There is truly a story for everyone in this anthology and each story could be a novel of its own. The complex world-building and unique voices drew me in and made me feel at home, so welcome and included in this space.
All of the stories were great but standouts include:
Reign of Diamonds by Anna-Marie McLemore
The Tin Man by Lilliam Rivera
Creatures of Kings by Circe Moskowitz
Eterno by J.C. Cervantes (number one fav)
Sumaiko Y La Sirena by Vita Ayala

Reclaim the Stars was a fantastic collection of 17 short stories reflecting the diversity of culture, magic, and people. The book is divided into three sections: To the Stars (science fiction, five stories), The Magical Now (modern day fantasy, six stories), and Other Times, Other Realms (historical fantasy, six stories). As with any anthology, some stories are better than others—some stories felt like a chapter in a much larger novel. That is not what I look for in a short story. In my humble opinion, they should be able to stand on their own. There were only two stories I did not care for.

My absolute favorites were:
Reign of Diamonds by Anna-Marie McLemore
Dueling space princesses who rebuke convention
Creatures of the King by Circe Moskowitz
A story of Death and his realm
Eterno by J. C. Cervantes
Sebastian, an Eterno who consumes the dark falls in love with a human
Rogue Enchantments by Isabel Ibanez
A magical outdoor market complete with intrigue and ghosts
Tame the Wicked Night by Zoraida Cordova
A tale of monsters and saints, quests, and magical powers

These stories are aimed at young adults. There was some cussing and some relationships, but it was not over the top. The last story was the “sexiest” but it was still very tame.

I loved seeing Latino, Latina, and Latinx characters represented in these stories. Each story contained a strong main character that was unique. This was an excellent way to show young people that heroes come from all cultures and backgrounds, and are special and vulnerable in their own exceptional way.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC.

This is an absolutely brilliant anthology that I think everyone should read! The stories were all so creative, amazingly well written, and completely needed to exist in this world. I can't touch on the cultural significance, but this anthology feels vital to publishing, and I can't wait to see more like it in the future.

Reclaim the Stars is an anthology of short science fiction and fantasy stories from authors of the Latin American diaspora. The anthology features a number of well known and acclaimed authors who I've read and loved - Romina Garber, Mark Oshiro, Lilliam Rivera, Zoraida Córdova, David Bowles, Daniel José Older - as well as a few authors I'd never heard of before. Per the publishing, two of the stories are even by authors who had yet to publish anything in genre before. Seeing the authors I've loved being part of this anthology made it a no brainer for me to request on NetGalley, and I decided to read it differently than I usually did - by reading a few stories a day for about a week and a half, rather than treating it as single book to be enjoyed in a single sitting.

And well this anthology is very much worth your time, featuring stories of romance, of bittersweet memory and moving forward, of families, of traditions and cultures, and more. There are 17 stories in all, split into three groups - the first dealing with science fiction, the second dealing with modern fantasy tales, and the third dealing with fantasy tales from the past and out there. And each category has some clear winners, which makes this one easy to recommend.

More specifics after the jump:



As mentioned above there are 17 stories, separated into three groups, although the differences between the 2nd and 3rd groups aren't always clear:

Part 1: To the Stars:
Reign of Diamonds by Anna-Marie McLemore
Flecha by Daniel José Older
The First Day of Us by David Bowles
The Tin Man by Lilliam Rivera
This Is Our Manifesto by Mark Oshiro

These five stories make up the science fiction section of the anthology, and features 5 stories from authors who I've read in other works and really enjoyed. All five stories are very good, but I particularly enjoyed David Bowles' The First Day of Us, a queer polyamorous SciFi love story between three teens on essentially a space station using the second person voice in a really fascinating way.

Part 2: The Magical Now
Creatures of Kings by Circe Moskowitz
Eterno by J.C. Cervantes
White Water, Blue Ocean by Linda Raquel Nieves Pérez
Leyenda by Romina Garber
Color-Coded by Maya Montayne
Magical Offerings by Nina Moreno

These 6 stories are fantasy offerings, but what distinguishes them from the stories to come I guess is that the stories take place in the modern day to some extent (this distinction isn't very hard, and some stories like Eterno and Creatures of Kings could easily fit in the other group). One of these stories, Leyenda by Romina Garber, actually takes place in that author's Lobizona/Wolves of No World book world, and will be enjoyable to newcomers but more special to fans of that series (which I am).

Anyhow there are several stories here that are highlights, and again they're all good. White Water, Blue Ocean, by Linda Raquel Nieves Pérez is a terrific story of a family cursed by an Ocean goddess to be unable to lie without emitting a very noticable stench, and the homecoming of the non-binary teen Gabriel returning to that family in Mexico to deal with their unwillingness to accept them for who they are, as made evident by the stench in their lies....with a surprise encounter with the Ocean changing things for them and leading to a positive future. Also a highlight is Color-Coded by Maya Montayne, featuring a girl in a world where puberty changes their hair color and gives them magical powers, and the girl struggling to not want those powers when her mother's powers led the mom to abandon her.

Again, every one of these is really good, and others will find different highlights than me.

Part 3: Other Times, Other Realms:
Rogue Enchantments by Isabel Ibañez:
Sumaika Y La Sirena by Vita Ayala:
River People by Yamile Saied Méndez:
Moonglow by Sara Faring:
Killing El Chivo by Claribel A. Ortega:
Tame the Wicked Night by Zoraida Córdova:

Like I mentioned above, these six are also fantasy tales, although they're not set in present day times (although again, that distinction is weak, and at least two (Killing El Chivo and Moonglow) could totally be set in modern times.). Again there are a few highlights here, at least for me:

Sumaika Y La Sirena by Vita Ayala, is pretty much what its title says - a story of a girl who came from the water who was raised on a plantation run by cruel men, who lost her way back into the water, only to fall in love with a Siren girl who is attracted to her singing on the beach - and it's very lovely in its ending, even if its execution before then isn't necessarily the greatest.

Tame the Wicked Night by Zoraida Córdova, the very last story in this anthology, is the story of a boy turned teenager who develops a magical green thumb and who refuses to be married to a girl he doesn't love, and thus to satisfy the girl's cruel noble father, he goes on a quest to find and kill a monster...only to fall in love with her instead. Just a lovely subversion of demons and gods and a great tale of love, which really ends this anthology nicely.

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In sum, Reclaim the Stars is a very strong anthology, with no clear misses, even if some of the stories didn't really hit me as well as the other ones did. Other readers will enjoy different stories than I, and if this anthology lacks any stories that I think truly WOWed me and will make me want to vote them on the following year's Hugo Ballot, well, this anthology makes up for it with its sheer depth. Recommended.

This is a wonderful collection of short stories with latin flare. The thought provoking themes keep things interesting as well and I enjoyed the mix of culture, fantasy, and science fiction.

There are 17 stories in the book. The authors of all of the authors are published Latin American writers. You thus get a taste of their writing skills as well. Well-written short-stories. I wouldn’t mind reading a couple of them twice. A diverse mix of storytelling with something to cater to every taste.

This anthology is one of the first I've read that varied so much in genres. It was a fun switch from fantasy to sci-fi and then even sprinkling in some romance. There were a few stories that I felt lacking but my overall enjoyment of the others made up for those few. I enjoyed the diversity each store lent as well as the messages portrayed. Some felt a bit forced but most were meaningful and rendered well. This was my first anthology and I've already picked up another to read now!

A great collection of stories. I enjoyed them all..Fantasy lovers will enjoy these thoroughly. Highly recommend.

Reclaim the Stars is a short story collection of science fiction and fantasy tales by Latin American authors, featuring Latino & Latina characters in fantastical and futuristic settings, many of which are inspired by Latin myths and culture. Zoraida Cordova has assembled an all-star roster of Latin American writers, with a few other talented authors making their published debut. The stories are divided into three sections - “To the Stars,” a group of futuristic sci-fi tales mostly set in space, “The Magical Now,” a group of fantasy stories in a contemporary setting, and “Other Times, Other Realms,” a group of stories in historical or high fantasy settings.

I especially liked “Flecha” by Daniel Jose Older, “The Tin Man” by Lilliam Rivera, “Eterno” by J. C. Cervantes, “Color-Coded” by Maya Motayne, “Rogue Enchantments” by Isabel Ibanez, and “Sumiko Y La Sirena” by Vita Ayala, but my favorite was the final story, “Tame the Wicked Night,” by the collection’s editor, Zoraida Cordova.

CW: parental rejection and abandonment, slavery, teenage girls receiving unwanted attention from adult men, teen pregnancy, abortion

Representation: Latino/Latina authors and characters, Black characters, LGBTQ characters and relationships, non-binary characters, polyamorous relationships

As this is an anthology, I will only talk briefly about my opinion of the book as a whole.

Now, the word I would use to best describe this collection of stories would be lacklustre. The vast majority of them didn't stand out to me at all, and I found that it took me a while to make my way through the book because I just wasn't all that interested by what I was reading. I didn't realize that this collection included fantasy stories as I thought it was just sci-fi, but even the fantasy stories did nothing for me. As such, this will be getting no higher than three stars from me, and that is a generous rating.

I found that the best stories in this collection were: This Is Our Manifesto, Rogue Enchantments, and Tame the Wicked Night.

In terms of the format of the book, it was separated a bit oddly. I wasn't aware that this was divided into three sections, so when I got a blank page with only a title on it, I was a bit thrown off. It would have been better if it was a bit clearer, like adding in parts, in order to clear up any confusion. Another thing that might cause confusion that I would keep in mind is that, due to the nature of the collection, there is frequent use of non-English vocabulary with no translations.

If you are looking for a good anthology, I would suggest that you pick up Córdova's other collection instead, Vampires Never Get Old. If you are looking for some short stories to read, I will direct you to the Tor books website, as they release monthly lists of speculative fiction to read. I would like to make a note though that I read this book before seeing comments that some of the authors were problematic. So, you might want to do your research before deciding to pick this up.

Thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for allowing for me to review this in advance.

This collection was not what I hoped it would be. A lot of the stories felt hastily written, and a lot of the sci-fi stories only made vague nods to the science fiction aspect, without really exploring anything. Additionally, a few of the stories felt like they were written just to push an “agenda”. I hate saying that, because it makes me sound like a conservative white man, but it’s unfortunately true. I’m thinking specifically of “The First Day of Us”, which was poorly written, and lacked any story beyond shoving three characters together.

However, my main issue with this book is the length and the quality of the stories. This book is over 400 pages long, yet so many of the stories feel rushed and unfinished. If this collection featured only 4-5 authors, and gave them more pages to work with, I think the stories and the collection as a whole would’ve been much stronger.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an arc. I hope this book finds its way into the right readers.

This was my introduction to anthologies, and I'd say it was a fantastic start! There was a lot to love but I especially loved the dabbles into horror (on brand for me)

This anthology has lots of fun sci-fi and fantasy stories! I enjoyed most of them and particularly loved Anna-Marie Mclemore's story about princesses being forced to fight to the death in space and Romina Garber's story, which is set in the same world as Lobizona. I cried at Mark Oshiro's story and the fact that it's a sci-fi story that mentions pupusas because I am not used to seeing my culture get included in science fiction. Also, the two debut authors fit right in with these well-known authors!

Note: I did not read the stories by David Bowles, Isabel Ibañez, and Sara Faring due to their history of anti-indigeneity. Their inclusion in the anthology is why it's four stars instead of five.

I enjoyed some of it, but not enough of it held my attention long enough to really rate this book highly.

I loved the variety and all of the stories within. I'm not much of an anthology reader, so this was different for me. I was so invested. These stories also used a lot of culture and ethnicities that I am not usually used to reading about. I was able to learn more and get a feel for the different family dynamics within. I honestly just want more from each of these stories. I want these to be full length books and to really see them come to life and go on this huge adventure. I really enjoyed this anthology and I am going to keep a look out for these authors and other anthologies as well!

**5/5 stars for a great job well-done and lovely stories!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free review copy. I am voluntarily leaving this review.

Reclaim the Stars is an anthology of seventeen short stories of Latin American diaspora in fantasy settings. It is edited by Zoraida Córdova, who also contributes a story. The other featured authors are Vita Ayala, David Bowles, J.C. Cervantes, Sara Faring, Romina Garber, Isabel Ibañez, Anna-Marie McLemore, Yamile Saied Méndez, Nina Moreno, Circe Moskowitz, Maya Motayne, Linda Raquel Nieves Pérez, Daniel José Older, Mark Oshiro, Claribel A. Ortega, and Lilliam Rivera.

I enjoyed some stories in this anthology more than others. This is overall a solid and interesting read. I was very pleased to see Romina Garber write a new story of the Wolves of No World.

"Reclaim the Stars" features seventeen young adult science fiction stories by Latin American authors; as with any anthology, some are stronger than others, but on the whole I found this a solid collection with diverse, interesting stories. The collection is divided into three parts: "To The Stars" is traditional science fiction short stories, The Magical Now" featured present-day magical realism, and "Other Times, Other Realms" aims toward more-traditional fantasy in different time periods.

The stories themselves are diverse, with lots of LGBTQ+ representation. My favorites involved two warring princesses, a daughter of Death, and Zoraida Cordova's excellent "Tame The Wicked Night". There were a few that I felt were weak, but no particular story was too long or took up too much space; it was easy to plow through this collection and be utterly charmed. Recommended for fans of YA and speculative fiction of all kinds.

What a lovely collection of stories! A rich variety of stories that vary in setting, theme, tone, story, and character, but all have a connection to Latinx culture. This book of short stories is a fantastic #ownvoices collection, and I particularly love the sci-fi stories, because science fiction is a genre that looks to the future, and a future without diversity is simply unrealistic.

I enjoyed it so much I pre-ordered a copy for a friend as a (late) Christmas gift!

This is a book of sci-fi and fantasy short stories by Latinx authors. It’s broken into 3 different sections grouped by subsets of the genres. I absolutely love the idea of this book and am so glad that it exists in the world!

I generally enjoyed reading this, but short stories are just not my genre and are hard for me. Some stories were better than others, I heavily preferred the fantasy ones over the sci-fi ones. The chapters can be long because some of the stories were longer than others. That was hard for me because I don’t like to stop in the middle of a story but sometimes didn’t have 45 minutes to read a full one. If you like short stories I would definitely recommend this!!

Despite the format not really being for me, this anthology really has everything. Space, magic, love, lgbtqia characters and rep, diverse characters, and so so much more. Love that this book is out there and would recommend to any short story fans!

The synopsis for this book got me so excited to see what was in store in this anthology. "From stories that take you to the stars, to stories that span into other times and realms, to stories set in the magical now, RECLAIM THE STARS takes the Latin American diaspora to places fantastical and out of this world."

This collection is full of such cool stories and the writers do a great job of enfusing their culture with that fairy tale feeling. I don't think I could pick a favorite story within the collection, but I enjoyed these quick glances at Latin culture through these authors views full of magic and science and love and sometimes set in space.