Out Now: Queer We Go Again! by Saundra Mitchell

QUEER WE GO AGAIN! A follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Out anthology, Out Now features seventeen new short stories from amazing queer YA authors. Vampires crash prom, aliens run from the government, a president’s daughter comes into her own, a true romantic tries to soften the heart of a cynical social media influencer, a selkie and the sea call out to a lost soul. Teapots and barbershops, skateboards and VW vans, Street Fighter and Ares’s sword: Out Now has a story for every reader and surprises with each turn of the page!

My Thoughts:

I adored this collection of LGBTQIA stories, ranging from meet-cute romance stories to fairy tale re-tellings and vampires reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There are a lot of high profile YA authors included here: Tara Sim, Mark Oshiro, C.B. Lee, to name a few!

My favorite short stories were Caleb Roehrig's "What Happens in the Closet," the aforementioned high school vampire prom story and C.B. Lee's "Lumber Me Mine," another story set in high school, about a sweet connection between two classmates. I also really enjoyed "One Spell Too Many" by Tara Sim, which involved a supernatural bakery. There was a great balance of fun stories, intense tales, coming out stories, and loud-and-proud stories.

Short story collections are typically hit-and-miss for me, but Out Now: Queer We Go Again! was consistently strong throughout.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.