Universe of Wishes encompasses 15 short diverse short stories wrote by some well known authors. Each are unique in their own. This is the first anthology that I have read and it didn't disappoint. Some days you just want quick reads and this fills that role. Because each story is different, you can read one and come back to the collection later. This is a great way to get to know authors you've been wanting to read.

I had this book on my to-buy list as soon as I saw it, the others in the series were so wonderful, and Clayton is such a powerhouse herself, which is lucky because there were three requests for it before I could even place the order! These stories are masterfully curated, with some of the biggest names in YA #ownvoices. I just wish I had this collection when I was a kid, but I'm so glad I have it now.

Thank you to netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! 4/5 stars.

I think that this collection of short stories made me a better writer. I'm obsessed. I loved each of the stories on their own, and the hope they inspired. I had been hearing about this collection since V.E. Schwab had posted on her timeline that she was doing an early Rhy/Alucard story and I knew I had to get my hands on it for that alone, But when I opened it and actually started reading, I was blown away by the variety and the diversity in the stories. A particular favorite was Dream and Dare by Nic Stone, I loved the transformation of Dare and the way Dream was so drawn to her, it was beautiful. I also really really enjoyed the Takeback Tango by Rebecca Roanhorse, the setting was absolutely fabulous, and was like Firefly, but 1000x cooler. Naturally some of the stories took a little longer to really pull me in, one of which being the Libba Bray story, which was particularly frustrating as I was greatly looking forward to reading more from Gemma's point of view. It just felt a little bit rushed and hard to follow. Over all, I loved this collection and I will definitely be recommending these stories to my friends in the future!

What a fantastic collection of beautiful, engaging, diverse stories! I read some stories by a few old favorites and got interested in some new names. Each story made me want a full book!

Interesting premise. Likable/hated characters. Cool plot. I would recommend this story to others. Some spots I found that didn't hold my attention, but overall, I still liked it. WHAT A GREAT COLLECTION OF STORIES!!!!!!!

It is hard to rate a book that is a collection of many stories, but I did really like most of these. They are all well written and gripping short stories. I found some new authors that I have added to my to-be-read shelf!

A Universe of Wishes edited by Dhonielle Clayton - 3/5 stars

I received a free copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I always enjoy the We Need Diverse Books Anthologies and I was so excited when I got the chance to read A Universe of Wishes Early! This book was chalk full of unique stories and beautiful representation. Down below are a few of my favorites!

The Silk Blade: Gay warriors getting distracted in battle? Everyday of the week, yes please.

Liberia: I really enjoyed the all-teen space crew and Kweku's relationship with his grandmother. The space and spaceship mechanics in this story were really well done and I want an entire story for this.

Wish: The genie storyline of this was heartbreakingly incredible and I could die, I want more so badly.

The Weight: I have actually read this story previously in an online web-anthology called FORESHADOW. So beautiful and I love the concept.

Unmoor: Ouch. OUCHHHHHH.

This collection was overall very well done. Unfortunately there were a couple that I could read as they were set in the worlds of stories I haven't read yet, but I will definitely come back to them after reading the series are set in. Solid anthology!

Sadly I will not be able to get to this book before it's archived. I am interested in picking it up in the future,

This is a book I will be buying. For once to see varying genres and writers using characters that fall outside the cis het white male is always comforting. How it feels to see yourself represented in a piece of media can't be understated. It's a fantastic feeling. The stories on their own are all great and as a whole it is a fantastic anthology.

Featuring 15-diverse stories from some of the best OwnVoices authors currently writing in the YA genre, this collection has a little something for everyone.
This is a really well-rounded collection. Obviously, there were stories that I connected with more than others, but that is always the way with anthologies.
Every person who reads this will have a different experience with these stories, and that's okay. That's what it's all about. I loved the LGBTQIA+ representation throughout these stories. I feel like I don't dive into enough books like that and I think all the characters were written really well. Another interesting thing was some of the novellas are making me want to dive into certain series next year - like Shades of Magic, and I'm beyond excited! Truly enjoyed the opportunity to read before purchasing for our YA section.

A Universe of Wishes is an attractive and well curated anthology of YA/NA fantasy edited by Dhonielle Clayton. Released 8th Dec 2020 by Penguin Random House on their Crown Books Young Readers imprint, it's 416 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love collections because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. This is a nice diverse sampling and I believe the included stories are all previously unpublished.

There are 15 stories by authors both familiar and new to me. This is another big reason I love anthologies - they often introduce me to new authors to follow and read. This collection has the additional benefit of providing some much needed representation and diversity to a beloved (but traditionally overwhelmingly caucasian, usually male) genre. That's changing and in part it's because of the incredible endurance and fortitude of the groups of writers inviting *all* young readers to have a seat at the table. It fills me with hope and happiness that I truly believe we're starting to really understand that our diversity is our fundamental strength.

These are well written stories. There are some standouts (Habibi, Unmoor, and the titular A Universe of Wishes were all beautifully written and powerfully moving). There are a number of stories included from series authors with tie-in stories which will certainly appeal to fans (A Royal Affair was charming and will have V. E. Schwab fans dancing in the bookstore).

The stories as they affected me personally were all in the higher 3-5 star range. Fiction is so subjective it's pointless to rate, but I will say that nearly all of the stories contained in this anthology were engaging, well crafted, readable, and high quality. There were a couple which were outside my personal taste range and/or failed to hold my interest, but they were few and far between.

Four and a half stars for the overall collection - rounded up because thematically, representation is monumentally important. I'm writing this the day after I watched a strong young poet giving all of us wings, reciting her work at the inauguration of the 46th president of the USA and knowing that somewhere out there, there might be another young artist/poet/writer/philosopher being inspired by the characters being written here.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I'm normally not a fan of anthologies, but I actually liked the majority of these short stories. There were, however, still a couple of stories that didn't capture my attention, and I ended up skipping a couple.

I love to read anthologies, but at the same time I find them hard to review because a lot of them don't tend to really stick with me. This one is different, though. There were so many amazing stories that it felt like an incredible treat to read one every day. There's a continuation of Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy, a Cinderella retelling where the prince is a trans guy (seriously, Anna-Marie McLemore doesn't just write beautifully, they also write beautiful trans rep that just rings so true), and so much more. I don't think I read a single story I didn't enjoy.

In the fourth collaboration with We Need Diverse Books, fifteen award-winning and celebrated diverse authors deliver stories about a princess without need of a prince, a monster long misunderstood, memories that vanish with a spell, and voices that refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. This powerful and inclusive collection contains a universe of wishes for a braver and more beautiful world.- Goodreads

Short stories should not feel as if you are reading the first chapter of a book. They should have their own world, within a beginning middle and end. The only cliff hanger I should feel after reading a short story is wanting to read more of the author but not more of the story.

With every story that I read in this book, I felt that it was a less of s short story and more of a promo to their possible upcoming book.

Do not get me wrong, it made me interested in some of these authors. But it made me not want to read their short stories.

Overall, 2 Pickles

If you want to read snippets of what feels like a full a novel, this is for you.

This is a wonderful collection of stories. Some were from worlds and characters that were familiar to me, others I hadn't met before, some had a distinct beginning middle and end, others read more like vignettes, some were light hearted and others a bit heavier, but the thing they all had in common was that they made me happy reading them.

The diversity of characters and the representation from OwnVoice authors was a huge part of the appeal of this book for me, and in reading it I was delighted at how fresh and interesting each story felt. It's such a well-rounded collection in both writing styles and representation.

My personal favorites were probably the title story A Universe of Wishes, a moving love story between an orphan and a boy who works at a morgue with just a little bit of dark magic, as well as V.E. Schwab's A Royal Affair featuring Alucard Emery and Rhy Maresh, with a couple moments of Kell, of course. Obviously in an anthology like this, one of the best aspects is that everyone will have different favorites and stories that grab their interest. This is the first 'We Need Diverse Books' anthology that I've read, but I'm likely to seek out the others because it was just so perfect for quick little escapes into wonderful fantasy worlds AND for finding new-to-me authors to follow.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

VE Schwab's story that takes place in the Shades of Magic world was phenomenal. The other stories were okay, but I found myself not enjoying them as much as I wanted to.

Overall 3.5 stars

Here are the stories I enjoyed:

Libba Bray - The Scarlet Woman (5 stars) I really hope the author has more to say about this world as the ending was pretty abrupt.
V.E. Schwab - A Royal Affair (5 stars)
Dhonielle Clayton - The Weight (4 stars)
Tessa Gratton - The Beginning of Monsters (4 stars)
Rebecca Roanhorse - The Takeback Tango (4 stars)
Zoraida Cordova - Longer Than the Threads of Time (3.5 stars)

The rest, I DNF'd or had lower than 3 star rating.

This book starts off on a high with the title story A Universe of Wishes. This was a beautiful story of loss and healing. Zoraida Cordova’s Rapunzel retelling is another high point with a fun twist. I’m sure many people wanted to read this due to the inclusion of A Royal Affair by VE Schwab. If this is you then you won’t be disappointed. Also of note are Liberia by Kwame Mbawa and The Takeback Tango by Rebecca Roanhorse. I think the hardest part is that the stories tend to be open ended. I kept finding myself wanting to keep reading and find out what happens.

This is the fourth We Need Diverse Books collaboration, and this anthology is all about sci-fi and fantasy, my entire jam. There are so many worlds of wishes within these pages. Authors include Samira Ahmed, Jenni Balch, Libba Bray, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Tessa Gratton, Kwame Mbalia, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tochi Onyebuchi, Mark Oshiro, Natalie C. Parker, Rebecca Roanhorse, V. E. Schwab, Tara Sim, and Nic Stone.

I loved this collection and particularly revisiting some worlds I’m already familiar with and having a quick catch up with characters I know and love. For example, Libba Bray takes us back to Gemma Doyle’s world for a quick adventure, and it was so cool.

I’m already familiar with many of these authors, but enjoyed being introduced to the ones I hadn’t read before. It came out in December, so if you need some nice story bites in between longer works and want to revisit the worlds of some really cool books, check it out.

This is a fabulous anthology--one of the best I've read in years. The authors are all top-tier, and their stories run the gamut from hopeful/uplifting to melancholy/somewhat disturbing. However, nothing is hopeless in this collection, no matter how tragic some characters' circumstances seem. And the rep is, as expected, great--there are tons of awesome queer characters and romances, tons of BIPOC main characters, and at least a couple of disabled central characters. There are also tie-in stories to Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series (which was difficult to follow since I'm not familiar with the series) and to VE Schwab's Shades of Magic series (which might contain base-level spoilers for the series for those unfamiliar). But, even if these tie-ins are not a draw for you, the remainder of the collection is a must-read.