Title: Queer Life Queer Love 2
Series: Queer Life Queer Love
Author: Multiple
Publisher: Muswell Press
Release Date: 4th May 2023
Pages: 280
Source: Gifted
Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰
CAWPILE: 9.00/10
Synopsis
Queer Life, Queer Love celebrates the best new queer writing from around the world, by both new and established writers and features voices across all narrative forms. The new book includes 44 stories, poems, essays and flash-fiction. This is writing that explores characters, stories, and experiences beyond the mainstream; works that celebrate the fascinating, the forbidden, the subversive, and even the mundane, but, in essence, works that express the view from outside. Humorous, serious, autobiographical, and revelatory – all aspects of the queer experience are reflected in this dazzling collection.
Review
My lovely friend Tom Spencer (@tomspenceriswriting on Instagram) reached out to send me a copy of this anthology as his work is featured within – the short story Bo. This is my first time reading an anthology so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect and in all honesty it took me a while to get into the book, in part because I have been struggling with my reading lately and finding the joy in it. However, once I got into it I did find it difficult to put down because of the nature of the anthology, the short quick-fire chapters were exactly what I needed. I liked that I didn’t have to keep track of plot points and characters etc, it allowed me to just read and to try different styles of writing which was really interesting as I don’t read many short contemporary works.
I did struggle with some of the writing styles though, as someone who hasn’t read a lot of poetry I found it hard to understand some of the styles and some of the more niche subjects. But I wouldn’t say that it meant that they were bad or not well written, just not for me. My stand out stories were Bo and Elevated People. Each drew me in and made me feel for the characters or the atmosphere that was created, something I find impressive to achieve in such few pages.
Bo - Tom’s short story I found to be incredibly sweet, a young person exploring identity, defying the need for labels and navigating being a teenager and falling in love for the first time. I found parts of it quite relatable and it made me smile as I could picture it all so vividly, as if I were there with Bo. If there were one word I would use to sum up how I found this story, it would be tender, there was a real tenderness to Bo’s exploration of identity, and of the relationship within the story. It really felt as though you were a teen experiencing these things for the first time again as you read it. If you’re a fan of coming of age queer stories like Heartstopper, I would say this short story will give you those same feelings of pride and happiness as you see young people coming to terms with who they are. I would love to see a follow up of Bo in the future!
Elevated People - This piece was also very atmospheric, it really made me feel as though I were in the club too, taking those steps up to the platform. I liked how joyous it felt, how celebratory and confidence inspiring, and I can’t lie it made me really want to go clubbing again! Something that I really do not do often, maybe because in my experience clubs have never been as safe and celebratory as in this story.
Overall, I enjoyed this collection and how it celebrated Queerness. Though I didn’t necessarily understand all of the writing styles, it has left me wanting to read more short stories and anthologies, and I’m definitely excited to follow some of these writers in their future endeavours, especially Tom!
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