Play House by Anna-Marie McLemore
Miranda's collections of aprons became an instrument to save her and her mom from men in their area who are trespassing their property.
Commentary about sexism and white audacity, the author created an eerie story in 14 pages that will leave you satisfied at the end.
RATING: 3.5stars

The White Savior Did not Save the Day by Randy Ribay
Perdita Padilla's collections of children hero series White Savior is the one thing that grounds her to reality but what will happen when the truth about the multiverse came out?
Funny even though it was delivered in a serious note with epistolary format varying from a script to normal novel paragraphs, TWSDNSTD is Randy Ribay's attempt of exposing how the Global North exploits the Global South only for the former to show up at drastic times so they can be labelled as the hero.
RATING: 5stars

Take it from me by David Levithan
A collector who collects from other's collection, Take if From me is a mature end-to-end storytelling of how someone's collection started and ended through time.
RATING: 4stars

Ring of Fire by Jenny Torres Sanchez
The death of Lucia's mother left a gaping hole in her life and in the process, she found refuge through things that is associated eith fire - matchbox, candle, lighter. When she realized that the one thing that hold her off is the presence of her father, she planned to set things off by playing with fire.
RATING: 3stars

Museum of Misery by Cory McCarthy
A form of mixed literature combining poetry, short-form essay, and visuals to deliver the message about issues that we are still combating as of today such as bodyshaming, homophobia, transphobia, etc.
RATING: 3.5stars

La Concha by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo
Told in a complex storytelling that trancends reality and fantasy, La Concha is a story of a daughter who hides her collection from his model citizen father who is loved by many but is cruel to his own blood. There were a lot of things happening but I think the ending summed up how satisfied I am that the Model Citizen had that fate.
RATING: 3stars

Pool Bandits by G. Neri
Three boys trying to make their summer worthwhile started a fascination with skating in a drained pool and what started as an exciting adventure turned into a bloody mishap as they started collecting pool skating experiencea across their neighborhood.
RATING: 3.5stars

We are Looking for Home by A. S. King
Is it an A. S. King book if you are not confused as to what is happening but equally amazed about how unique the narration is?
RATING: 4stars

A Recording for Carole Before it all Goes by Jason Reynolds
Definitely the most heartwarming among the batch, Jason Reynolds penned a grandson's letter to his aging grandmother who likes to name people, pets, plants with name that starts with C.
RATING: 4stars

Sweet Everlasting by M. T. Anderson
Interesting final entry with a demon named Flaelphagor collecting humans from different countries and eras who wish for a certain moment to last forever.
RATING: 3.5stars

While I usually love short story collections, and this collection contains stories by some of my favorite authors, I couldn't get into this book. I tried all of my tricks - reading the introduction, reading in order, and then out of order, but no luck. Although A.S. King's introduction is beautiful and has made me question my own collections (books and tea and teacups), once I got into the stories I simply couldn't maintain my interest. Part of this may have been the formatting (the digital file was a little wonky, but that's usually not an issue), but I think it has more to do with the fact that none of the stories spoke to my soul. Which is okay! I also want to stress that none of the stories were bad, just not to my taste - the writing and storytelling are well-crafted and thoughtful, and some books just aren't for everyone.

My favorite chapters:
1. Museum of Misery- Cory McCarthy
2. La Concha- e.E. Charlton-Trujillo

Thank you to NetGalley & Dutton Books for letting me read this early in exchange for an honest review. The tricky thing about reading an anthology is that some of the stories will stick out more because of their writing and subject matter, and I think that is the case with "The Collectors" by AS King. Some of the stories did not interest me or perhaps needed to be further edited, and even though I knew there would be another story later to read upon the conclusion of the prior, the lackluster stories made it hard for me to get through this book. Overall, I would recommend only some of the stories, but not the entire book.

Maybe this went over my head, but I did not enjoy the stories. There didn't seem to be a strong connection, even with idea of "collections" to try to tie them together. It was nice that they were short + quick to read, but the vast differences in writing styles, the editing errors, etc just didn't work for me.

Overall: 2 stars

I'll tell my students about: alcohol, language, sex, drugs, trauma/death, LGBTQIA+

**Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Reads Group + Dutton Books for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

The Collectors is a peculiar anthology—a collection of stories—where the central tying similarity is the character’s affinity for collecting in their own right. This premise drew me in, with a unique concept that was still vague enough to encompass a wide variety of tales. Already from the first few stories, I was hooked. While I find it difficult to rate the collection as a whole—some of the stories hit my heart unexpectedly, others missed the mark for me—the ordering of the stories was methodic and well executed to keep my attention. Overall, The Collectors is worth the read for anyone looking for fresh, unconventional short stories.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group / Dutton Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this title.

This book was so interesting, each story showcased the different writing styles of each author and were all incredible in their own way. I enjoyed some of the stories more than others but each had such a distinct voice and message that they all truly shine on their own merit. My only complaint about this book is that there were some grammatical errors throughout where certain words were missing letters but it was easy enough to figure out what was being said, and I’m sure those details will be ironed out before release day.

"From Michael L. Printz Award winner A.S. King and an all-star team of contributors including Anna-Marie McLemore and Jason Reynolds, an anthology of stories about remarkable people and their strange and surprising collections.

From David Levithan's story about a non-binary kid collecting pieces of other people's collections to Jenny Torres Sanchez's tale of a girl gathering types of fire while trying not to get burned to G. Neri's piece about 1970's skaters seeking opportunities to go vertical - anything can be collected and in the hands of these award-winning and bestselling authors, any collection can tell a story. Nine of the best YA novelists working today have written fiction based on a prompt from Printz-winner A.S. King (who also contributes a story) and the result is itself an extraordinary collection."

I wish we celebrated collecting more as a society, like back when there were cabinets of curiosities.

This was a great concept--a collection of stories about collections--and it was fun to see the very different directions each author took the assignment in. As is often the case with short story collections, some were spectacular (especially David Levithan, Cory McCarthy, and Jason Reynolds), others were pretty good, and a few were so meh I just skimmed them.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Overall, this anthology was really good, and is definitely worth reading. The characters have a wide variety of collections both literal and metaphorical, and the authors explore what it means to collect something, and how that impacts those who collect objects– why they do it and how they do it and everything involved.

Play House– Anna-Marie McLemore– (5/5) a fairly haunting story that manages to tackle being a latina girl in white suburbs, collecting objects from dead women, the feeling of objects being tainted by other people having access to them, and the problems of having a milf (also the thing that white men have for every eye color that’s not brown on non-white people) –all wrapped up in the ribbon of an intensely unreliable narrator. I want more.
The White Savior does Not Save the Day– Randy Ribay–(5/5) interdimensional travel, teenage girls obsessed with television shows and the complexity of global politics white saviorism and how “saving” people doesn’t necessarily actually help them. The film script was a really fun way to see what was going on, especially with the character descriptions.
Take it From Me– David Levithan– (5/5) – probably my personal favorite of the stories– a non binary teenager who collects pieces of other people's collections. I felt like I could relate to our unnamed main character– who talked about the stories of everyone except for themself– really tying the whole story together as someone who sees themself as more important when they can take things from others and not as a person on their own.
Ring of Fire– Jenny Torres-Sanchez (3/5) – a good story, but it felt kind of disconnected from the theme, and I didn’t really relate to or empathize with any of the characters quite enough to really be invested.
Museum of Misery– Cory McCarthy (5/5) an illustrated story about the fears and doubts that we collect and keep on display in our own minds, and the framework of self hatred that builds itself up within ourselves keeping us from being happy as our own people. Many of the subjects were easy for me to see myself in.
La Concha–e.E. Charlton-Trujillo (3/5) - I was confused throughout the entire story and the writing style didn’t really work with me, so although I enjoyed the themes used and what the author was trying to say, I didn’t particularly like the way it was written.
Pool Bandits– G. Neri– (3.5/5) A fun story about teenage boys being incredibly annoying and eventually getting the consequences of their actions– even if they aren’t smart enough to know when to stop. Also how sanitizing a form of counterculture and bringing it into the mainstream kind of defeats the whole purpose of it in the first place.
We Are Looking for Home– A.S. King– (3.5/5) I honestly had no idea what was going on for this entire story. The words sounded pretty but beyond that I could tell you absolutely nothing.
A Recording for Carole Before It All Goes– Jason Reynolds– (5/5) A sweet story about a grandchild telling stories about his grandmother's life before she forgets it all. This story had some of the best characterization I have read in a short story in a while, all of the characters felt incredibly realistic and flawed and human.
Sweet Everlasting– M.T. Anderson– (4/5) An evil demon who hates humans and wants to make them suffer by pausing them in their happiest moments. There’s really not much more that I can say.

I didn’t know what to think about this anthology. Some of these were okay to read but a few were too bizarre and made my brain hurt from the weirdness. I’m a pretty weird person but this passed my limit by far!

I really loved the premise of this book and the theme of collectors. The cover drew me in as well. The stories surrounding the question “Why do we collect things?” were very intriguing. I felt the stories in the first half of this anthology started off very well and pulled me in but was losing interest by about 60% of the the way through the book. They were great stories and I did like this book but found myself wanting to just be finished reading it by about 70%. I would definitely recommend this for readers of short stories/anthologies. However, I might not be a huge short story fan.

When I started this book I thought it would be a good one to keep around because I could read a story here or there since it is an anthology of short stories. Once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down. There were some stories that stood out to me and made a bigger impression than others. But each story had a theme of collections and I loved that. They all collected different things (bluebirds/aprons, hero’s work, spoons, fire, misery, life stories, water, homes, memories, and time). The four stories that stood out to me the most were Ring of Fire, Museum of Misery, A Recording for Carole Before it All Goes, and Sweet Everlasting. Sweet Everlasting had the demon that made you not want to think about saying “I want this to last forever.” A Recording for Carole made you feel for an old woman and cherish your memories while you still have them. Museum of Misery was completely different than everything else and really made you think about life. And Ring of Fire made you really feel for the kid and about others who are put in bad situations and my only have a destructive habit that brings them any sort of emotion. They were all written very well and it was great to read how every author took the task so differently.

As with all anthologies, there are hits and misses for me. But the one thing I can really give this one is even the stories I didnt love engaged me enough to read all of them which is SUPER rare for me with anthologies

My personal faves were Play House, Take it from Me, and sweet Everlasting. Overall this was a good anthology and a great camping trip read for me

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the arc in exchange for review!

i had a fun time reading this, such a cozy read that i couldn't put down, plus i found some new authors to follow!

I find the stories creative but also show examples of humanity. the first story is a great example of how parents can make mistakes and the child suffers, it also shows the struggle immigrants face and the struggle women face. the second story shows that the poverty of nations is a global problem that isn't an easy fix. the theme of the stories and the stories themselves are complex and very beautiful in a way. It is a recommended read.

I thought the premise of this short story collection was interesting: exploring the theme of collections. While I enjoyed many of the short stories, I found myself wishing more stuck to more traditional collections. Maybe that's the rule follower in me?

The stories range from literary stream of consciousness to character-driven suspense. What they all have in common is a reflection on what it means to collect and how that makes us human.

My favorite stories included Sweet Everlasting by M.T. Anderson, about a demon who collects people frozen in the moment that they think, "I wish this moment could last forever;" Pool Bandits by G. Neri, about a group of kids who spend their summer chasing the high of skating in borrowed pools; and Take it From Me by David Levithan, about someone who collects the least valuable item from another's collection, the item they're least likely to miss.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Collectors is a perfect example of why I usually don’t enjoy anthologies. I was originally drawn to this because I loved the premise, stories of people and their unusual “collections”. Unfortunately, this fell short for me. It starts strong, with its best and most compelling few stories in the beginning. However, as the stories continue they start getting weaker, some felt derivative of ones I’d already read, some felt like badly written tumblr posts, and one in particular was so unbelievably long and boring it felt like a chore to get through.

ARC provided by NetGalley.