Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of Blackout!!

I have been looking forward to this one for a while and it did not disappoint. This book is exactly what I want from every short story anthology collection and I never end up getting. Each story stands on its own, but also adds information to the others. I absolutely loved how it reminds the reader that, no matter how big the city, how big the world, we’re all intertwined. Beyond how the entire book is able to present itself as one cohesive piece, the stories within the story are also excellent, which is unsurprising given their authors, but wow I enjoyed each and every one.

I will be recommending this book to everyone and anyone who will listen to me. It was so good!

Romance times 6! These six interlinked stories by six of our most engaging contemporary writers of YA fiction is a breezy, easy read, perfect for enjoying on a beach, in a treehouse, or all cozy under blankets on a cold winter afternoon. This one's definitely going on my media center's to-order list.

Six couples: Six authors. One blackout : One city. Blackout is an anthology that highlights Black lover over one summer evening in New York City.
This anthology is the perfect PRIDE month read because it features and highlights honest conversations with LGBTQ characters. Each tales point of view was unique and engaging. The authors are able to put you into each tale and make you root for their characters love. Blackout is a book that I’ll keep on my shelf and recommend to others for eons to come.

A very cute set of NYC-based relationship stories from some super talented writers! Although it was sometimes hard to keep straight which characters were related to which others, I loved how the stories intersected and overlapped, with references to the ways in which they formed a larger universe together. Short stories can sometimes be tough, but each author did a great job balancing the encapsulation required by the form with providing backstory, building characters, and giving a neat little story arc. If you’re looking for a quick summer read with some romance, this will fit the bill - each story is a little delight.

Blackout is made up of 6 different short stories that takes place one hot summer evening in NYC when a blackout occurs. The young characters are trying to navigate through the city and find out what it is they truly want. I loved how the stories all interlinked in some way.

My favorite story was “The Long Walk” by Tiffany D. Jackson. I was invested in the characters and enjoyed reading where their story went.

I wanted more. I want to know what happened in the end and it left me questioning what happened next?

I am a huge fan of all the authors who contributed to this novel and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This book is officially out on June 22nd!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Set in NYC during a citywide power outage, this book follows a group of teenagers whose stories and life experiences intertwine as all of them make their way to Twig's party in Brooklyn for the night. While I don't think these pieces could all stand on their own, they are all compact and joyful.

Think of this book like "The Joy Luck Club" but written by six different authors, about black young adults growing up in New York City. Or like a YA "Love Actually" (except way less depressing). More importantly, however, this is a book about BLACK JOY! I've discussed in recent reviews that at least in what I've been picking up in recent years, there has been few YA books that do not focus on the trauma of living as a black teen in America. Yes, it is an unfortunately inevitable experience in our country, but fiction is...well, fiction! It can be anything the author can dream of that the reader will realistically believe. Understandably, the work to educate teens about racism in America is not done, but we also need to show them examples of book where people of color (and so many other demographics of people) are "normalized". Let kids see everyone getting a happily ever after. Let kid see everyone experiencing romance. Let kids see glimpses of someone else's every day lives without it being a big deal.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot, and found all of the stories engaging despite their length. I especially liked "Mask Off" by Nic Stone and "All the Great Love Stories...and Dust" by Dhonielle Clayton because of the hopeless romantic in me. But each author was able to capture the characters well in the short space to make me cheer for the protagonists and hope for their happily ever afters (well...at least their teen ever afters, however long those might be). I thought the main "conflict" of handling the blackout and trying to traverse a grid-locked city was a good way to connect the stories, but I thought it could have been a little more complex to engage this older reader more.

I hope these authors and all YA authors continue to write more pieces like this in the future. My classroom library and curriculum are anxiously waiting for more books to add to the dusty shelves!

A lot of times when I read anthologies, I skip around. However, with Blackout, I loved each and every story, and the way they were all interconnected was amazing. My personal favorite was Made to Fit, by Ashley Woodfolk, who we had on our podcast, Bridges & Books. Simply put, it was just freaking adorable. If you’re in the mood for romance and happy endings written by Black authors, representing Black teens, this is definitely the book for you!

I received an advance copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

This is BY FAR the most exciting ARC I've gotten so far. It's a story written by 6 award-winning black authors writing about black romance in the midst of a city-wide blackout. In no particular order, these baddies are:

Dhonielle Clayton- The Belles, Tiny Pretty Things
Tiffany Jackson-Grown, Monday's Not Coming
Nic Stone- Dear Martin, Dear Justyce
Angie Thomas- The Hate U Give, On the Come Up
Ashley Woodfolk- FLYY girls, When You Were Everything
Nicola Yoon- The Sun is Also A Star, Everything Everything

To put in Sci/ Fi/ Fantasy Terms, this would be like if SJ Maas, Leigh Bardugo, and George R. R. Martin collaborated on a book together. Effing epic.

My expectations for this book were sky high, and I was not disappointed. Although the authors wrote their own stories, there were also references to their story lines in the other author's work, which made this colelction of short stories seamless.

More than the amount of talent brought to this project, I just love that these women came together, collaborated, and supported eachother. We need more of these crossovers!

Pure, exciting, light hearted. All words I would use to describe this book. Each story unique, but then they’re all intertwined. Each story offering a different type of love. I truly adored how it all came together. I won’t give a summary because you just need to read it. But this is the perfect summer read. Romance, connections, and all the beautiful things that unfold in the dark.

So good! So good!! I loved reading each author’s contribution to this book. Each short story is set in New York City during a summer blackout. If you also love a shared narrative with many points of view then you’ll love Blackout. And the world needs more stories with Black girl love & joy at the center. Thank you, Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk and Nicola Yoon.

Thank you Dhonielle Clayton, HarperCollins and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this before publishing. All opinions are my own!

This was such a lovely read. It is a collection of short stories about Black teenagers falling in love during a Blackout in New York City, with thin threads connecting all of the teens individual stories.

I think this story did exactly what it set out to do. It was cute and funny and heartwarming, and it gave Black teens a chance to have a big love story in a way that most media doesn’t create space for. The authors write in the acknowledgments that the idea for this book was birthed during 2020 and the thick of COVID-19, when it felt like everyone really had paused and was stumbling around in the dark. This is certainly something that I think everyone can identify with, and this book is a beautiful takeaway for this time.

The authors all have distinct voices, but not so different from one another that it is distracting or clunky. The writing is beautiful and the teens all have stories that being a smile to your face. Dhonielle’s story in particular was notably beautiful and I found myself highlighting passages nonstop. There were a lot of life lessons weaved throughout this book without being bogged down awkwardly because of how short the stories were. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a light, heartwarming read!

I enjoyed this short story collection. The stories are interconnected, and characters from the different stories show up in other stories. I really liked how they were all independent stories but worked together to make a bigger whole. One of the stories is split up into different parts that were told in between other stories, which was also kind of neat. If you want a bunch of short, sweet interconnected love stories that all take place in New York during a power black out, this might be the book for you. Just a fun summer read.

It is a hot summer day in New York City when the power goes out. Many people are scared, some are relaxing and others are finding love. Blackout includes many stories that are woven together to tell a larger story. Even though there are six writers telling this tale, the story is still seamless and well-executed. We read about a couple meeting for the first time, friends who have been together forever, and exes that would rather not be stuck together. Everything changes when the lights are out. What will these characters discover as the darkness continues to advance? This was a fun read, even if you aren’t usually a short story lover. Since these all connect into a larger narrative, it is hard to look at this book as a short story collection. It is a quick read and can be finished in one sitting if you so choose.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

I have to start by saying I never expected the acknowledgments by the authors to make me cry!! Part of it was thinking back over 2020 and the craziness of the year, but it was also because of their obvious love and friendship. I was equally thankful for a similar group text that saved my sanity many days.

I can’t wait for this book to come out so that I can have a copy in my hands. The blackout that ties the stories together was a brilliant idea, and I loved the links between the friends and family that connect the stories as well. So many love stories that include so many types of love in one book is amazing! The only wish I had at the end was for more of each of the storylines.

So many fabulous authors contributed to this fantastic book, and that's what really caught my attention and made me want to read it. Tiffany D. Jackson is one of my faves, and while I felt her stories were just a tad out of her comfort zone, she also did not disappoint. Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Quill Tree for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I immediately recognized the symbolism between Blackout and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. As with any blackout (and pandemic), we are thrown for a loop and unprepared for the chaos all around us. We tend to dwell on the things that we are missing instead of focusing on and being grateful for the truly important things that are right in front of us.

I loved the various storylines that all intertwined in some way with each other to create a unified, cohesive book. Each story lent something special and all of the characters were genuinely likeable. I'm so glad the black girl (and boy) finally got his/her big love story that they deserve.

A delightful selection of interwoven short stories about love and life written by some of the biggest names in YA publishing today. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my review.

Disclaimer: I got this book in exchange for an honest review.

I adore Nic Stone, Nicola Yoon, Angie Thomas, and Tiffany D. Jackson's books so this was one of my highly anticipated reads of this year!! I will post my full review on my bookstagram page @meetcuteromancebooks. This book also introduced me to Ashley Woodfolk's writing. It has a total of six stories in all and my favorites were the ones written by Tiffany D. Jackson (The Long Walk), (Mask Off) by Nic Stone, and "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn" by Angie Thomas. I'm a sucker for friends to lovers books and I also enjoyed the love triangle story.

5 stars

What happens when you pack six superstar YA writers into the same short story collection? It has to be pretty good, right? In this case, we are talking EXCELLENT!

This collection is so fun to read. The focal point is the titular blackout, and this impacts all of the characters mentioned in the stories, who are either closely or tangentially related. Jackson's "The Long Walk, Act 1" is the first entry, and it sets a really fun through line for the collection. After the first installment, the pattern is that there is a self-contained story followed by another act of "The Long Walk," and this goes on through "The Long Walk, Act 5!" This structure is expertly paced; because of the multi-act main story, I was engaged immediately. I wanted to know what happened to those characters and loved their literal and figurative journey. As an added bonus EVERY other story in the group is also compelling and fun. There are some thoughtful and even moderately sad moments in the stories, but the tone is uplifting overall. It FEELS like a summer night. I felt like part of this community while reading. I was invested in every character. This is just the right amount of cute, sweet, and light - without being over the top - for a hot girl post-pandemic summer. It has everything.

I love these writers individually. Coming into this collection, I had read all but one extensively. I was expecting to enjoy this read. It far surpassed my expectations.

If you're looking for a quick, enjoyable, engaging collection of YA short stories with a dash of romance, summer vibes, and excellent rep (particularly high marks on LGBTQ+, Friends - perfect for Pride), this is your jam. Thanks, Writers! Please make this the first of many collabs!

Quick read, from several points of view in New York city--all centering around a massive blackout in the city. We follow the stories of different friends from these authors and all of the stories tie together in the end. Fantastic.

So this book written by what can only described as Squad Goals, I am just trying to get an invite! I loved these stories about black love happening in a blackout in NYC. I was here for the blackout in 2003 and the authors got the vibe of that event just right, how NYer’s slowed down, as much as we do, and came together in the dark. As all the characters travel to their destinations, some sought out and other stumbled upon, they find out truths about themselves and their hearts in the dark. These stories are all stand alone but also we’ve characters together across the stories. They made me laugh and cry, especially Dhonielle Clayton’s story at the New York public library. I can not wait to share these stories with my students!