Beautiful short story collection. I could connect to all of the stories in some way or another. I sobbed through Jean Kwok’s story, it was the closest to my experience during COVID. The collection was well written and the stories were brilliantly crafted. Huge thanks to Jennifer Haupt for compiling this authentic and emotional collection.

Its okay I guess - it couldn't keep my attention though so I never actually finished it. Hence a DNF for me.

Incredibly moving. I often struggled with short story collections, but these stories were what I needed at exactly the moment I found myself turning the pages. I laughed; I cried; I found myself flipping through the pages at breakneck speed. I feel this is the type of book that would benefit greatly from an audiobook. I'd love to hear these stories in the authors' voices.

This was a little too close to home during the peaks of Covid but shortly afterwards it was an interesting way to explore others experiences of such a world affecting event.

We are experiencing an unprecedented time. A time, a trial of so many things out of our control. Yet, as this book makes very clear, we are not experiencing it alone.

Interviews, poems, and essays by some favored authors, as well as some new to me authors, describe their own experiences, and feelings of this time. All the things we feel, not knowing what day it is, yearning for the chance to hug, or see a loved one, and fear of what will be left when, if this is ever over, are all things we share. There are humorous things, one author's husband who was a germophobe before Covid, now is thrilled that he can use as much bleach as he wants. There are sad things, things to comfort, things to ponder, and honesty, and feelings expressed.

Positive things, such as the beneficial effect on the environment. Using nature as a solace, a way to heal connect. It's what I've been using, that and occasional family visits. The book did leave me with a feeling of connection and showed me that even the funky feeling I can't shake, is normal and I'm not alone.

I tried to read this in the early summer of 2020 as an advanced copy, but found it too close to what we were all experiencing to be able to stay with it. In 2023, I returned, some distance between me and the early days of the pandemic, with all its anxiety and weighty emotions, and read it start to finish. Editor Jennifer Haupt brought together dozens of writers to contribute to this beautiful collection in order to donate the proceeds to a nonprofit supporting bookstores which had been forced to temporarily close their doors. This is a profound literary time capsule of the COVID-19 pandemic years. My thanks to Netgalley, the editor and publisher for the chance to read and review.

I enjoyed this very much, and I definitely had a theme during my pandemic reading, so I ended up ordering a copy for my library's collection. It didn't circ as well as I had hoped, but it's still there and making the rounds slowly.

A great little anthology reflecting on the year when everything changed - I loved that there were a range of poems and essays throughout the book. I also appreciated that this was a collection of various authors so you were able to get different perspectives.

Overall, I really enjoyed Alone Together and highly recommend this anthology to all who are experiencing sadness and those interested in how others are coping during this tragic pandemic.

A nice collection of stories that were an interesting read as a reflection back onto the first person of the pandemic in 2020.

This was a well-timed collection of essays and poetry on the loneliness and isolation that COVID-19 brought to many of us. Alone Together made me feel less alone as I was heavily related to these different stories from diverse voices. All of the essays were very well written.

Title: Alone Together
Authors: Garth Stein; Jenna Blum; Kwame Alexander
Pages: 288

* Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a ARC of the book in exchange for a honest review.

A collection of essays, poems and interviews to illustrate the memorable and once in a lifetime event called the COvid-19 pandemic.

The perfect way to immortalize the struggles, but also the hope, love and community, that brought the world together during the Covid-19 pandemic. This book, will be so important in the years to come, to show what our world was like during this pandemic. I would myself giggling, crying and bein proud while reading this book. It showcased humanity during this crisis perfectly.

Although I will probably never reread this book - I find it immensely important and find myself of the opinion that every reader must read this book at least once during their life.

This was really hard for me to read. I have tried several times during this pandemic and have stopped and started. It is not a reflection on any of the authors, it 's simply a reflection on the times and my own state of mind.

Thank you kindly for sharing a copy of this novel with me.

When I was first granted an advanced copy of this collection by NetGallery, I was not sure what my expectations would be. We were still in the thick of the pandemic and still mostly quarantining at that point. What if this had been published too soon?

Instead what I found was a collection of stories that made you feel that you weren't alone in all of this. That my feelings were similar to others and that we were all going through this. With so many stories and authors, this book has a story for everyone and every emotion that was felt during the pandemic.

I am not one for short stories and poems, so unfortunately this was not for me. But I would recommend to others.

I did not finish this book, but that's more a reflection on my state of mind during the pandemic than the quality of this collection of writings.
I've read maybe 25 % and it was good, I think I just need a bit more space between the pandemic and reading it to properly appreaciate the book. I will return to it.

Very cute. Definitely odd to see the pandemic portrayed in literature, but it was lovely :') I have a soft spot for short story collections and this fit the bill perfectly.

A powerful collection of reflections on what the COVID-19 2020 lockdown meant for our society, our selves, and our world. I especially appreciated the variety of voices included in this collection that shed light on how complex and diverse the experience of this pandemic has been for different people. I highly recommend this!

3.5*

Thank you so much NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review the collection of essays, poems and interviews. Simultaneously, sorry NetGalley that I’m the worst reviewer ever and wrote a review almost year later.😬😬

To my credit, though, 2020 was a wild time and lord knows what was going on with me in August of that year… Time was a construct then and goodness did this book fall into the crevices of not what I was expecting. I wasn’t the biggest fan and therefore fell into the blips of did not age well (like I said 2020 lasted a million years) and disappointed expectations. From what I recalled I expected so much more.
More hope and love, all I got was sadness and despair (which come to think of it is pretty accurate for 2020 and yea some of 2021).
So, I should say at that point and time it is not what I needed. I needed hope and sanity. Light in the middle of so much hopelessness, uncertainty and sadness.
Now, when I sit here really thinking about this group of stories it really reflects every part of how it is to live through a global pandemic.
Hopelessness with occasional bouts of unbridled happiness. It shows how 2020 forced everyone to really reflect on their lives. To cause change that will contribute to their overall happiness. It shows how with some the pandemic helped them to care. Not just about themselves, but those around them.
At the time of me reading the book I had not reached the understanding of what the author was trying to convey. Sometimes that is just the case.
Sometimes you don’t realize how much you need to step back for a long period of time to soak in and appreciate all something has to offer. This is definitely not a story that will stand the test of the time and that’s not because it’s not important, but because some people in the future generation may not know the full scope of fear, sadness, uncertainty, paranoia and etc because they haven’t lived it.
No, I’m not discounting people some will understand just some won’t.
I’m not sure if this is a book I should recommend. If you are interested pick it up and hopefully you will appreciate it quicker than I did.

I ended up reading this quite a bit after it’s release and I thought it might help me process all the feelings I’d had during that time. It was definitely a mixed bag. Some essays were compulsively readable and filled with emotion. Some were pretty dull. A few I had trouble following. Then there were a few that seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with COVID or lockdown. Not bad, but probably could have benefitted from better curation/editing.