This is a delightful collection of short stories from some of my favorite YA writers. It's all about summer and gives the best vibes.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a decent story collection. Some stories were just meh, but I feel like that’s typical when you try to pull together so many stories from different authors on a common theme. Some will shine, and the others seem dull by comparison. Is this a favorite/ most memorable story collection of all the ones I’ve read? Not so much, but it’s still likely a decent addition to an upper-secondary classroom or school library.

Like every anthology some of these stories are amazing, some are okay and some are not so great. I enjoyed the overall theme of this book because I am a night owl. This book has something for everyone with diverse representation like race, disability, lgbtqia+ and covers a range of genres from contemporary, romance, sc-fi and thriller.

Short stories are always really tricky since the limited word count doesn’t allow a lot of space for an elaborate plot line. In UP ALL NIGHT, I’d say about half of the stories were cute and well written and the other half of them were too random for me to care.

But I appreciate the range of representations; the editor has definitely made an effort to balance the stories. There is one with a disabled m-spec MC and another with a gay boy, a few with Black MCs, non-binary SCs, sapphic SCs, Asian SCs, etc. The book reflects the world teens want and need to see.

Some of the stories are romance, and others are about new or long-lost friendship and family. While I don’t want to individually rate each story, I’m highlighting a few I enjoyed, most of them toward the end of the book:
– “Old Rifts and Snowdrifts” by Kayla Whaley: a disabled m-spec MC snowed in with a (presumably) Japanese LI and ex-friend
– “What About Your Friends” by Brandy Colbert: two Black girls reconciling their best-friendship during a 24h dancing marathon
– “Under Our Masks” by Julian Winters: a gay, Black teen with metahuman abilities and a (presumably) Indian LI

Though UP ALL NIGHT was overall a slight letdown, it was still worth reading for the several well-done and sweet stories.

[content warnings: underage drinking, trespassing, accidental murder, rape (pedophilia, incest), HP references (2 stories), gore, body horror, loss of parent, racism, sexism]

When everyone else goes to bed, the ones who stay up feel like they’re the only people in the world.
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Up All Night is a collection of 13 short stories featuring some of the biggest names in YA today. The topics range from romance to scary to adventure.
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My personal favorite has to be McManus’s story that kicks the book off as the first one told. The ending shocked me. What these authors can do with a few pages is incredible to me. The diversity and inclusion was on point as well. Grab this young adult collection now!

3.75 ⭐️ I liked some stories more than others.

This book has so many things: the ups and downs of friendships and relationships, coming-of-age feels, superheroes, a Pokémon Go-esque game, all sorts of queer rep, and disability rep, too!

Overall, a well done collection of stories. With every collection of short stories I often find a wide range of stories that I liked and disliked. My favorite was Shark Bait by Tiffany D. Jackson

Short story anthologies are such a great way to hook reluctant readers and I am excited about the recent offerings in this realm.

Up All Night introduces readers to so many great authors and genres. Good pick for secondary school libraries.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for the arc.
I loved this book! So many stories that brought me back to my high school years and all of those special nights where we stayed up all night.

A collection of stories about relationships with teens at at the center. The relationships range from friends to partners. And how relationships can be changed in just one night. Like Before by Maurene Goo is about the break up of a close group of friends and one trying to keep them together. Old Rifts and Snowdrifts by Kayla Whaley is about a girl and a guy learning to communicate again after having a fall out over a possible misunderstanding.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this anthology, but unfortunately the stories didn't really stand out. I really enjoyed Tiffany D. Jackson's story, but the others were just not for me.

Up All Night is a collection of young adult short stories set from sunset to sunrise. The teens in these stories have a variety of experiences, including late night parties, prom night, and ghost hunting. The stories were a bunch of different genres, including romance, thriller, and horror.

All of these stories had diverse representation. Many of the main characters were people of colour. There were many stories about queer and non-binary characters. There was also a story with a main character in a wheelchair, so there was a perspective of a character with a disability.

A couple of my favourite ones were Never Have I Ever by Karen M. McManus and Shark Bait by Tiffany D Jackson. In Never Have I Ever, a group of kids play the drinking game and end up snooping at a haunted house in the neighbourhood. They discover something life changing in the house. In Shark Bait, a couple spend the night together on a beach in Martha’s Vineyard. They have to come to figure out what their futures will be after the summer ends. Both of these stories had shocking endings that gave me chills!

Up All Night is a great collection of short stories for young adult readers!

Thank you Algonquin Young Readers for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to Algonquin Young Readers for my complimentary copy.

Up All Night is a set of 13 YA short stories set between Sunset and Sunrise and edited by Laura Silverman. The stories all center around what teens do after dark. I skipped around in the book from author to author depending on my mood. I really loved stories by Karen McNamus, Laura Silverman , and Tiffany Jackson. I'm loving the diversity of the stories and the exploration of the shenanigans teen get into at night. I also think it is a great way to introduce yourself to new authors while also getting stories from your favorites.

I thought this was overall a good anthology, but not too many stand outs. The only stand out for me was the story by Tiffany D. Jackson which touched on some important and interesting topics having to do with Black/racial identity. I had one big complaint which is the rather disturbing and upsetting horror story that was included with no kind of warning. Another story also involved some heavy subject matter that could be upsetting for readers. With an anthology where you don’t know what you’re getting with each story, I think it’s important to have some kind of content warning at the start.

This was a really solid collection of short stories, ranging from sweet love stories to exploring how friendships can change over time to some super creepy horror. There was a ton of queer and trans representation, a story with a main character in a wheelchair, discussions of mental health and feminism, and a whole lot of brown and black characters. HOOORAY!

Some of my faves were:
* Never Have I Ever by Mindy McGinnis - a party game goes seriously awry and there's a sly little twist at the end that was perfect (of course, it's Mindy McGinnis!)

* Old Rifts and Snowdrifts by Kayla Whaley - a girl is trapped at work overnight in a snowstorm with her former best friend/crush

* A Place to Start by Nina LaCour - two brand-new step-siblings figure out how to work together to make their new house feel like home

* When You Bring a Dog to Prom by Anna Meriano (who wrote the excellent Love Sugar Magic middle grade series!) - sweet and funny story about crushes and prom and a poorly behaved emotional support dog

* Missing by Kathleen Glasgow - an absolutely terrifying tale of four friends and a tagalong little sister visiting an abandoned women's asylum

* Under Our Masks by Julian Winters - a vigilante superhero kid spends a night on a rooftop with his crush who is obsessed with his superhero alter-ego -- adorably tension-filled

I really loved this book - highly recommended for older middle school kids and up.

I think this is one of the best short story anthologies I've read. There's a fantastic line up of diverse authors, with a fantastic collection of stories of all genres. I particularly liked the first two stories by Maurene Goo and Karen M. McManus. I'm not a spooky/horror fan so Missing by Glasgow wasn't my favorite. Really it just shows that there's something for everyone in this book, and teens will love it.

Average rating of story = 3,1

I really liked the concept of all the stories taking place after dark, however I only really enjoyed two or three of the stories. I appreciated the amount of diverse characters but generally I didn't feel like there was anything particularly special here.

Never Have I Ever - Karen McManus
3.5 stars - HA! I didn’t see that plot twist coming

Like Before - Maureen Goo
2 stars - a little boring. sad but kinda sweet

Old Rifts and Snowdrifts - Kayla Whaley
3.5 stars - pretty cute. Bi/pan(?) and wheelchair rep!

Con Nights, Parallel Hearts - Marieke Nijkamp
3 stars - character that uses they/them pronouns, a fictional tv series about time-travel is linked to three alternative endings (TW parental abuse)

Kiss the Boy - Amanda Joy
3 stars - BIPOC rep

Creature Capture - Laura Silverman
4 stars - bi/pan(?) rep, Pokémon Go vibes

Shark Bait - Tiffany D Jackson
3.5 stars - POC rep (TW use of N-word)

A Nice Place to Start - Nina LaCour
3.5 stars - NB rep + two women getting married

When You Bring a Dog to Prom - Anna Meriano
4 stars - BIPOC rep, NB and bi rep, emotional support dog

Missing - Kathleen Glasgow
1.5 stars. This one felt all over the place. Tried to be creepy but just came off weird. Unlikeable characters.

What About Your Friends - Brandy Colbert
2.5 stars - BIPOC rep. Covers friendship and racism. Takes a while to get to the point.

Under our Masks - Julian Winters
3 stars - BIPOC and mlm rep. A teenage vigilante questions whether he should tell his crush that a) he likes him, and b) he has super powers

The Ghost of Goon Creek - Francesca Zappia
3.5 stars - a loner girl connects with classmates over a cemetery ghost hunt

This was a great collection of YA short stories, featuring some of my favorite YA authors. Each story had a unique feel, using different genres that kept my interest as I moved through the collection.

Despite its cute name and gorgeous cover, “Up All Night” is a bittersweet and at times boring collection of short stories that has readers (mostly) hoping sunrise comes quicker rather than slower.

“Up All Night” is a collection of young adult anthologies that all take place between sunrise and sundown. The premise itself is intriguing and the lineup of authors (with Laura Silverman at the head as the main editor) should add up to be a smash hit, but the stories widely fall short on the prompt they are given.

Though the stories are supposed to have different tones, as each is written by a different author, the drastic jumps in genre and tone kept me from fully submerging into the book as a whole. Not only that, but many of the stories end bittersweetly or outright badly, leaving a sour taste in my mouth as I ventured onto a new story. One story would end with the love interest dying while the next started a fun story about teens playing a Pokemon-go like app.

Overall most of the stories are somewhat hard to follow. Some of the authors definitely attempted to shove too much background and story into their short stories which causes their stories to be confusing and at times boring. It may seem nothing is happening and then a crude action will take place in an attempt to shock the reader, which again leads to more confusion. There were a few in particular—Shark Bait, What About Your Friends and The Ghost of Goon Creek come to mind—that I found myself rereading in an attempt to figure out what was going on and was mostly left confused.

And the confusion was normally met with a boring, sad or bad ending. They also usually made no sense either, mostly in an attempt to let readers conclude their own ending, but that doesn’t work for a collection of stories where readers are going to move right onto the next one. It made the reading experience a bummer, and about 60% of the way through I was just praying for the end of the book to come, regardless of the upcoming talent.

What saves “Up All Night” is the gems littered throughout. Old Rifts and Snowdrifts by Kayla Whaley, Creature Capture by Laura Silverman, When You Bring A Dog to Prom by Anna Meriano and Under Our Masks by Julian Winters were absolute delights to read and managed a simplistic enough story for readers to enjoy. This set manages a delightful spin on the prompt that feels complete yet open-ended for readers to guess what may happen to the characters in the future. Furthermore, many of the stories, regardless of good or bad, have a wide variety of representation that allows for a wide audience to enjoy these stories.

The Verdict
“Up All Night” had tons of potential to be another wonderful anthology collection but fell flat with underwhelming and confusing stories. Though occasional gems pop up and bring the reader back in, the number of misses make the collection as a whole a not very enjoyable experience. Perhaps with more structure it could have been better, but that is a reality we will not know. In the end, daylight came and we’re better for it.

This was such a lovely little collection of YA short stories all set in the very early hours of the morning. I loved the diversity of both authors and characters as well as genres, from romcom to fantasy to even spooky ghost stories. I think there’s a story here for everyone.


Breakdown:

Never Have I Ever by Karen M McManus: 5⭐️
-hoooooooly shit that was amazing

Like Before by Maureen Goo: 4⭐️
-damn this is so realistic and sad

Old Rifts and Snowdrifts by Kayla Whaley: 3⭐️
-cute and fluffy

Con Nights, Parallel hearts by Marieke Nijkamp: 4⭐️
-this one was heavy but lovely, tw for child sexual abuse

Kiss The Boy by Amanda Joy: 3⭐️
-cute and sweet and innocent

Creature Capture by Laura Silverman: 4⭐️
-like Pokémon Go but with all the Natalia is of senior year

Shark Bait by Tiffany D Jackson: 4⭐️
-ummmm excuse me what was that ending!!!???

A Place To Start by Nina Lacour: 4⭐️
-this was so fun and sweet

When You Bring A Dog To Prom by Anna Meriano: 4⭐️
-this one made me miss high school and prom

Missing by Kathleen Glasgow: 3⭐️
-spoopy

What About Your Friends by Brandy Colbert: 3.5⭐️
-I kinda want a whole book on this one and not just a short story

Under Our Masks by Julian Winters: 5⭐️
-gay superheroes are my weakness

The Ghost of Goon Creak by Francesca Zappia 4⭐️
-I love ghost stories and I love friendship stories