In Pick Your Potion, you can pick your potions from a menu (collection) of many stories of various lengths, and on different themes.
Kudos to the writer for their creativity. All of these stories are different.
I have never read an introduction quite like the one in this book. I cannot say that I liked all of details in the explanations but I loved the author’s passion for these stories and the creative menu idea.

As for the stories,

CurioQueens: Curious concept, fell a bit flat for me. Though, this will be a favourite. It wasn’t for me.
Restoration: One of my least favourite. I appreciate the efficiency of the delivery in such a short form, but that was what it was for me. Short. No read memorable emotions or lingering thoughts.

Nowhere, Australia: I will remember this one. It left an impression. 3/5

The Candle Queen: 3/5.

And most of the other stories were in the 2-3.5 bands for me,

My favourite story was The Orchid. 3.5

Variety/rich themes and forms: 5
Prose: 2.5
Engagement: 3
Plots and characterisation: 3

Pick Your Potion by Ephiny Gale is a smorgasbord of short stories, delighting in the weird, the queer and the nerdy. While I found some stories ended a little too abruptly, overall I had a wonderful time seeing the myriad scenarios Gale brings to life.

The stories in this collection are mostly on the shorter side (as you’d expect when 26 stories are packed in 200 pages) although Gale manages to pack in a lot of character into each one. A variety of nerdy topics are covered including time loops, a magical card game, a chosen one being constantly reborn, the synopses of a sci-fi TV show I kind of wish was real, a cross between Pokémon and the Fae, augmented reality, cats and more. There’s so many great little ideas in here written in a delightfully curious way, and Gale knows how to do a lot with a small amount of words.

Romantic love is a common theme in these stories (mostly or exclusively between queer women) especially those of budding relationships or those experiencing loss. One of my favourite examples of the former is a woman chosen to compete against children (for reasons that are clear in the story) for a chance at inheriting a magical orchard that grows other worldly trees with properties based on what you plant there. She finds more meaning in her growing relationship with the orchard owner than the orchard itself. On the flip side a woman who lost the love of her life a year ago exactly tries to escape death by demon in a time loop in another story.

I want to highlight Curioqueens, a story about a magical card game that forces you to play five cards on yourself or your opponent that alter reality. Most cards are positive or neutral, but some contain truly terrible effects that must be played in secret – and change the trajectory of the protagonist’s life forever. It’s one of the darker stories in the collection – and there are a fair few that are similarly dark, with the pain of not knowing whether a terrible thing happened because you chose to play the game with a person you loved.

Another strong entry was La Vie En Mer, a series of episode synopses for a sci-fi TV series of the same name, telling the story of a dimension hopping cruise ship full of people trying to find a better world. It’s a novel way to tell a longer story in a short form, and honestly I kind of wish someone would make it for real.

Now some of these stories do end a little earlier than I would have expected, drifting into an ambiguity more vague than I would like. And certainly there’s some variance in quality, as is usual for collections – although I found that variance to be a lot less than some other books.

Overall I really enjoyed Pick Your Potion and it’s passionate characters and strange worlds. If you like frequent bursts of imagination and stories sweet and dark, I highly recommend it.

Rating: 8.75/10

Thank you to NetGalley and Foxglove Press for my digital review copy!

Overall rating is 3.5 for the whole anthology.

Before I start my review of all of the stories, I first want to mention how charming the introductory chapter is. I love the whole narrative of this (It's given to you like a menu and the descriptions of the items are the author's thoughts/feelings on each of the stories and why they are in the anthology.) I found this a lovely way to link all these otherwise unlinked stories together!

Some of my favourites:
CurioQueens,
Last Text,
Overnight, A Forest Grew
This is (not) My beautiful Cat
Faewild
When the Ice Comes In
The Orchard
Inheritance

My overall rating for the anthology is given by taking the average of the ratings I give each story. Overall, this anthology has a rating of 3.5 - we had a lot of good solid tales, with only a handful that I weren't my favourite. There were quite a few ones that I really enjoyed and that stood out to me (even if I rated a story a 3/5, it doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy reading it).

In this anthology, Ephiny shows that she can create tales from a wide array of genres and tropes and that they can each stand up on their own. I am very glad that I decided to read this anthology and I would recommend it if you want a mix of tales that cover a plethora of bases.

Below are my individual thoughts on all the tales in the anthology, along with a rating for each one:

CurioQueens: who wouldn't love a magical board game? I genuinely could have read an entire anthology about the matches people playing CurioQueen. This was a very strong start to the collection. 4/5

Restoration: very short, so I don't really have many thoughts on it but quite impactful. 2.5/5

The Magic in Our Hands: I really liked this one. It had interesting magic and I could easily have read more! 4/5

All the Times I’m Ten: this was short and enjoyable, though I don't really have much to say on it. 3/5

Nowhere, Australia: this one had a good unsettling vibe. I did wish it was longer. 3/5

The Candle Queen: who doesn't like a sapphic handmaiden x queen? I sure do. This was such a tender story. 4/5

Solace: another sapphic tale! I loved how rich the depictions of the fashion were. The whole idea of a section of a spaceship allergic to light and how they made a community for themselves was such a good concept. And how Cora learned to deal with her circumstances and her relationship with Meadow! 4/5

Last Text: probably has my favourite opening line in the anthology. For how short this was, it packed a punch. This one had me thinking about what would happen to the characters after the end (specifically how Mikala would feel about the ending). 5/5

La Vie En Mer: I loved how this was set up - summaries of a TV show. Episode 1.5 would be chilling to watch. 1.10 would be a chilling series finale, setting up s2. Fresh meat pt 1 and 2 are a great way to start the second series. I knew the death in series beginning wasn't as it seemed. S3 had the best overarching storyline. I know I really enjoy atypically structured short stories. 5/5

Rewind: such a cool concept that I would have looked to read even more of! I really love a cyclical structure and this one worked brilliantly! 4/5

Overnight, A Forest Grew: this one surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. I think it was to do with the surprising importance of the job of one of the characters and how important it would be to make people feel comfort if we went though an apocalyptic event. 4/5

Watchhouse: okay, I know I said that Last Text had my favourite opening, but this one is a contender. This one has a horrorific premise that would be hell to live in. I am glad that it ended happily. I would have liked more reason as to why the watchtowers existed though. 3/5

Light and Sleek and Strong: this was probably the most bizarre one in the anthology. It did have a good concept, though I found parts of the story concerning. 3/5

Faewild: I enjoyed this one! It was vaguely Pokémon esque with the creatures. It had some good adventure in it. 3/5

The White Factory: This one was a quick read and it left me thinking about the implications of the last line - my brain was thinking about how this could be interpreted as a psychological horror and I really enjoyed it. 4/5

Neuro: I loved how this one was structured, with it being akin to an article. It was a fun read as it wasn't a typical prose structure (I know I do enjoy reading atypically structured media). 4/5

When the Ice Comes In: This one felt incredibly fairytale eqsue, complete with the morbidity in the original tales. I really liked this one. 5/5

Smol Animaux: kind of a horror story. Very much enjoyed this one. 3/5

The Most Powerful Witch in Witchville: I know I'll love any of the stories with magic. I would love to know more about Witchville. 4/5

This is (Not) My Beautiful Cat: A story about a cat, what's not to like? I don't want to spoil this one, but I really, really enjoyed this. 5/5

Lovely Lilas: this was a sweet tale. Truly lovely, though for the short length of it, I don't really have too much to say. 3.5/5

The Orchard: another gay witchy tale! I loved this. The description of the trees was so vivid! I am absolutely not biased towards gay witchy tales at all... 4/5

Inheritance: for how short this one is, it packed a punch. It had one of my favourite lines in it. 4/5

Marina, Hel and Cady save the Universe: Neurodivergency rep! And gays! And they save the universe! 3/5

As Long as We Both Shall Live and After, Too: sci-fi androids. Sadly, I came away from this one wanting slightly more. 2.5/5

Traces of Us, Hot Enough for Dinner: I liked this one! Time loops and apocalypses. Seeing yourself being able to live out variations of the same day. This had some good body horror and was a solid way to round the collection off. 3/5

An assortment of short stories that read like tasters on a menu, Pick Your Potion is at once freshly inventive, comforting, and enthralling. Every story is somewhat genre-bending, told so vividly, and characterised well enough that it'll leave you wanting more. My favourites were: CurioQueens, Overnight a Forest Grew, Smol Animaux, and The Orchard. I would love to read more of this author's work.
Thank you to NetGalley and Foxgrove Press for the ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

As always I’m going to talk about the novel as a whole as well as discuss the individual stories within! I think this is only the fourth anthology series I’ve read that’s all been written by one person. Most of the time I read collections of stories from many authors but the premise of this one intrigued me because there was no set genre like I feel most anthologies have. The synopsis promised stories from the fantasy, sci-fi and horror genre so I wanted to see this authors take on all of them! What I really liked was that there were illustrations throughout this novel to go with the stories. I also enjoyed how short many of the stores were. My brain sometimes can’t handle long short stories so I appreciated the ones that were only a page, or less.

1.CurioQueens: By far my favorite one of the bunch. It got me excited for the rest of the stories inside and was generally just a really good short story. I wish there was more of it honestly.

2.Restoration: VERY short but also scared me when I thought about it harder.

3.The Magic In Our Hands: This one was very interesting. A world where you get to pick your magic is a very interesting concept. I was excited to see where it would go but then it stopped short. I wish there was more for this story.

4.All The Times I’m Ten: Oof this reincarnation story was sad and kind of adorable but mostly sad.

5.Nowhere, Australia: I’ve never been frightened by the idea of horses and cows before but I am now. This almost felt like it could be the premise of a Doctor who episode. People are stuck somewhere with hardly any memory and something that’s not necessarily scary starts to surround them. Perfect Doctor Who fodder.

6.The Candle Queen: Love a good cult. I’m not sure if I can call the Candle Queen a cult because it also felt more like a religion but… it was having girls sit forever in a dress carrying candles on their head so… cult in my opinion. This was a really good story too. I enjoyed how Anne helped her see that she could live a different life.

7.Solace: I gotta admit I was very confused on what was happening in this one. I didn’t know what Cora was trying to alter about herself (getting a tail?) but I did find the romance between the two women cute.

8.Last Text: Another one where I don’t know what was happening??? Why did she have Steve do that?? Or why did she want to do that instead of just talking to Mikayla? I’m very confused.

9.La Wie En Mer: Oh I loved the one so much. It was in the format of like a synopsis for a TV Show except it kidnaps of spoils the plot of the episode. Either way, I want to watch this so badly. It had such a fun premise and almost reminded me of the 100 in a way (another sci-fi show about the end of the world). It was very intriguing!

10.Rewind: This was interesting. I don’t know what to make of it. It made me start to wonder if I should trust Juliette or not but I don’t know why I would trust her since I don’t know much about her lol.

11.Overnight A Forest Grew: This was surprisingly sweet in an odd capitalistic way.

12.Watchhouse: ?? Another confusing one and slightly scary one. Why were people trying to kill her???

13.Light and Sleek and Strong: This was fun and kind of hilarious honestly. I didn’t expect all of the world ending apocalypses to be happening at once, nor did I expect to read about someone foraging through there own waste lol

14.Faewild: This one was really cool and also a little scary with some of the body horror going on. I liked how the Fae world seemed to be only animals and not like a sub-group of some human species that lived there too. I was also interested in the world building. What do you do with the Faewild creatures in their world? What do they go to school for? They talked about a fighting ring but I don’t know why people would want to hurt their Faewild’s like that.

15.The White Factory: This was fun! I thought it’d turn into a horror story but I was glad to see the it didn’t. A competition disguised as finding your soulmate is kind of funny.

16.Neruo: This was such an interesting concept. I first thought it was a machine to record your dreams but it wasn’t. It’s more like VR but you actually have all the sensations of what’s happening in it. I thought this was a really cool story.

17.When the Ice Comes In: Well that was stressful. That almost reminds me of the old Twilight Zone episode where the Earth is apparently getting too close to the sun and the woman feels like she’s burning up. The episode then kind of pans out though and you find out that the woman is unconscious with a fever and the world is actually going through an ice age. Both the episode and this story are my worst nightmares lol

18.Smol Animaux: ABSOLUTELY WILD LIKE?!?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN??? SHE WAS ACTUALLY PREGNANT RIGHT?! WHERE’S THE BABY!!

19.The most Powerful Witch in Witchville: This was kind of sad in an odd way. Coal spent all this time trying to be the Best Witch and was still beat out by the system and by someone older than her who couldn’t stand to let her have the spotlight. It’s like actual society unfortunately.

20.This Is (Not) My Beautiful Cat: Not the cat finding a crack in the space time continuum just so it can spend time with her as an adult and a child

21.Lovely Lilas: A very short and cute story that sort of fells like its a message about loving yourself

22.The Orchid: Magical tress that kids grow, sign me up. This story was really sweet and cute. I also thought this was going to be a bit of a horror story based off the illustration of the trees at the beginning but it was nothing of the sort.

23.Inheritance: Very short and simple. Kind of reminds me of like a reverse Giver scenario. Where instead of one person holding all the memories, you get the memories of your ancestor. Honestly, I feel like I need that wisdom to navigate daily life.

24.Marina, Hel and Cady Save the Universe: A very odd story about portals and aliens. I’m not sure how they defeated the alien either. Something about cookie dough?

25.As Long As We Both Shall Live, And After Too: I didn’t like this one. It was too odd for me that this person couldn’t get over the loss of someone they loved. I know they had no interactions with this clone of their wife when they were a child but… still the thought of it is creepy.

26.Traces of Us, Hot Enough for Dinner: The scariest one of the bunch!!! I’m surprised this one was left as the last story instead of somewhere in the middle maybe. I did enjoy it though because I always love time loops but this one didn’t sound like it could be broken so I’m wondering if the demons are all in her head or if it’s actually real.

In a Nutshell: An imaginative speculative story collection. I’m astounded by the author’s creativity! A few of the endings were not satisfying to me, but overall, I had a lot of fun reading this collection. Recommended to SFF fans!

This indie story collection has twenty-six stories over 226 pages. Thus there is a good number of stories and they don’t drag in tempo.

The introduction is presented in the form of a drinks menu, allowing us a glimpse into each story so that we can “Pick our potion.” The menu has the story title, a drink that goes with it, and a brief background to how and why the story was written. I appreciate that the author warns us that this section contains spoilers, but at the same time, I wonder why this creative menu had to include spoilers. Many of us don’t like reading spoilers, so there is no way for us to pick something from the menu while trying to jump over the unwanted bits. I’d have preferred this content to be present at the end of its respective story – ease of reading, direct connection with the story, and no worry of spoilers.

Continuing in the spirit of shuffling things around, I’d have loved for the content warnings to be present at the start than at the end of the book, though the Table of Contents does mention its being located at the end.

Now to the actual stories!

The twenty-six entries of this collection are genre-bending and genre-blending, spanning a range of SFF categories such as horror, sci-fi, epic fantasy, magical realism, speculative, and weird fiction. A majority of the tales have lesbian subplots, though none of the stories focuses solely on the romance. Every story has a strong woman protagonist, though not necessarily in a typical feminine role. Some of the tales are heartwarming, and some horrifying.

A majority of the plots had such unique concepts and such wondrous world-building that I’d love to an extended version of them, perhaps even a full-length novel. Some of the stories are presented in a different structure, such as research reports or journal entries. The writing is beautiful and lyrical, which is not a common feature of a speculative collection.

While I loved the plotlines and the imaginativeness of every story, some of the endings weren’t satisfying enough. I wanted more closure, or more continuation. Quite a few endings left me going 'Aargh! Tell me more! Don't leave me dangling here!'. The plot closures weren’t abrupt, but they didn’t allow me the feeling of relaxation, of knowing that the characters were happy/safe/fulfilled. (If the author is reading this: I NEED a continuation at least for 'Smol Animaux'!)

Every story is exceptional in its creativity. Even when a specific tale didn’t click that much with me, I was still mesmerised by the author’s wild imagination. A few of the stories in this collection can be read free on the author’s site. Perhaps you can try out some tales from there and see the brilliance of her mind.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the twenty-six stories, thirteen reached or crossed the 4-star mark. Most of the rest hovered between 3-3.5 stars. Some of these would have scored even higher had the finale clicked better with me. These were my top favourites with 4.5+ stars:
🌿 Overnight, a Forest Grew - A beautiful story that would even have made a wonderful fantasy novel. Loved the use of perfumes in this. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌿 Light and Sleek and Strong - Weird and wacky and wonderful! - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌿 When The Ice Comes In - Such a beautiful, bittersweet story! I could actually feel the chill of the protagonist. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌿 This Is (Not) My Beautiful Cat - A cat story. With a surprise at the end. Loved the narrative structure and the ending. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌿 Lovely Lilacs - Rarely does a sci-fi android story feel so heartwarming. An extra half-star for that last line. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌿 The Orchard - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory vibes, but with more and better magic. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
🌿 Traces of Us, Hot Enough for Dinner – A horror groundhog-day story! I want to know so much more about the how’s and why's of this! - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

Honourable mentions with 4 stars:
☘️ CurioQueens - Jumanji vibes but even more dangerous and visceral
☘️ All the Times I'm Ten - A bittersweet story about a young human who just wants to be ten and normal. Would have loved this to be longer.
☘️ The Candle Queen - Another story that I wish had been longer. I'd have loved to know more about this world of magical wax and candle queens.
☘️ Last Text - That certainly didn't go the way I thought it would! 👀
☘️ La Vie En Mer - The travels of a space "ship" across many universes. Yet another example of the author's out-of-the-box imagination.
☘️ Smol Animaux - Such a fabulous story! Such a frustrating ending!

All in all, a highly recommended collection to every speculative short fiction lover. This indie novel will blow you away with its fantastical concepts. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

3.8 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.

My thanks to Foxgrove Press for providing the DRC of “Pick Your Potion” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

4.5/5
Thanks Netgalley for providing me this arc. Whimsical, nostalgic, queer, unique and dark. Exactly the sort of stories i like. Every single story was a whole new world with it's little quirks and that's what made me excited to keep on exploring further on. Few stories were either hit or miss which mostly were a miss for me but overall i enjoyed reading them. The illustrations at the top of few chapters added a sort of eeire vibe to it and i might have stared at some for too long. Many stories left a long lasting impression in my brain such as 'Light and sleek and strong', 'the magic in our hands' and 'smol animaux'. I'd definitely recommend giving this short story collection a try.

Anyway, I'm gonna list down all the potions that I'd pick in no particular order ;)
+ Curioqueens
+ Restoration
+ The magic in our hands
+ The candle queen
+ Solace
+ Last text
+ La vie en mer
+ Light and sleek and strong (very amusing)
+ When the ice comes
+ Smol animaux
+ This is (not) my beautiful cat
+ The Orchard
+ Inheritance
+ Traces of us hot enough for dinner

I love short stories, but I don't always love books full of them. They tend to be over or underwhelming.
That is NOT the case with Pick Your Potion! There are many good books, and as soon as you finish one story, you are ready for the next.
Though, my favorite was Curioqueens. Curioqueens was like Jumanji, but more edgy. It's one of the stories that will stick with you forever. I may beg the author to write a completely new 200-300 page story about Curioqueens, with a different player before or after the short story took place. ;)
This book of short stories does not come up short on entertainment! The book releases 9/3/2024!

Thank you, Netgalley & Victory editing for letting me review this ARC!

Pick Your Potion has a very accurate title, and a corresponding introduction - you feel like you're standing in a magic shop and picking from all the different, weird-colored potions. 26 stories focusing on women, many of them queer women, ranging from fantasy to sci-fi and sometimes just... weird. You're probably not going to like every story, but you'll almost definitely have at least a few that you do.

For me, I admit there were a couple that just went past my weirdness meter, and I still wonder what they were even about (and the introduction did not give enough context). But most of them were enjoyable, and just genuinely really fun and colorful ideas. I would read full-length novels based on some of them. There is also a list of content warnings for all the stories at the end.

Some of my favorite story ideas were:
- A magical/cursed board game that can make your wishes come true, but it might have a price you're not prepared to pay.
- The "little kid being the Chosen One" trope in a new coat.
- A new technological marvel that lets you experience somebody's memories and live vicariously through them.
- Virtual pets that feel like real ones and only you can see them and wow it's kind of messed up.
- Three girls save the world with the power of AUTISM.

Thank you to Ephiny Gale, Foxgrove Press and NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The cover of Pick Your Potion really spoke to me with its vibrant purple background and bright green leaves. What soon followed was intrigue once I've read the description. This contains a whopping 26 stories combined in a collection of various genres. I will not be reviewing each story separately.

The introduction contains spoilers, and the author warns you about those, which is appreciated. I did go ahead and read it before diving into the stories and was genuinely intrigued by the menus provided. Some of them sounded delicious.

As for the short stories themselves, they vary in length. Some are short and sweet, others are lengthier and dark. Some had clear endings, others left me with confusion and a plethora of questions. Regardless, they are a good mix of genres and topics with plenty of imagination from the author. A few of my favourites are Faewild, Smol Animaux and This is (Not) My Beautiful Cat. I might have a theme. Close follow-ups are The Most Powerful Witch in Witchville and The Magic in Our Hands. Certain stories will not be up your alley, others will. If you are unsure, at the end is a content warning if you want to avoid certain topics. This is the first time I've seen this, but I understand how this can be appreciated by readers.

Overall, I've enjoyed the collection of stories and can recommend it to anyone with interest in the genres. Pacing yourself might be a good idea though.

This collection of short stories is the perfect mix magical realism. Each story no matter the length encapsulates that narrative and takes you on a journey. I love the way this author writes its so beautiful and intriguing. I loved how the intro page was like a drinks menu with is finding put more about the inspiration behind each story. I think this is a fantastic collection and it makes me want to read more by this author. If you love cool concepts, beautiful writing and interesting stories pick up this collection

Rating: 3.75 / 5 stars, (rounded up to 4)

Thank you to NetGalley & Foxgrove Press for an eARC copy of this story collection, in exchange for my honest review.

I thoroughly LOVED nearly all of the stories contained within this collection; which is not usually my experience with anthology-esque books.

Each story is intricately woven into it's own world; a world that is laced with magic/magical realism, LGBTQ+ representation, humor, adversity, grief, love, and various triumphs throughout the experience of life.

Ephiny Gale has such beautiful prose and I loved that its evident how they put their entire heart into building this collection.

I really have nothing too negative to say, overall, there were just a couple stories I didnt connect with as much as others - but I definitely recommend that you get your hands on this book!

This short story collection was excellent, not a single one disappointed me which is very rare in my case. This anthology was genre bending and perfectly written highly recommend

‘Pick Your Potion’ by Ephiny Gale is a collection of short stories that I was privileged to receive an ARC from Foxgrove Press via NetGalley. Gale’s imagination will both unsettle and intrigue you.

For example, one story is contains a magic system that a teen has to have gloves made just for them, and then the gloves basically become a part of their skin with crystals growing out. And this is completely normalised by the characters’ POVs ! In another story, girls are kidnapped and made to live in a rich girl’s bedroom, all the while the rich girl’s family will shoot arrows at the kidnapped girls if they spot them 👀. There’s also some lighter stories mixed in, such as the episodic space adventure of a ship deciding on what planet to live on. It had Futurama vibes, and I could totally picture a full blown cartoon series of them. George fawning over all the alien women made me chuckle !

I had a wonderful time reading all these unique settings, I loved the LGBT+ representation, and look forward to reading more of Gale’s work.

I've read the introduction and the first couple of stories, and I know I'm going to love this collection.

I tend to dip in and out of anthologies, so I plan to keep reading these over the weekend. It's hard to review short story collections, so I'm going to review the introduction and writing as a whole.

The introduction was really quirky and fun to read. I liked that it was added as it gives some insight into each short story and why it was written. The addition of cocktails at the beginning of each is something I haven't seen before in this type of work.

I love the representation in the first story, and the story itself worked really well. I could picture everything, and for what was little over 10 pages, it packs a lot in.

I've read the second story a few times, and I'll admit I am confused, but going from the title, I'm thinking it's about finding a cure for something?

I eagerly look forward to reading the rest 😊

Thank you to Netgalley and Foxgrove Press for providing the ARC.