“Maybe that’s why the meet-cute is so right for stories of LGBTQ folks. We usually find ourselves in tough beginnings. Then circumstances conspire to make things really hard on us. Falling in love happens against all odds. But darn it if we don’t deserve our happy endings too.”
So says Alysia Constantine in her introduction to Short Stuff, a collection of four YA LGBTQ short stories with a romantic bent. Each are written by authors I wasn’t familiar with, which makes me happy, as I can now find even more books by authors whose work I enjoy!
In “I Ate the Whole World to Find You” by Tom Wilinsky and Jen Sternick, an unlikely pairing is forged between a teenage swimmer with Olympic aspirations and the cook at the swim club where he trains. “The August Sands” by Jude Sierra chronicles a familiar trope—the summer romance. But there's more than just that.
“Love in the Time of Coffee” by Kate Fierro tells of a long-time friendship that starts when two girls are young, and often revolves around coffee. And in “Guilded Scales” by Julia Ember, the one fantasy story in the collection, a courageous young woman wants to be taken seriously as a warrior but finds far more than she bargained for in a search for a dragon.
These stories were so enjoyable, they made me smile—even the fantasy one. Each story had interesting twists on the familiar genre and each was really well-written. I also liked that the stories were all fairly long so I didn’t feel cheated out of an ending. My favroite was probably "I Ate the Whole World to Find You," but it was close.
Pick this one up, y’all, for some sweet stories.
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