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A review by literyture
Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder by Saundra Mitchell
3.0
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. fantasy-leaning sci-fi. 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.
That being said, I would put a gentle warning for those planning on diving into this collection. 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, I was shocked by the amount of tales with central themes of homophobia, transphobia, etc., 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 unfortunate realism, it got to be a lot to read about back-to-back, so I'd advise being aware of this going into the book.
That being said, I would put a gentle warning for those planning on diving into this collection. 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, I was shocked by the amount of tales with central themes of homophobia, transphobia, etc., 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 unfortunate realism, it got to be a lot to read about back-to-back, so I'd advise being aware of this going into the book.