Ameriie

This is the book that pushed me over the proverbial edge, I think, when it comes to Young Adult books. I’d been reading a lot this year, trying to keep up with all the amazing new voices and stories being told, and had been looking forward to this one, but was terribly disappointed. (See also Taryn’s post on her blog, Novel Paradise, about out-growing the Young Adult genre, which echoes many feelings I have as well. She’s a model book blogger.)

The stories vary from dark origin stories show more for villains we don’t know yet, as well as retelling well-known stories from the villain’s perspective. In general, the unknown villains did better, but several retellings stood out as well. However, I didn’t enjoy nearly as many stories as I should have in an anthology of this length and with this many beloved authors.

Something that bothered me about this anthology as I was reading all the stories is that there wasn’t really a way to understand what I had read aside from those YouTube book reviewers, called BookTubers, who went on to explain their requests or to riff awkwardly, and repetitively, on the theme of villainy. Stronger editing was required and sorely missed.

I also felt the lack of a note to accompany each story. A few stood well without notes, but might have enhanced my enjoyment, others would have greatly improved by an explanation from the author, or a comment from the editor. Even moving each author’s bio beside their story would have been an improvement. Perhaps that’s not as common in anthologies as I believed.

But before you think I didn’t enjoy any of this, I’m going to talk a little bit about my favorites. If you only read some of these stories, these are the ones I recommend:

Beautiful Venom by Cindy Pon (author of WANT) was a retelling of Medusa set in classical china, where the injustice of her situation at the hands of a vengeful goddess is made very clear. Pon not only has a touch for flair in a historical setting, but she can wring drama and foreboding in very few words. This is part of the reason WANT was such a great novel, and I can’t wait to read her other books. She’s got a good hand for short-form fiction as well, as evidenced here. Possibly the best story in the entire book. (cw: non-graphic rape, as per the original legend)

Marigold by Samantha Shannon was a delight that interwound popular beliefs about fae in Victorian england with one of my favorite poetic figures in a stunning tale that empowers the female subject of the story. The strength of storytelling here makes me so hopeful for The Bone Season.

Death Knell by Victoria Schwab was a fantastic story that stood so well on it’s own, and I dearly hope that fans of Schwab, of psychopomps and darkness seek this one out.

The last story in this anthology, Sera by Nicola Yoon, was completely unexpected. I’ve read some of Everything Everything and had nothing bad to say about the style but was not going to read it anyway. To say I was blown away by Sera is not an exaggeration. This story made my jaw-drop and felt like some of the best writing in this book. I still am not quite sure what to make of it.

The Blood of Imuriv by Renee Ahdieh was a good start for this anthology, and Ahdieh is almost as beautiful a writer here as in her Wrath & Dawn duology. She’s a master of imagery and characterization, but this felt a little underdeveloped to me, and was the surest sign that I would not be enjoying this anthology as much as I’d hoped. (I also seem to have made a note that some of my enjoyment was tainted by the accompanying text which was oddly unfunny.) This may have also been the only sci-fi story, and I would love to see Ahdieh do more like it.

You, You, It’s All About You by Adam Silvera was a refreshingly dark story among some softer punches, but it felt like an origin story that should have led on to a novella or series. The preface to an unconventional hero’s novel, perhaps.

The trouble for me with the bulk of these stories, is that they could have used more development, they seemed ambiguous in their evil or their direction. Sarah Enni delighted with her world-building but there seemed to be so much more left to say. Marissa Meyer’s Sea Witch retelling was good but the protagonist was a bit too blind to her flaws, making me worry about how much I’ll enjoy her Lunar Chronicles. There were too many small pieces to enjoy and not enough solidly good stories among those remaining.

And if you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned the BookTuber interludes (for lack of a better name) it’s because most of them aren’t worth mentioning and a few even detracted from the enjoyment of their accompanying stories. Worth reading are Sasha Alsberg’s 411 for Villains which was clever and a good conceit, and The Bad Girls’ Guide to Villainy by Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy which was funny and pointed. Kudos for the idea of pairing Authors with BookTubers though, as this greatly helps marketing the book.

I think you’re a fan of a specific author, you may want to read their story, but as a whole anthology about villains, I was sorely disappointed. I guess I just wish there had been a little more killing than there was. show less

Anthologies are hard in general because of their nature. This one is harder still because, for some unfathomable reason, they also included 'essays' from 'BookTubers.'

The Blood of Imuriv: Two siblings bicker over chess and one kills the other. /yawn

Jack: Surprisingly good for the subject matter. The incongruence between floating castle and LCD TVs took me out of the story a bit but the twist was really well done.

Gwen and Art and Lance: Arthurian legend, only set in a modern high school and show more told entirely through the medium of text messages. Its implies that Gwen is the villain here, but its mostly just high school drama. It did a decent job telling the story within the framing device, but it was a chore to read through that device for an extended period.

Shirley & Jim: Guys? You can write books for young adults that don't take place in high school. Young adults will still like it. This one is a genderbent Sherlock Holmes set in, yup, high school. Except it isn't really Sherlock Holmes - it lacks all the story beats and mystery, it lacks all the personality, it lacks everything besides the name. Which was slightly changed.

The Blessing of Little Wants: Now this is what I'm talking about. Solid story, good world building in a short amount of time, complex characters.

The Sea Witch: Essentially a re-telling of the Little Mermaid in which Ariel and Ursula are one in the same. Super predictable, but wasn't scared to have a villain be villainous.

Beautiful Venom: Medusa, but Asian. I liked the shift to an explicitly non-white protagonist and novel setting for the myth. The protagonist doesn't really move the plot along, though - there's very few actions or choices on her part. Rape is also a plot device.

Death Knell: This reminded me a lot of The Slow Regard of Silent Things, which is not a compliment. It was Artsy. It was Deep. It was Twee. I don't really get any villainy in this.

Marigold: Erl-Queen retelling in 19th Century London. Pretty solid as well.

You, You, Its All About You: High-schooler turned drug lord. There is no damn reason to write this in second person like you're making a Geocities page for an adoptable. I would have loved this in first or third person.

Julian Breaks Every Rule: More high school drama. But that aside, I liked how Julian's 'powers' are ambiguous and you can't tell if they are legit, much like you can't really tell how reliable of a narrator he is. I didn't love the 4th-wall breakage but that was a minor annoyance.

Indigo & Shade: Nothing new or of substance. Stilted.

Sera: Interesting take on the birth of a God(des) of War.

Now let's talk about the BookTubers. They did two things in/for the book: 1) Provide a writing prompt for an author, and 2) Write an essay. A lot of the prompts were really specific and didn't give the authors a lot of wiggle room to work in - it felt less like a prompt for a themed anthology and more of a "I have an excuse to make an author write fiction for me!" Similarly, the essays were largely insipid. They felt like they could have been plucked from a Buzzfeed clickbait quiz. They were completely awful, with humor that fell utterly flat, insights the level of a book report from a CliffNotes Study Guide, and often little to nothing to do with the short story itself. The book is much, much weaker for their inclusion, hence 2 stars instead of 3-4. It just comes off as BookTubers taking an opportunity to piggyback on creatives to self-promote. show less

All in all I thought this was an excellent collection of stories where we got to see more of some villains. However, some of the stories did leave me a little disappointed, or (assuming the whole point was to make us question how quick we are to label someone a villain or if we can relate to them) I still found the "villain" character to be easily dislikable.

Nice alternative to "Oh the Places You'll Go" features a mixed race child imagining the future, buoyed by memories of his ancestors. The colorful illustrations are magical.