stories aren’t just your own.
Some of these stories were more queer issue stories in regards to coming out. There were some really tragic bullying stories too. But most of these stories aren’t queer issue pieces. They are just characters that happen to be queer and I really liked that. I really liked seeing characters who’s family didn’t flip out, that were okay with that. It is nice to be reminded that’s a possibility. But at the same time, it wasn’t idealistic and did deal with harsher truths. That was a good balance.
The prose…emotional and probably a bit too purple but was so beautiful and so invoking that it was really nice. The descriptions were plenty but they held so much voice in them that I didn’t mind. Each one of these stories are competitively colorful in the way they are written that could get under a lot of people’s skin but for me — no. I loved the language. I thought it was used expertly and poetically and added layers to stories that were all far too short and needed these descriptions to help hone in a point in a very small place.
Which leads to size? Most of these stories were more like flash pieces than short stories. And a lot of the arcs in these bite-size ones were too smushed for the reader to fully feel the effect of the story. The nature of the Project Unicorn event is to write a short story in a week — which is so impressive because these stories prob weren’t edited much yet are so well done — so the size makes sense but yeah. That was (almost) the only thing that I wanted from these stories. Just more of them. More exploration because there were a lot of heavy stories that I just skimmed the surface of.
Note how I said that’s the almost only thing I wanted. The other thing I wanted was more kinds of lesbians. I had to use active/rebellious imagination to create POC in this anthology. I tried to do that often unless a character was precisely described as white. But there weren’t many described POC. There were no openly trans characters. Disability was pretty much lacking. I could just go down the diversity list if I wanted to — with thirty stories and about 90 characters (or whatever) there was so much room here to explore what lesbianism is for different kinds of young adults. But it fell so short, which is pretty much hypocritical when the whole POINT of the anthology was to share lesbian stories. You would think an author who understands the importance of that would also understand the importance of writing diverse characters in general, right? Eh.
That said this anthology isn’t the same story over and over again. I’m not saying living in Antartica, all alone, looking for love is the same story as raising a demon-girl to help you find your lost dog. The plot points here are incredibly diverse and creative and the characters pretty much have distinct personalities — I just wished there was more recognition that non-white/abled/cis/etc lesbians are looking for solace too.
Anyway, here is a short list of my top eleven stories because picking ten was too hard … even eleven is a challenge! This list isn’t in any kind of order:
1) In The Garden I Did Not Sin - Eve x Lilith. Eve and her story and her punishment is so REAL in this retelling. I just love it so much. I love this idea and I love the way it was told. I love Eve’s daughter having bitterness over an unfair punishment.
2) Surfacing - For me, this comes with a TW: gang rape. It’s a group of men fishing mermaids from the sea, dragging them to the woods, and leaving them. There is gray area here and I can imagine them abusing the mermaids before they leave them. This was pretty heavy for me to handle but it was told with a righteousness. So I really liked it.
3) Bone Ship - Haunting. Chills up my spine. You might not believe in ghosts but that doesn’t mean ghosts don’t believe in you.
4) A Craving - A retelling of Snow White that makes the dwarves the villains. I really liked this.
5) Dreaming Green - Beautiful. I would love to see this animated. A couple finds a seed in space and plants it together, trying to grow a plant. One never saw a plant at all. The other, only in childhood. Really touching.
6) Nike - TW: bullying, suicide. A good ode that queer life isn’t always so beautiful. But even when it seems like everyone hates you for being yourself, you are never really alone. There are people that will love for your queer self.
7) A History of Drowning - I loved this. I loved this angel character or this face of death who keeps on bringing a character back to life until she is ready to really die and then the death character is there, to be with her when she is in the ~beyond~
8) No Bigger Than The Moon - A dark comedy with a really harsh punchline.
9) Breaking the Ice - I don’t know — maybe it is because it is January and I couldn’t even imagine living in a place colder than what I’m feeling right now but I really liked this. I really liked this character who’s Antartica herself, her heart frozen cold, finding love and warmth.
10) Falling Home - This story had a lot more layers and narrative than most of the other pieces. It’s about an angel who falls in love with a human, even though it is against the rules for them to intermingle. The human is punished for the angel’s sins with an unjust death and a sentence to hell. The angel than pursues her to set things right. This story is evidence that the Diemers are more than poets. They can do more than set a mood. They can write a really strong narrative as well.
11) The Girl on the Mountain - Ahhh my heart when I read this. I don’t know these are all love stories but I really really felt it here. It’s about a girl from a small village who bumps into a mystical being on top of the local mountain who cures her village from an awful plague. They continue to visit each year, the village girl wanting so badly just to see the mystic not because she’s so powerful but because she is so in love.
Man… a lot of my favorites are really dark and haunting. Most of these stories are actually positive and upbeat. Some had dark endings but they were primarily happy endings. I’m in a bleak area of my life so one of the reasons I was reading this more than the other things on my currently reading shelf was because they were so feel-good. But the ones that really stuck were the dark ones. They were so emotive — they lingered throughout my day. This might be my own personality though.
Basc I loved this. Word!
Some of these stories were more queer issue stories in regards to coming out. There were some really tragic bullying stories too. But most of these stories aren’t queer issue pieces. They are just characters that happen to be queer and I really liked that. I really liked seeing characters who’s family didn’t flip out, that were okay with that. It is nice to be reminded that’s a possibility. But at the same time, it wasn’t idealistic and did deal with harsher truths. That was a good balance.
The prose…emotional and probably a bit too purple but was so beautiful and so invoking that it was really nice. The descriptions were plenty but they held so much voice in them that I didn’t mind. Each one of these stories are competitively colorful in the way they are written that could get under a lot of people’s skin but for me — no. I loved the language. I thought it was used expertly and poetically and added layers to stories that were all far too short and needed these descriptions to help hone in a point in a very small place.
Which leads to size? Most of these stories were more like flash pieces than short stories. And a lot of the arcs in these bite-size ones were too smushed for the reader to fully feel the effect of the story. The nature of the Project Unicorn event is to write a short story in a week — which is so impressive because these stories prob weren’t edited much yet are so well done — so the size makes sense but yeah. That was (almost) the only thing that I wanted from these stories. Just more of them. More exploration because there were a lot of heavy stories that I just skimmed the surface of.
Note how I said that’s the almost only thing I wanted. The other thing I wanted was more kinds of lesbians. I had to use active/rebellious imagination to create POC in this anthology. I tried to do that often unless a character was precisely described as white. But there weren’t many described POC. There were no openly trans characters. Disability was pretty much lacking. I could just go down the diversity list if I wanted to — with thirty stories and about 90 characters (or whatever) there was so much room here to explore what lesbianism is for different kinds of young adults. But it fell so short, which is pretty much hypocritical when the whole POINT of the anthology was to share lesbian stories. You would think an author who understands the importance of that would also understand the importance of writing diverse characters in general, right? Eh.
That said this anthology isn’t the same story over and over again. I’m not saying living in Antartica, all alone, looking for love is the same story as raising a demon-girl to help you find your lost dog. The plot points here are incredibly diverse and creative and the characters pretty much have distinct personalities — I just wished there was more recognition that non-white/abled/cis/etc lesbians are looking for solace too.
Anyway, here is a short list of my top eleven stories because picking ten was too hard … even eleven is a challenge! This list isn’t in any kind of order:
1) In The Garden I Did Not Sin - Eve x Lilith. Eve and her story and her punishment is so REAL in this retelling. I just love it so much. I love this idea and I love the way it was told. I love Eve’s daughter having bitterness over an unfair punishment.
2) Surfacing - For me, this comes with a TW: gang rape. It’s a group of men fishing mermaids from the sea, dragging them to the woods, and leaving them. There is gray area here and I can imagine them abusing the mermaids before they leave them. This was pretty heavy for me to handle but it was told with a righteousness. So I really liked it.
3) Bone Ship - Haunting. Chills up my spine. You might not believe in ghosts but that doesn’t mean ghosts don’t believe in you.
4) A Craving - A retelling of Snow White that makes the dwarves the villains. I really liked this.
5) Dreaming Green - Beautiful. I would love to see this animated. A couple finds a seed in space and plants it together, trying to grow a plant. One never saw a plant at all. The other, only in childhood. Really touching.
6) Nike - TW: bullying, suicide. A good ode that queer life isn’t always so beautiful. But even when it seems like everyone hates you for being yourself, you are never really alone. There are people that will love for your queer self.
7) A History of Drowning - I loved this. I loved this angel character or this face of death who keeps on bringing a character back to life until she is ready to really die and then the death character is there, to be with her when she is in the ~beyond~
8) No Bigger Than The Moon - A dark comedy with a really harsh punchline.
9) Breaking the Ice - I don’t know — maybe it is because it is January and I couldn’t even imagine living in a place colder than what I’m feeling right now but I really liked this. I really liked this character who’s Antartica herself, her heart frozen cold, finding love and warmth.
10) Falling Home - This story had a lot more layers and narrative than most of the other pieces. It’s about an angel who falls in love with a human, even though it is against the rules for them to intermingle. The human is punished for the angel’s sins with an unjust death and a sentence to hell. The angel than pursues her to set things right. This story is evidence that the Diemers are more than poets. They can do more than set a mood. They can write a really strong narrative as well.
11) The Girl on the Mountain - Ahhh my heart when I read this. I don’t know these are all love stories but I really really felt it here. It’s about a girl from a small village who bumps into a mystical being on top of the local mountain who cures her village from an awful plague. They continue to visit each year, the village girl wanting so badly just to see the mystic not because she’s so powerful but because she is so in love.
Man… a lot of my favorites are really dark and haunting. Most of these stories are actually positive and upbeat. Some had dark endings but they were primarily happy endings. I’m in a bleak area of my life so one of the reasons I was reading this more than the other things on my currently reading shelf was because they were so feel-good. But the ones that really stuck were the dark ones. They were so emotive — they lingered throughout my day. This might be my own personality though.
Basc I loved this. Word!
littlemonster's review against another edition
4.0
I took my time reading this collection, and I'm glad that I did. These short stories range in theme and content, but they all follow a basic outline: romance, fantasy (of all sorts), and lesbian protagonists. I was really excited about reading these anthologies, partly because it's relieving to have a collection dedicated solely to lesbian characters, and also because I adore fantasy and I knew Sarah Diemer and Jennifer Diemer both had really lovely writing. I've heard loads of praise for Sarah's novel The Dark Wife (which I also plan to read at some point), and I think, after reading this, the praise is probably well-deserved.
It's been a little too long to remember all of the stories in great detail, or how they played out, but they were all really touching. These characters struggle with love, loss, sometimes often told tales of self-hatred and coming out, and their own individual problems, solutions, and monsters. This anthology isn't perfect, but it's really wonderful, and I found a lot of the stories to be really beautiful. Some are tragic and deeply emotional, while others are lighthearted and humorous; but they all work equally well, if you ask me.
The writing (as I mentioned above) is undeniably beautiful. Sarah and Jennifer both have really interesting styles of writing, and while they are somewhat similar, they all have their unique taste and flair.
A few of my favorites:
True if By Sea, written by Sarah Diemer - tells the story of a trans mermaid. Absolutely lovely, heartbreaking but also brings an intense joy. Also, of course, written exquisitely.
The Girl on the Mountain, by Jennifer Diemer - "The girl on the mountain keeps Kivrin’s village safe, and the village, in turn, makes offerings to her every summer. But Kivrin harbors a years-old secret, one she hopes she will be brave enough to speak aloud." I found this one very cute, and breezy.
Poppy and Salt, by Sarah Diemer - about Celia and Alice, two young vampire hunters who are falling in love. This one is darker than some of the others, but heartrendingly lovely.
The Gargoyle Maker, by Sarah Diemer - this one is so precious, I just adore it! Basically, it's about a girl who makes gargoyles, and wanders from place to place, making it difficult when Rose falls in love with this stranger...
Nike, by Sarah Diemer - this one deals with sadly common struggles of being lgbtqiap+. In the end, though, it's a beautiful and triumphant tale of survival.
Two Salt Feet, by Sarah Diemer - another mermaid tale, sweet and lovely and a little sad.
In the Garden I Did Not Sin, by Sarah Diemer - An absolute all-time favorite. "When Meno, the daughter of Eve, watches her mother–the first woman–die, she journeys back to that thing which Eve loved most, the Garden of Eden. But she didn’t expect to meet a stranger there…" Actually, probably my favorite in the whole collection.
No Bigger Than the Moon, by Sarah Diemer - Exquisitely and exceptionally dark. "Anne would do anything for Kylie. But when Kylie’s brother changes into a bloodthirsty monster, she goes too far in asking Anne for help…"
A History of Drowning, by Sarah Diemer - "A girl with dark eyes and a strange, white dress follows Carrie over a series of small tragedies."
Bluebottles, by Jennifer Diemer - Really gorgeous, another absolute favorite. Something about this one always stuck with me. "After spending several heartbroken, landlocked months away, Ramie returns to the sea and is inspired to follow a trail of bioluminescent creatures."
Dreaming Green, by Jennifer Diemer - another absolute favorite. "Mirelle catches a mysterious seed during a spacewalk, and, though it is forbidden, she dares to plant it, nurture it, and let it grow." Executed really well.
A Craving, by Jennifer Diemer - god, I love this one so much. Second only to "In the Garden I Did Not Sin." A Snow White retelling. The tension is palpable.
Surfacing, by Sarah Diemer - "When Alice’s brother John takes a mermaid out of the sea and drags her into the woods to die, Alice must find the courage to stand up to the worst bully she’s ever known in order to save a life." This one is super painful, but also gorgeous.
Witch Girls, by Sarah Diemer - "The wild witch girls lurk at the edge of the woods, waiting to snatch away any girl who’s less than good. Gran’s warnings are the same every day: be good, or the witch girls will take you. But what if you want to be taken?" Dark and hauntingly lovely.
It's been a little too long to remember all of the stories in great detail, or how they played out, but they were all really touching. These characters struggle with love, loss, sometimes often told tales of self-hatred and coming out, and their own individual problems, solutions, and monsters. This anthology isn't perfect, but it's really wonderful, and I found a lot of the stories to be really beautiful. Some are tragic and deeply emotional, while others are lighthearted and humorous; but they all work equally well, if you ask me.
The writing (as I mentioned above) is undeniably beautiful. Sarah and Jennifer both have really interesting styles of writing, and while they are somewhat similar, they all have their unique taste and flair.
A few of my favorites:
True if By Sea, written by Sarah Diemer - tells the story of a trans mermaid. Absolutely lovely, heartbreaking but also brings an intense joy. Also, of course, written exquisitely.
The Girl on the Mountain, by Jennifer Diemer - "The girl on the mountain keeps Kivrin’s village safe, and the village, in turn, makes offerings to her every summer. But Kivrin harbors a years-old secret, one she hopes she will be brave enough to speak aloud." I found this one very cute, and breezy.
Poppy and Salt, by Sarah Diemer - about Celia and Alice, two young vampire hunters who are falling in love. This one is darker than some of the others, but heartrendingly lovely.
The Gargoyle Maker, by Sarah Diemer - this one is so precious, I just adore it! Basically, it's about a girl who makes gargoyles, and wanders from place to place, making it difficult when Rose falls in love with this stranger...
Nike, by Sarah Diemer - this one deals with sadly common struggles of being lgbtqiap+. In the end, though, it's a beautiful and triumphant tale of survival.
Two Salt Feet, by Sarah Diemer - another mermaid tale, sweet and lovely and a little sad.
In the Garden I Did Not Sin, by Sarah Diemer - An absolute all-time favorite. "When Meno, the daughter of Eve, watches her mother–the first woman–die, she journeys back to that thing which Eve loved most, the Garden of Eden. But she didn’t expect to meet a stranger there…" Actually, probably my favorite in the whole collection.
No Bigger Than the Moon, by Sarah Diemer - Exquisitely and exceptionally dark. "Anne would do anything for Kylie. But when Kylie’s brother changes into a bloodthirsty monster, she goes too far in asking Anne for help…"
A History of Drowning, by Sarah Diemer - "A girl with dark eyes and a strange, white dress follows Carrie over a series of small tragedies."
Bluebottles, by Jennifer Diemer - Really gorgeous, another absolute favorite. Something about this one always stuck with me. "After spending several heartbroken, landlocked months away, Ramie returns to the sea and is inspired to follow a trail of bioluminescent creatures."
Dreaming Green, by Jennifer Diemer - another absolute favorite. "Mirelle catches a mysterious seed during a spacewalk, and, though it is forbidden, she dares to plant it, nurture it, and let it grow." Executed really well.
A Craving, by Jennifer Diemer - god, I love this one so much. Second only to "In the Garden I Did Not Sin." A Snow White retelling. The tension is palpable.
Surfacing, by Sarah Diemer - "When Alice’s brother John takes a mermaid out of the sea and drags her into the woods to die, Alice must find the courage to stand up to the worst bully she’s ever known in order to save a life." This one is super painful, but also gorgeous.
Witch Girls, by Sarah Diemer - "The wild witch girls lurk at the edge of the woods, waiting to snatch away any girl who’s less than good. Gran’s warnings are the same every day: be good, or the witch girls will take you. But what if you want to be taken?" Dark and hauntingly lovely.
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