“Any of my friends who didn’t fit a certain mold had the same issue. Finding ourselves in the stories we loved was hard, frustrating work. But when we discovered that rare story that reflected us, that hidden gem, we latched on and fell in LOVE love with reading all over again. For some of us in that renewed state of romantic bliss, we made vows to write the stories we had such a hard time finding.”


This is an anthology edited by one of the cofounders of We Need Diverse Books and contains stories about race, sexuality and gender from a variety of fantastic authors. All my specific thoughts on each story are as follow:

Eraser Tattoo by Jason Reynolds [4/5]
This was a short and sweet one. It’s about black teens, Shay and Dante, who have been best friends their entire lives and have been in a relationship for a while. When the story takes place, though, Shay and her family are moving away, so she and Dante are reminiscing while she gives him an eraser tattoo of an ‘S’. It was only ten pages but still managed to be cute and funny, and I even felt a little sad at the end which is pretty impressive for such a short piece.

Meet Cute by Malinda Lo [4/5]
I can confirm, this not only has a meet cute in it, but also has one of the cutest meet cutes I’ve ever read. This is set at a screening for an Asian fantasy film and focuses on the meeting of Nic, cosplaying as a gender-bent Sulu, and Tamia, cosplaying as a racebent Scully. The power goes out and the two girls escape the crowd of cosplayers, leading to some cute nerdy banter and discussions on representation in media. I just, AH, this was adorable, and it made me Feel a lot.

Don’t Pass Me By by Eric Gansworth [3/5]
I dunno, there was just something about this one that didn’t gel with me as much as I would have liked. This one is about an Indian boy in school and some Indian classmates of his and has a lot of discussion of racism and white passing. I really liked the discussion towards the end when they students are given pencils to colour in a self-portrait and the main character refuses to use the “flesh” pencil because it doesn’t represent how he looks. But there was something about the way it was written that I didn’t love and (I’m aware this is nit-picking) the CPR descriptions annoyed me :/

Be Cool For Once by Aminah Mae Safi [2/5]
There’s a big problem with romance-centric short stories: if you don’t like the romance, you don’t like the story. This is about Shirin at a concert of her favourite band with her best friend when she sees the boy she’s had a crush on forever, and romance ensues. I just really wasn’t feeling the romance which meant that this entire thing fell really flat for me. I did really like the fictional band in this, though – they’re a rock band called the Thousand Day Queens and all their stage names correspond with queens who have been shunned by history (Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn and Rani of Jhansi).

Tags by Walter Dean Myers [5/5]
Holy crap, this one left an impact. Instead of just a short story, this one is written in screenplay format and it’s about four black guys who meet up when they’re tagging the walls of a building. I’m not going to say anything else because this is definitely one where you should go in blind and just experience it for yourself.

Why I Learned to Cook by Sara Farizan [5/5]
Fluff overload!! This one is about Yasaman, a Persian girl who is dating a girl called Hannah and wants to introduce her to her grandmother. But first she decides to let her grandma teach her how to make vegetarian Persian food, so she can make it for Hannah. This was the cutest, sweetest, fluffiest story I’ve maybe ever read. I’m pretty sure my teeth are rotted.

A Stranger at the Bochinche by Daniel José Older
I didn’t totally understand this one and I’m not sure why, so I’m not going to give it a rating.

A Boy’s Duty by Sharon G. Flake [3.5/5]
This was an… interesting one. It’s set in WWII and follows a black farmboy who runs away and has plans on joining the Navy but loves art and astrology. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it was a little long in places and the writing style didn’t completely work for me.

One Voice: A Something In-Between Story by Melissa de la Cruz [4/5]
I realised halfway through this that it’s a semi-sequel to Melissa de la Cruz’s novel Something in Between (which I probably should have picked up on from the title but I’m an idiot). This is about Jasmine, a Filipino girl at university who has to deal with racist graffiti first showing up on a school building, and then a targeted attack towards an African-American girl. This one deals a lot with what it’s like to be a person of colour, what it’s like to be a woman, what it’s like to be a woman of colour. It was incredibly impactful, but to me there was this weird disconnect which I think came from not having read Something In Between.

Paladin/Samurai by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by Thien Pham [3/5]
I love that there’s a comic in an anthology collection, that’s really cool. This is about a group of boys playing knock-off D&D and one of them befriending a popular girl. It was just really cute, idk what else to say.

Catch, Pull, Drive by Schuyler Bailar [5/5]
First of all, major trigger warnings for use of the F-slur, T-slur and dead naming. This one is about a trans boy who’s a swimmer, and it’s about his transition, him telling people, the abuse he suffers for it at school, and his dreams of being an Olympic swimmer. This was so gut wrenching and impactful, but so good and necessary.

Super Human by Nicola Yoon [5/5]
Wow, this ended with a bang. This is about Syrita, a girl enlisted by the US government to stop the world’s only superhero, X, from destroying humanity. This one had such beautiful discussions about humans, race and police brutality from the eyes of two very different black people living in America. This was just… it was beautiful and it made me feel a whole lot of things.

Overall, my ratings together added up to 78%, which seems about right. My favourites were easily Malinda Lo's, Walter Dean Myers', Sara Farizan's, Melissa de la Cruz's, Schuyler Bailar's and Nicola Yoon's. I would definitely recommend this anthology to everyone, it was incredible.