This collection is just delightful and exactly what I needed to read! I read the whole thing in one night and wished for more (though it had a satisfying conclusion). The authors of these intersecting stories are some of the best YA authors, and they do not disappoint. Each story can stand on its own; however, the characters all relate to one another in some way and all events happen on the same night during a citywide blackout in present day New York City. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC-I hope there are more collaborations like this in the future!

I was beyond pumped to receive an ARC of Blackout by some masters of the YA game: Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon. After starting it, I’m already loving every page by the first few chapters! It’s so full of heart, authenticity, representation, and adorable teen love stories.

Here, these authors came together to write an interlinked novel about Black teen love through heartwarming and charming coming-of-age stories. Each author writes a short story, focusing on one of six different love stories that all take place in New York City during a heatwave and blackout on the same day. Each tale reads like a short story that's compelling and adorable on its own (plus, is well-written, obviously) with interconnected settings and characters to tie it all together. These are seriously adorable and cute teen love stories, plus I love to see all the representation done so accurately and relatably. Each chapter introduces a side character or background that effortlessly leads into the next story and chapter. You can clearly tell this book was meticulously organized and planned to be this interconnected which works to tie it all together so seamlessly. It's a quick read that was hard to put down and is so engaging, well-written, precious, and adorable. It's a YA novel and a romance read unlike anything I've read before and that's what made it so great.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC. 4.5/5

Honestly...the only reason it's not 5/5 is I was hoping to be able to use the stories as short stories for teaching, but all of the "stories" or "chapters" are so beautifully interwoven with one another during the Blackout, that I don't think I'd be able to just use one of them. All of the authors do a fantastic job of weaving the characters together, but each chapter still reads as individually as each author.

The concept? Beautiful. There's LGBT representation, a beautiful black community being represented, relationships and AGH I just...it was SO good. I would highly recommend picking this one up. It's also a super fun, romance (tbh was not expecting a romantic genre for this, but I'm here for it....still YA romance though) while all under the same story line as a blackout? Ugh, I just loved it.

This book is everything that is beautiful about YA love stories. The emotions, the butterflies, the smile that takes over your face while reading and you see the characters fall in love or recognize something vital about themselves. Your heart feels like it has been squeezed and it is so warm with the familiar pangs of youth and young love and the possibility of the future. Each of the characters are so beautifully written and you instantly love them. I loved each and every male and female character, and all of the perfect family dynamics that were woven in throughout the stories across the entire book. I typically don't like to re-read books, but I can see picking up this book over and over. It is just that damn good. These authors are stunning writers and this book showcases the absolute skill and mastery they have over the written word. I hope that this book is put to screen, because these are the kinds of love stories we need to read and watch!
I will be buying this book for our library and encouraging teachers to use it in their classrooms. I will also make sure all of my fellow librarian friends put this one their shelves too, because I know it will be an instant favorite for anyone who reads it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4046374952

A set of thoughtful, delightful interlinked romances about a group of teens who are all loosely connected through their Brooklyn neighborhood and whose lives are changed by those they encounter during an all city power failure. Wonderful settings include the library, an adult care home carved out of an old brownstone, and the Brooklyn bridge. Readers will find themselves doing plenty of smiling and wishing to know more about all of these characters.

Shout-out to these six amazing Black women YA authors and their ability to weave together a fun, light set of stories manifested during the pandemic--but blessedly they do not take place *during* the pandemic. Instead, it's one regular summer afternoon/evening in New York City during a blackout (how often do those happen over there, anyway?!) and using a Gary Marshall-esque technique, characters in one story are related to or connected to someone in another story.

I could easily see this as a cute Netflix miniseries where each episode is a story, with Tiffany Jackson's serving as interludes just like in the book. I think I enjoyed hers the best--I was always anxious to get back to Tammi and Kareem because I enjoyed their playful banter. My only complaint is that I wished the party scene at the end was bigger because that's what it ultimately built up to.

So much queerness within these stories. Give it to me all day.

Thanks, NetGalley!

Where do I even start? Every author is a powerhouse in their own right, and the combination of their voices in a connected series of short stories was so fun. I loved everything about this book, It was joyful, sweet, and the stories, while all about young love, each looked at a different type of relationship. The way each story was its own, but also subtly connected to the others was great and makes this book stand out a bit from other short story collections. My only complaint is that the book ended well before I wanted it to! I'm excited to have this book in my classroom next fall--my students will love it!

Loved this book! I particularly enjoyed the way that each story stood on its own, but was connected to the others. I also appreciated that it was sweet but not saccharine, and that it celebrated many varieties of Black romantic love. I know my students will love it!

This was a cute, fairly short YA story. It would be easy to say that there wasn’t much of a point to the book as a whole, but when you consider the smaller sub-stories, you realize that they each have their own. I really liked the concept of seeing a singular event unfold from various perspectives and the lessons each set of characters learned.

Since each sub-story is written by a different author, the change in style is a little jarring, but I got used to it once I thought of it as the style of the characters who are also different in each sub-story. Admittedly, there are some that I’d like to read more of and I could’ve enjoyed a slightly longer and more conclusive story, but I think overall the book ends well, even if it’s a bit cheesy. I don’t mind though.

I’d recommend this book to high schoolers and adults who enjoy YA books with Black characters written by Black authors.

A heartwarming anthology that deftly captures all the feelings of love for a teen. This book explores relationships in such an authentic YA voice. Sometimes, novels about teens in love seem almost afraid to make the characters act on impulse, make mistakes, miscommunicate, or just be messy...in other words, they act more like adults than kids, but this isn't the case with Blackout. In just a few short stories, these character's tales are fleshed out, identities given dimensions, and feelings fully described in a way that brought me back to my high school days. I'm more than sure this will connect to teen readers, especially Black teen readers who often are left out of the center of this genre as it presents them in a variety of ways but interconnects them through an emotion felt by all--LOVE.

It's tricky writing a collection of short stories. Some will generally feel fragmented, unfinished or rushed. Some you read and wish it was longer, a full length novel. Blackout doesn't fall into any of these potholes, instead it stands out and shines brightly in the dark.
Which should be no surprise because the sheer talent of these black writers is enough to light up any city. This collection of interconnected short stories share the backdrop of the big blackout of New York city. The reader sees snippets here and there, and as you progress through the book, you see all these different threads come together to make one cohesive story about love. Beautiful, engaging, and thought-provoking, this is a must-read!

3 stars!


overall: I love how everyone is connected in small ways! and the set up of all of the separate love stories intertwining. it was cute when the stories would overlap in small ways (like when kareem and tammi saw a girl - who we later find out is joss - walk past with her dog). too cute!! I love how different each of the stories were, but how they were all set against the same backdrop. it's fun seeing snippets of people's lives like that.

the book takes place over a couple of hours, and the events that took place seemed realistic time wise (you know how in some books that take place over a day the characters do a million things and it's unrealistic? this one nailed the one-day timeline)

a map of nyc with all the important places from the stories marked would be really helpful

all of the stories honestly sounded the same, and there wasn’t anything to differentiate between the authors. I didn't feel very connected to any of the characters (like I didn't really care if their relationships worked out or not) except for jj. I like jj

maybe I just hyped this one up too much to myself before reading it, but it kind of fell short of my expectations and I'm not really sure why. sigh

A collection of some great authors and some of my favourite authors were in this too!
Blackout has love, revenge, friendship, more, and the short stories really have something for anyone; you will at least like one of them.
My favourite stories were; Mask Off, The Long Walk & All the great love stories ... and dust.

I think it really shows an authors talent and storytelling when even through a short story, we get history, backstory and emotion, and I got all this from these stories the most!
Highly recommend!

Nic Stone and Tiffany D. Jackson can do no wrong in my eyes. Jackson truly carried this book and I was salivating for more of Nic Stone's story. The lives of six very different couples and their love stories collide in the streets of New York during a city-wide blackout. I truly enjoyed experiencing love in so many different ways. Even though I know Dhonielle Clayton was the backbone and creator of this project, her chapter was extremely slow and the characters were annoying and hard to connect to. She brought in some heavy hitters and they truly overshadowed her. Her chapter was the one low spot for me, thus the reason for my 4 star rating. On the other hand, I will definitely be adding this title to my diversity website and suggesting to high school students.

Blackout is a series of interconnected love stories set in New York City during a city-wide blackout. The author lineup is ah-mazing; Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon write about six different couples as they converge on a block party on a steamy summer night. The stories are all different but they all focus on Black teens finding love in the midst of mild panic. My favorite is probably TIffany Jackson’s “The Long Walk” because it is broken up into “acts” and interspersed through the collection.

This is such a fun YA romance collection and it would be perfect for summer reading. Blackout releases June 22; recommended for high school and up.

The stories in this book are inclusive and relatable to those who identify as heterosexual, LGBTQ, and non-binary. I appreciated this attention to detail, and I'm impressed by the openness, since surprisingly many of the books I read and review these days still focus so much on the heteronormativity, assuming that relations are most fitting between people of the opposite sex.

There's a hidden message within each short story. One about love, about acceptance, finding oneself, exploration, spontaneity, adventuring to pastures unknown, and caring and compassion in times of need. I like books with themes of self love and acceptance, and loved how much of a theme it was here, without being over the top in any way. This was an all round positive, mood lifting read!

A beautiful, light, and lovely read. Just what I needed after a long week of heavy reads.

A blackout in New York City is leaving quite the effect on people. This follows many teenagers and they are trying to get through the blackout and make it to the block party in Brooklyn. The characters are intertwined and learning each story makes you wonder how your story may be intertwined with someone else but you don't even know it.

What an amazing book! All the characters in the stories were related to another in one way or another, and were all heading to the same block party. I loved this book because the stories were romantic, funny, rich and diverse effortlessly. It feels good to see yourself represented in a book.

I love New York and while reading this I had so many butterflies because I wanted to be there so bad! I'm so grateful I had an arc of this book. It definitely is a new favorite of mine. I wish I could have a full book out of ALL these stories! Wow!

I'm not much of a romance fan, but this book was a lot of fun (and the romances weren't super cheesy). I absolutely loved the concept: Each story is a low-key, contemporary romance featuring African-American protagonists, all set during a blackout in NYC. For even more fun, all of the stories are connected to the other because, ultimately, all of the characters (some who know each other, and some who don't) are all heading to a block party in Brooklyn. It's just delightful. And . .. it's written by an unbelievable all-star cast of highly acclaimed young African-American women authors: Dhonielle Clayton (Tiny Pretty Things), Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give), Tiffany Jackson (Monday Isn't Coming), Nic Stone (Dear Martin), Nicola Yoon (Everything Everything), and Ashley Woodfolk (The Beauty That Remains). There is just nothing not to like here.

These writers are superstars- I knew before starting it that I would devour this book. As a librarian, my teens rarely check out anthology books. I don't know what it is, but their circ is usually low. Because of the big names and how interestingly these stories intertwine, I think I will be able to sell them on this title! I loved noticing how all the characters were connected, and how one city can be filled with so many different stories at once. Can't wait to buy this one!