Review: Color Outside The Lines: Stories About Love Anthology

Shelly's Book Corner received a review copy from Amazon Vine and voluntarily provided an honest review. This does not affect the opinion of the book or the content of the review.

When people ask me what this anthology is about, I’m often tempted to give them the complicated answer: it’s about race, and about how being different from the person you love can matter but how it can also not matter, and it’s about Chinese pirate ghosts, black girl vigilantes, colonial India, a flower festival, a garden of poisons, and so, so much else. Honestly, though? I think the answer’s much simpler than that. Color outside the Lines is a collection of stories about young, fierce, brilliantly hopeful people in love.—Sangu Mandanna, editor of Color outside the Lines

With stories by:
Samira Ahmed | Elsie Chapman | Lauren Gibaldi | Lydia Kang | Michelle Ruiz Keil | Lori M. Lee | Sangu Mandanna | L.L. McKinney | Anna-Marie McLemore | Danielle Paige | Karuna Riazi | Caroline Tung Richmond | Adam Silvera | Tara Sim | Eric Smith | Kelly Zekas & Tarun Shanker

Review 

I’m all about diversity which is why I wanted to read this anthology. In my opinion I find that the young adult genre does a great job with providing diverse stories. So as far as the anthology goes I liked some stories more than others. Some stories were well written and some stopped just when things got interesting. A few stories went right over my head. This anthology had a little bit of everything, historical, contemporary, fantasy.

Turn The Sky To Petals by Anna-Marie McLemore-3/5
What We Love by Lauren Gibaldi -4/5
Giving Up The Ghost by Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas 3.5/5
Your Life Matters by L.L. McKinney-4/5
Starlight and Moondust by Lori M. Lee 3/5
Five Times Shiva Met Harry by Sangu Mandanna 4/5
The Agony of a Heart’s Wish by Samira Ahmed 3/5
The Coward’s Guide to Falling in Love by Caroline Tung Richmond 3.5/5
Death and The Maiden by Tara Sim 3.5/5
Faithfull by Karuna Riazi 3/5
Gilman Street by Michelle Ruiz Keil 2/5
The Boy Is by Elsie Chapman 2/5
Sandwiched in Between by Eric Smith 3/5
Yuna and the Wall by Lydia Kang 2/5

Stories by Danielle Paige and Adam Silvera were not included in this copy so I won’t be able to give them a rating.