A UNIVERSE OF WISHES review


Thank you, Netgalley, for this free review copy!

A Universe of Wishes is a #WeNeedDiverseBooks short story collection, featuring a wide array of authors and an even wider array of stories. Before I officially get into the review, I’d like to make a quick disclaimer: I had to skip two stories because they were from series that I either haven’t read or haven’t read in completion yet. One of which was the A Darker Shade of Magic short story that everyone was so excited about. Sorry!

Every story in this collection is either fantasy or sci-fi and, even though I’m not generally a fan of sci-fi, I found even those stories to be incredibly charming. Every author they chose is so talented, telling diverse stories that are either about the struggles of the minorities featured, or just about people who are PoC and/or LGBTQIA and just happily going about their lives. With so many stories, I’d struggle to review each one, so instead, I’m going to review four select favorites.

It opens with “A Universe of Wishes”, the short story the collection took its title from, by Tara Sim. It’s morbid, it’s dark, it’s weird, but it’s heartfelt and quietly romantic. Sim is never anything short of amazing, and this is no exception. Her prose is more beautiful than I’ve ever seen it before.

“Cristal y Ceniza” is by Anna-Marie McLemore. The author is nonbinary, so please remember to respect their pronouns in discussions and refer to them as they/them! Their story is a retelling of Cinderella, which was unexpected but very welcome as I love Cinderella retellings, and this one was different from any other one I’ve ever read. It handles undocumented immigration, gender identity, and the pain of being forced to live in the closet with the type of raw reality such subjects, which is an amazing feat for such a short number of pages.

“The Takeback Tango by Rebecca Roanhorse” is one of the sci-fi stories that thoroughly charmed me. It’s about a young woman from a conquered and colonized planet stealing back the artifacts of her people, which were stolen and put on grotesque display in museums. It’s a shorter story, but you fall in love with the main character and her charming snark within a page. I’d cry in excitement if Roanhorse wrote a full series about this character.

“The Weight” is by Dhonielle Clayton, the editor of this collection. While Clayton has a few books under her belt, I confess I’ve only read The Belles duology, and the basic aesthetic of morbidity underlying beautiful visuals and mind-bendingly weird rules holds true between those books and this story. Clayton shamelessly breaks the rules of romance and drama, creating something wholly unique here.

While those were the standouts, don’t think for a moment that the rest of the stories are in any way lackluster. They all employ poetic prose, different storytelling techniques, or heartfelt emotions, or any combination of the three. Sexuality, gender identity, and skin color are all played with, challenging the idea that any of them can make you lesser than anyone else and letting everyone shine no matter what. I’m so excited to look into the other works by all of these authors.


You can find A Universe of Wishes on Barnes&Noble here, where it's currently available for preorder in hardcover and nook book format!

(Note: I've chosen not to link Amazon pages anymore, except in cases where the author chose to publish through Amazon, and therefore it is the only place where the book is available. The lower the price, the less money the author gets, so support small businesses and authors by avoiding Amazon if you can afford it!)

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