Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Books I've Read: Unbroken


So many authors I really like and admire are included in this anthology, and as most of you will know, I am all for honest and empowering representation of disabilities in YA fiction.  So, I was excited to start reading this anthology of short fiction.  Unfortunately, it didn't really do it for me.

There are some strong stories in here.  I particularly liked Kody Keplinger's one about tandem biking and William Alexander's story about a boy who conjured up a monster with his chronic pain.

Unfortunately too many of the rest fell flat for me.  And there was such a mix of genres, from high science-fi to magic realism, to fantasy to historical that the stories never really fit together in any way that made sense.  And in several cases I couldn't even figure out what the disability was, most especially in a story about a girl making a pilgrimage to a Muslim sacred place and burdened by a mysterious 'It'.

So while I totally love the premise of this book, the story selection is not as great as I would have hoped it to be.  Which is a real shame because teens living with a disability, mental or physical, deserve to see themselves in books doing and being more than their disabilities.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

A YA Anthology of short stories featuring disabled teens, written by #OwnVoices disabled authors. The stories reflect a range of genres and disabilities; contributors include bestselling authors Kody Keplinger and Francisco X. Stork, as well as newcomers Fox Benwell, Keah Brown, and more.

1 comment:

  1. That's too bad. Unfortunately, it's not the first time I've heard about a disability related anthology not living up to expectations.

    ReplyDelete