Review: Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories

Edited by Stephanie Perkins
Stories by Leigh Bardugo, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Brandy Colbert, Tim Federle, Lev Grossman, Nina LaCour, Stephanie Perkins, Veronica Roth, Jon Skovron, Jennifer E. Smith
Available now from
Review copy

Stephanie Perkins' follow-up anthology to MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME is another set of twelve strong stories by popular and up-and-coming authors, including adult author Lev Grossman.  The only repeated author is Perkins herself (who writes a sequel to her story from the first anthology).  The theme of summer is a little looser than the theme of winter holidays, and the stories range wider in tone and style as well.  There's contemporary, fantasy, science fiction, and historical stories.  The protagonists are diverse too, both in skin color and sexuality.

In fact, not all of the stories end happily.  "Sick Pleasure" by Francesca Lia Block tells of a doomed summer romance.  "Souvenirs" by Tim Federle tells of two boys who know they have to break up because one of them is going to college.  "Souvenirs" is one of my favorite stories in the collection, for how it gets lots of messy emotions into so few pages, including those little things that make you love someone even when you know they aren't the best person.

Of the speculative stories, my favorite might have been "The Map of Tiny Perfect Things" by Lev Grossman, a groundhog-day tale of a boy and a girl who are trapped in a loop and manage to find shocking beauty in a single mundane (but tragic) day.  Close behind is "Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail" by Leigh Bardugo, which taps into my love of mythological sea creatures.  The inventive ending gets my approval.  Okay, I loved "Last Stand at the Cinegore" by Libba Bray, too.  It's a trippy meta tale about a horror film coming to life and the apathetic cinema workers who are the only ones that can stop it.

The more mundane stories were a bit more uneven to me.  "The End of Love" by Nina LaCour is an adorable story about two girls finding their way to each other while one of them goes through a difficult time. "Love is the Last Resort" by Jon Skovron is a farce about multiple couples who need a few tricks to get them to take that leap of faith and ask each other out.

This made for a very fun read on my plane ride home from California.  (Can you get more summer than that?)  There was only one story I didn't think fit the anthology.  "Inertia" by Veronica Roth was a nifty sci-fi romance, but I'm not sure what it had to do with summer.  Overall, this was a strong set of stories, although not quite as strong as MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME.  I hope for fall and spring sequels!

Review: My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

Edited and with a story by Stephanie Perkins
Stories by Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, and Kiersten White
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

For her first anthology, Stephanie Perkins did not play fair.  She gathered up a veritable who's who of YA authors to deliver a nearly perfect anthology with something to offer for everybody.  Some of the stories are speculative fiction; some are contemporary.  All have at least a touch of a romantic edge.  There's also a smattering of diversity.

For me, the weakest link was Jenny Han's "Polaris Is Where You'll Find Me," the story of a human girl adopted by Santa.  There were hints of an interesting elf world and two potential love interests, and it was all a bit much for one of the book's shorter stories.  It felt like the beginning to something longer.  My favorite was Kelly Link's "The Lady and the Fox," a sort of Christmas retelling of Tam Lin with a young girl who loves costumes and an old family with lots of stories.

David Levithan, Rainbow Rowell, Matt de la Peña, and Gayle Forman and more deliver solid contemporary Christmas and New Year's stories.  I liked that Levithan's brought in some Jewish heritage to the proceedings.  Holly Black did what Holly Black does.  So did Laini Taylor to deliver a memorable closing story.  I found Kiersten White's "Welcome to Christmas, CA" took longer to charm me than the others, but by the end I was under its delicious spell.

I appreciated that MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME skewed a little older.  Almost all of the characters are in their first year of college.  It united the anthology in a way, and gave it a bit of a different vibe from similar YA holiday anthologies.

This is a charming collection and an excellent choice for anyone who likes at least one or more of the twelve authors.  It's rare to come across an anthology this solid.  And with so much winter cheer, it's hard for me to be a Grinch.