Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Like any other anthology, there’s a huge difference in the quality of these stories. Unlike in other anthologies, this one just goes from “absolutely terrible” to “okay, I guess”.
First off, there are typos and grammar mistakes everywhere. These stories would have benefited from actually being proofread a bit more than they were.
However, that was not my only problem. Most of the characters are unlikeable and boring. There are a few stories that were actually funny (okay, like one of the stories was), the rest was boring or disgusting.
I’m going to rate all stories separately, but all in all, I have to say that this collection of “funny” stories about witches disappointed me terribly.

Good Spell Gone Wrong by Laura VanArendonk Baugh: This story actually has a really funny setup but is way too short for all that it is trying to put together. There are some funny things, like the catroach and the story is very fast-paced which works for the sense of urgency they want to achieve. All in all, I think there’s too much going on though and this story would work better if there was actual character development. It’s pretty long compared to most other stories in this anthology, but still lacks quite a bit. 3./5. Stars

The Trouble with Love Spells by Sara Dobie Bauer: first of trigger warnings for sexual assault/rape by deception. And general grossness. And characters you really want to punch in the face. This story is by far the worst story in the entire anthology. In it our main character is so in love with her barista, she tries a spell to make her into something he can love. Cause he ignores her. While he’s at work. Jesus, these assholes working in customer service not flirting with our main character. Because she is, of course, unresistable and everybody should immediately fall for her. But then, the shocking Twist! When she wakes up, she’s… a man. Because our barista is gay. So sad :( Gay people existing in real life and being hot. An attack against heterosexuals everywhere. But hey, instead of learning and not being a gigantic homophobe (because well, how dare he be gay? She’s just so in love with him. Despite never having spoken to him. Despite only ever seeing him at work.), she decides to take him on a date, pretending to be her own twin brother. She has a friend who constantly calls her out on her being a gigantic creep, like you know, pretending to be someone you’re not to get with a person who definitely didn’t want to be with you under normal circumstances. Because well, that’s unethical. But oh no, he’s hot and what can she do except go to his apartment with him and talk about how definitely gay he is for having a Marilyn Monroe poster. And then… she kisses him and they spend the night together (not having sex though, thank god for small miracles. Still gross as hell though.). Because he’s just so hot and wants to be with her now that she’s a man, but who cares about his actual feelings? No one. Her especially not. But when he finds out she’s actually a woman, the only thing he’s allowed to be upset is that she’s a witch. Not that she asked him out on a date, seduced him pretending to be a man, fully knowing he was gay and not into her. (also nice cissexism everywhere, what makes a man a man is obviously the D, always and totally, but hey, what else would one expect from cishets who write a story about a straight woman falling in love with a gay dude and trying to seduce him by pretending to be a man). The worst thing is probably that he just laughs haha witches are real, so cool, let's be friends now. Because yup, being lied to, made to go on a date with someone who's actually totally someone else and them making out with you is certainly the best thing in the world and if anything just a small inconvenience. -5 stars.

All The Petty Curses by Lissa Marie Redmond: An attempt at a retelling where fairytales are real and they all meet in a guy’s café. Red Riding Hood is in an abusive relationship with the big bad Wolf, who can’t help but be possessive of her. Curses and all that can really suck. But fear not. The bartender will save you. A quite boring story, with once more really annoying characters. Why can’t Red just be okay with the fact that Bob Wolfe, her stalker follows her everywhere, when she’s not in love with him? But jeez, he’s hot, she should be thankful! In the end, she realizes, she should have been happy with her stalker because thanks to some fairy magic, she’s cursed with being absolutely beautiful and is harassed wherever she goes. Sexual Harassment is so funny though and definitely something to be envious about! Also, she’s sad to have the man that’s magically bound to her leave her for a new woman. When she has a new boyfriend already. What? All in all, pretty boring again and with unlikeable characters. 2/5 Stars

The Perfect Mate Fiasco by Frances Pauli: This is probably the one story in this collection that’s actually funny. And has characters one can like. In this story, Rowan wants to find her perfect mate. But her dog messes up her spell and well… When she wakes up, her perfect boyfriend is already in her house? And he has a tail. And wants to pee in the garden. Oh no. So where's her dog again? This story made me laugh at times and in the end, Rowan realizes that magic works in mysterious ways. I quite enjoyed reading this and watch Rowan try to fix her mistakes while keeping her dog-man in check. This time the characters are also nice and don’t act like total dickheads just to act like dickheads. It’s a nice change of pace. Also finally a love spell that’s not “I want this person who totally doesn’t like me to fall in love with me” but rather “I want a person who loves me to find their way to me”. Which is certainly way less rape-y and definitely makes for a more enjoyable story. 4/5 Stars

A Matter of Perspective by Mara Malins: This story was probably the most unremarkable of them all. Set in a magic school, we have our underdog and the top student. Due to a mix-up in potion class, they and their teacher end up being transported to another time and place. They have to figure out how to get away from there. Pretty unremarkable and boring. I didn’t really like the characters and they felt very flat without ever getting any depth. 1/5 Stars

A Poppet Named Dave by Adam Millard: Another story set in a school. River has to learn magic, but she’s not really that good at it. But how is she supposed to pay attention when the heartthrob of their school sits near here? He’s so good looking. So of course, the only idea she gets, it’s to take his soul and put it into a voodoo doll. Witches don’t need consent obviously and love spells never go wrong. Instead, she traps the poor boy’s soul in the Poppet, a kind of voodoo doll. Unsurprisingly (or well super surprisingly for her), he’s not really happy with that, especially not since she messed up and actually trapped his conscious in the doll. But of course, he’s a dick, because wow, not falling in love with a witch who trapped your soul in a voodoo doll? And like complaining about it too? Just unacceptable. So, this is another story about a stupid love spell gone wrong and really annoying characters. 1/5 Stars

All in all, a disappointment and quite a lot of boring or plain bad stories. I feel really sorry for the actually funny stories to be included in this mess.

I really wanted to like this book. I truly, really wanted to. An ownvoices book about a depressed teenager which I heard had a happy ending? Hell yeah!

However, this book is very Hell No and here's why:

- so much transphobia: there's a trans woman in the book. Why? We don't know. She's a sex addict, really creepy and loves to hit on straight guys. She plays no role in the bigger storyline and she's really only there to be insulted and then quickly removed from the psychiatric ward. Oh, and every single character in the book misgenders her. They say he/she/it or use her Deadname when referring to her. Even later in the book the MC is glad he's kissing a ~real~ girl. A real girl is of course only one that does not have an Adam's Apple. There is no ~oh, he's a 15-year-old cishet boy, who comes from a sheltered home, he made a stupid mistake and he will learn~. NOPE. He's constantly encouraged in his transphobia, even by adults who should know better. Now you might wonder: But why should that be such a big problem? There are assholes in this world, they exist, why does everything have to be so PC these days? Well, the answer is easy. This book is marketed as a book that has a light take on depression. A book that will show you light in the future if you suffer from depression, a book that will show you that there is a future for you and that you will get better. But don't forget: Only if you're cishet. Trans people deserve nothing but mockery and scorn and gay people don't even exist in the scope of the book. Gay is only used once to tell us it definitely doesn't mean someone attracted to the same gender, but instead something that's bad or mushy like skipping hand in hand with the person you're in love with. That's gay!

- Love Cures All: So you wanted a realistic story about overcoming depression? Well though luck my friend. Go to the mental hospital, take some pills that normally take weeks to show any effect, make out with two girls and have sex with one of them. Tada, you're now a perfectly healthy teenage boy after just 5 days. Or are you the love interest, who has been sexually assaulted (mentioned in one sentence (we don't even know what happened to her, but it was terrible, but also it caused no trauma at all, all those other weak people who can't deal with that this way are just too weak), bc of course something like that has no influence on your life)? Because well then you're soooo lucky, bc you will meet a boy and want to have sex with him in 3 days and you will be miraculously happy forever.

- Flat Female Character: No, I don't mean their chests, those are actually not flat, which is mentioned a lot of times. But the character's themselves are flat. The two Love Interests (Nia and Noelle) actually have 4 emotions: Craig kiss with me/have sex with me, Craig I'm angry at you, Craig I'm sad, Craig I love you. And yeah, that's it. Craig actually only sees them as hot and constantly thinks about how he wants to kiss them. Sometimes he's angry at Nia, but he still wants to do her. It's nice to see so much insight into the female personality.

- Casual Racism: Nia, Craigs first love interest, is Asian. Which means she's tiny, has big eyes, is apparently freak in bed and is called "The Asian Persuasion", which - yup, you guessed it - is never challenged either. Like I mentioned before she is also really flat, except that she's a bit of a Bitch too. And Craig knows nothing about her. Even though he's supposed to be Head Over Heels for her. Uhm, yeah sure.

-Unrealistic: Like I mentioned before Craig's depression is cured almost immediately after he goes to the mental hospital. He's fine after he got with Noelle. He befriends literally every single person in the hospital (except Jennifer, because trans women are gross!!), but suuure, he's not good at making friends. While positive portrayals of getting better while dealing with mental illnesses are important, something as unrealistic as that is not really a good way or portraying mental health issues. What about people who have depression, are suicidal and don't get better after five days? What about people who need to try many different pills before they find one that works? What about the depressed trans kids who only get to see themselves as the most disgusting person in this story?

So yeah, that's my disappointed and also kind of angry review for this book.

While the portrayal of depression in the first half of the novel was quite well done, the second half of the novel ruined pretty much everything, not only by making Craig an unlikeable dick, but also by rushing through it way too fast, portraying an unrealistic recovery from year long depression.

Anyways, if you want a good book about an MC with depression, a book that's ownvoices AND diverse, check out [b:Shatterproof|30306399|Shatterproof|Xen Sanders|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1466307128s/30306399.jpg|50790752] by Xen Sanders, which actually has a sensitive portrayal of depression and mental illness. Trigger warnings for suicide attempt, suicidal ideation and character death (not MC).

River is obsessed with the idea of becoming part of the Graces tightly knit family, as is nearly everybody else at this school. When Summer Grace, the shielded Goth-girl, asks her to come with her, River does. After attempting to put a love spell on Fenrin Grace, the hottest boy at school, she soon becomes friends with Summer. But River is not only obsessed with that family because of their celebrity status. No, she has a more sinister motive.

First of all, the story has a lot of similarities with Twilight. Girl moves to new school, girl fawns over ~mysterious~ celebrity-family, in which everybody is supernaturally good-looking, girl falls in love with mysterious hot boy, girl manages to become friends with said family because she is so special and different from all the other girls. *yawn*

Not only do we have a Mary Sue protagonist, who actually renames herself River Page to sound more mysterious, no, it gets worse:

There's mean girl Niral (the only non-white character), who is very homophobic (she calls another girl a lesbian and makes fun of her bc of course lesbian is such a terrible word and such a terrible thing to be, this is never addressed) and slut-shames another character. Making your only non-white character a bully whose only goal is to be a complete and utter douche bag is questionable at best.

There's a lot of racist slurs, f.e. g*psy is often used to describe someones fashion.

Biphobia, oh yes, my friends, it's there. A character's sexual orientation is used as a plot device for drama. It was terrible to read.
There's also ableism against mentally ill people, some character say (non-criticised) that "you can't be friends with someone with mental problems" and the main characters' mother wants to force her daughter on pills to help her with the fact that her father disappeared, but of course, only weak people need to take pills or therapy to help with these things.

Oh and of course, she is so much better than all the other girls, she is much more special, she is the one who will get Fenrin to notice her, she is the one, and all other girls are terrible and horrible and ugly:

But I was not like those prattling, chattering things with their careful head tosses and thick, cloying lip gloss. Inside, buried down deep where no one could see it, was the core of me, burning endlessly, coal black and coal bright…

So Special!! And fake-deep. It's be a while since I disliked a main character as much as I dislike River. Even her dialogue is boring and annoying, as she always overthinks what to say, so she can have witty dialogue with Fenrin. It's all very pretentious and boring.

All in all I did not enjoy this book. It was boring, it dragged a lot, the main character's superiority complex was boring and annoying, the bisexual plot twist is definitely not what I'm looking in when I say I want representation.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the summary of this book I thought we would get a book about a girl growing up in a small town dealing with prejudice there. And until halfway through the novel that's what it is. It is about Lorraine dealing with her family's homophobia, with their constant use of slurs against her, with the small town prejudice and homophobic preachers, but also with falling in love with another non-straight girl, with wanting to get out of this town but also fearing that she will never be able to. So far, so good, we do get what the Summary promised. And would that have been all of the story I could have really enjoyed it.

For me, the romance felt overly rushed especially in the beginning, and then just weird with certain obstacles that got in their way, so there wasn't as much build up as I would have liked. But it was still nice and I could probably have enjoyed this book quite a bit. I was actually really interested in Lorraine and how she would deal with all the shit she's facing and like I said for a while that actually worked.

However, the rest of the book is terrible. The dark family secret? The MC's sister has schizophrenia. She beats herself thinking God is telling her to do it. She thinks her husband is possessed by Satan and takes refuge in a house for battered women. She gets hospitalized, she comes back out, she tries to kill her own son, she commits suicide in a gruesome and horrifying way. And then? A happy ending. Lorraine only griefs shortly and moves on and finally finds happiness as well. There is no talk about how terrible that must have been for her sister. How hard it must be for her mother to lose a daughter, except for her to reconnect with her own mother. Nothing about the boyfriend who lost his wife. Nothing at all about the sisters own life and how she felt. Nothing about how mentally ill people deserve agency and not to be used as cheap plot devices! Mentally ill people are not a plot device to shock others or to further a neurotypical character's life. Their suicides are not for not mentally ill people to learn from!

I tried to take some time between reading the book and writing the review because after I read it, I was so upset I couldn't calm down for ages. And even now, a few days later, just thinking about this book and its terrible treatment of mental illness makes me sick to the stomach.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lacey's and Dylan's relationship is going through a rough patch. Lacey, the smart lesbian, wants to finish college and get a well paying job. Dylan, the sex-obsessed lesbian, however just wants to work in her dead-end job at a bar, play video games all day and seduce her hot girlfriend. Lacey thinks about breaking up with Dylan as she can't see them working well in the future, but then the zombie apocalypse happens.

I really love zombie stories and I enjoyed that in this story the zombies were incredible hard to kill (nearly impossible to kill) but the rest of the story was just... not interesting.
Dylan and Lacey seemed quite one-dimensional for me and I just couldn't connect with them at all. Dylan just annoyed me at the beginning and even her slight character-development in the end couldn't save her for me. There were also no even remotely interesting side characters. I didn't care for Dylan's and Lacey's relationship problems, which was a huge part in the story, but due to the lack of character development it just fell flat.

I didn't enjoy this book at all. It had an interesting premise, but didn't work out for me. I can't really recommend it.

I have heard about Pantomime for a while now, but I haven't got around to buying and reading it until a short while ago. And it was a mistake! Waiting so long, that is.

This book has made me fall in love with it almost immediately. It has everything: Loveable characters, interesting world building of a fantastic world, awe-inspiring circus scenes and wonderful writing.

We have Micah Grey, our protagonist, an intersex person raised as a girl, who mostly goes by male pronouns, even though he never fully identifies as a man and instead feels more non-binary. He was raised as Iphigenia Laurus, but when he overheard that his mother planned to operate on him to make him more "marriageable" he ran away, reinvented himself and joined a circus. As an aerialist. Yes, he's very talented. (His background story explains his immediate Talent quite well though, even though I nearly died from shock when Micah first climbed the trapeze.) While him being intersex is not the main focus of the story, it is still always an important part of his life and never forgotten, which was amazing. He is also bisexual, even though this is sadly not named on page, but it's very obvious.

My second favorite thing was the great description of circus life. Some of it was most definitely romanticized I think (circuses back could be really terrible, especially for people involved in the freak show) but it also didn't show it all through rose-tinted glasses. I loved how the training to become an aerialist was described and how many parts of circus life were shown.

I feel like I need to put trigger warnings for various scenes though: There's the threat of forced surgery for Micah, people misgender him after they find out his "secret", there's a character that's being abused by her husband (and while people feel sorry for her, no one really wants to help her which really bothered me? UGH!), one of the side-characters implies that she was raped by a former partner, another is sexually assaulted by her boss and the main character's boobs are also once touched without his consent to make sure he is a "girl".

Besides the abuse-not-dealt-with-enough, there are a few other things that bothered me a bit. The mythology was just teased at and never really explained, but having read the sequels already I can tell you: it will all be explained in the end, just not in the first novel which sadly makes it a bit hard to understand. Also, a map would probably have worked wonders to really understand the world better.

There's also the dual storytelling where we switch between Micah (present) and Gene (past). While the story-telling was done well and I liked the contrast between Micah's former life and now, in the end, it felt like the Gene part was dragged out too much. Due to this, it is also quite a slow pacing up until the end, which in return felt very abrupt.

There's also a short love-triangle so be warned! I know, it was used to show us that Micah is bisexual, but it still bothered me a bit. (maybe especially because Micah is bisexual and because it once more made it seem like bisexuals can't be truly monogamous (but also not really polyamorous, bc honestly when was the last time you saw a bisexual character in a polyamorous relationship where all parties where informed and happy with that arrangement and it was not cheating?... yeah, I've also never seen it). But since Micah was figuring out a lot of things about him, it fit quite well in that discovery plot.

Another thing that bothered me about this book is that Micah discovers he is a Kedi, a mythical intersex creature, and it makes it seem as if that's the reason he's intersex and that intersexuality is a fantasy thing, but this is resolved in the second book, so I did not include it in my rating.

My rating is probably a bit higher than it would be if I had just read the first book and left it there. But since I already read the second and third book, looking back at certain plot points makes a lot more sense now than it did when I first read the book.

I also have to say that the main force behind the story were definitely the characters. Micah, Aenea and Arik, the two aerialists who train Micah, Drystan, the white clown and Cyril, Micah's brother. All of them were amazing character's and they made the story feel so much more lively.

Now, I know, I have a lot of issues with this book, but it is still a good read and if you have the time you should definitely pick it up. Just make sure you also buy the second book at the same time or else you will be stuck in cliffhanger hell with a lot of unanswered questions.

Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Green Toes is a nice short story with a dash of magical realism.

We're introduced to Laura, a woman that grew up on a farm and moved to the city to finally date a girl, as there is no LGBT community in her rural town. However she doesn't particularly enjoy clubbing and can't really connect with any of the girls there. While time passes and she still hasn't been with another woman she grows frustrated.

Thanks to some magic boots she got from her Ex she manages to build a flourishing garden and realizes that clubbing isn't really her thing. When she meets Terri, who also enjoys gardening a lot, they start to bond and soon that friendship develops into more.

I loved how easily the talk about non binary identities went and that there was no homophobia or transphobia at all.

The parts in which Laura describes her troubles dating, especially that it can be hard to build a connection on only one part of your personality, felt incredible real to me.

I was a bit disappointed that the story was only 28 pages long and I felt that there could have been a bit of an explanation for the magical boots, but I still enjoyed it.

All in all it was a nice story and I enjoyed it a lot.

Why I read it: I requested a copy on NetGalley as it sounded like a lovely diverse book and I was not disappointed.

Do I recommend it: Yes! It's a very cute book (and the cover is lovely!) and I am incredibly happy that there's a canon genderqueer character (#ownvoices Hell Yeah!) All in all it was really fun to read and I liked it.

Review crossposted to my blog here

Unfortunately a very disappointing read to me. I did not like any of the characters (which would be fine, since I don't think characters need to be necessarily be likeable), but I also found the plot boring and the pacing both moving too slow to be intruiging and too fast to make sense. I also did not enjoy the constant search for The Most Aesthetic Life, which caused most of the characters to feel both uninteresting to me and flat.
I might also just read too much horror to actually feel shocked by the "gruesome" torture scene in this book and so these scenes didn't phase me either, except leave me vaguely confused on why some of the scenes (such as the unusual cigar consumption) were necessary, except to show that all of these characters here kinda suck and don't really care for each other.
And most of all I did not care for the way this book treated its trans and butch characters while referencing Stone Butch Blues repeatedly. At points the butch characters were treated as potential sex offerenders or humiliated in a way that did not feel loving to me. (Plus the fact that the only trans characters in this book where transmasc afab butches... Yawn.)
The only black character in this book is treated horribly, there's constant fatphobia, the classicism and definition of femme as indulgent and through being able to afford thing is through the roof plus the aforementioned transphobia... All in all this is a book that I would have probably dnf-ed if I hadn't been able to borrow an audio book from my library. And looking back I wish I had still dnf-ed it, but the hype for the book and my own excitement for modern butch/femme dynamics made me push through. Definitely not worth it.