Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories By Michael Earp

What does it mean to be queer? What does it mean to be human? In this powerful #OwnVoices collection, twelve of Australia’s finest queer writers explore the stories of family, friends, lovers and strangers – the connections that form us.

Compelling queer short fiction by bestsellers, award winners and newcomers to the #LoveOzYA community including Jax Jacki Brown, Claire G Coleman, Michael Earp, Alison Evans, Erin Gough, Benjamin Law, Omar Sakr, Christos Tsiolkas, Ellen van Neerven, Marlee Jane Ward, Jen Wilde and Nevo Zisin. Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories

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✔️31. a book (/stories...) set on a college or university campus
🌟🌟🌟💫 3.5 stars

What a beautiful collection of diverse stories from diverse, Australian voices! This anthology really celebrated what is so unique about queer writing and perspectives. I definitely enjoyed some works more than others, but it covered a broad range of genres and breeds of 'connection'. Michael Earp Some of these were really great (Jen Wilde's story was my favourite, followed by Marlee Jane Ward's), some of them were pretty good, but there were two I wondered why they were there?

And now I've said that, I know you're going to ask, so:

Sweet by Claire G. Coleman was this weird reverse-oppression thing where the NB people were the majority and the gendered were oppressed and it felt weird and wrong to me. As a cishet person I wasn't entirely sure whether I should be bothered or not, but I've read/watched some reviews from NB people who were clearly quite bothered by it, so I stand by my initial feelings.

Christos Tsiolkas' story, which I can't remember the title of, featured two characters in their 30s, so it wasn't YA anyway. And the main character really wanted his father to be forgiven for the sexual relationship he (the father) had with a 15/16-year-old student when he was a teacher. And the people who did not want to forgive him were painted as the antagonists. There wasn't much nuance, so that was quite iffy, too. Michael Earp Review to come upon my posting date for the upcoming AusYABloggers blog tour of this amazing book! Thank you Walkers Books & AusYABloggers for having me on the tour 🏳️‍🌈 Michael Earp Marlee Jane Ward - Rats 4/5

This first story is set in the near dystopian future, from what I could tell. The world building is subtle but interesting, and mostly made clear through details rather than explanations. This works really well, especially since it gives the more subtle exchanges between the characters more weight as well.

The story has a meet cute between a tunnel rat, aka a girl who lives in the tunnels of the Melbourne station, and a girl who crashes her bike into her when someone shoves her. They go out for breakfast together and the story further unfolds from there. I rather liked the idea of two worlds meeting.

Rep: f/f romance, non-binary side character, side character with prosthetic leg

CWs: police raid
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Erin Gough - In Case of Emergency, Break Glass 3/5

I feel a little conflicted about this story. While I love more quiet stories, I don't love a quick resolution. So while it was amazing to see a girl realize kissing boys bores her, I was excited to see a main character questioning her sexuality. And it was great that she figured out she's a lesbian! But I think this process was resolved rather hastily and that took away from the impact of the story.

Rep: questioning/lesbian MC, queer side character, Black side character
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Michael Earp - Bitter Draught 5/5

A medieval world with zero homophobia? Count me in! I loved this story so much. It's well written and emotional, and it's about trying to save someone but losing someone else in the process.

Rep: m/m relationship, non-binary side character

CWs: ill sibling
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Jax Jacki Brown - I Like Your Rotation 5/5

It's radical to feel, to really feel, and to allow our bodies to move and be how they need to be, you know?

I absolutely loved this story. It's about the intersectionality between disability and queerness, and it's about a girl making a new friend who's also queer and disabled.

If you liked this story, I would also really recommend the Unbroken anthology, which has short stories with disabled main characters, and several of them are queer as well.

Rep: sapphic disabled MC in a wheelchair, sapphic disabled side character in a wheelchair

CWs: (internalized) ableism, homophobia

Claire G. Coleman - Sweet 5/5

I was drawn into this story right away, starting off with a walk down the street that's written in such flowing language that it read like a dance. And it got even better from there, because the concept of this story is so interesting. The story is set in a futuristic society where everyone is agender. Gender (being gendered) is seen as an old-fashioned concept of the past that's antisocial and even illegal. This makes for a thought-provoking read, and I loved how it was executed.

Rep: Black MC, Black side characters, agender society, use of they/them pronouns

CWs: transphobia
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Nevo Zisin - Light Bulb 3/5

I loved parts of this story. The contemporary storyline about the main character as a child was fantastic. But overall, the story was incohesive and it felt as if the author had forgotten the story was supposed to be gay until the last moment. Essentially, this felt like three stories in one, without anything to tie them together.

CWs: death of a parent, depression, homophobia/homophobic slurs
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Jen Wilde - Waiting 5/5

As a massive fan of Jen Wilde's books, this story was one of the biggest reasons I bought this anthology in the first place. But I didn't even know it would have an autistic main character?! I literally gasped when I read that.

This is such a great story about Audrey, who brings her toxic friend Vanessa to a pride convention and finally realizes how bad of a friend she really is.

Rep: bisexual autistic MC with anxiety, bisexual side character, brown non-binary side character, autistic side character

CWs: homophobia, toxic friendship

Christos Siolkas - Laura Nyro at the Wedding 3/5

This story is about a same-gender couple deciding to get engaged, which I absolutely loved to read. It's also very morally gray: the main character's father abused a minor years previous to the story, and he is thinking about forgiveness, and about inviting him to the wedding. I'm not actually sure how I feel about this aspect. Because of course forgiveness is important, and it's important to acknowledge that you can't necessarily stop loving a parent even if you want to. But it's also such a clearly wrong thing that I'm not sure it's something that could or even should be forgiven. At least it's a very thought-provoking story in that sense. Let me be clear though, that I didn't feel the story was trying to apologize for the dad's actions. It's just a tricky thing to write about nevertheless, I think.

Rep: m/m couple

CWs: pedophilia, past war memories, past death of a sibling

Ellen van Neerving - Each City 2/5

Parts of this story were really good, but I just couldn't follow the plotline at all. It wasn't until around halfway through the story that I figured out it's set in a dystopian future, and the setting kept changing. This made for quite an unclear story, and the writing was quite hard to follow as well.

Rep: queer MC, queer side characters

CWs: racism, homophobia, transphobia

Omar Sakr - An Arab Werewolf in Liverpool 3/5

Parts of this story I loved, and parts of it I found very hard to follow. It's a pretty slow story, and it took a while to become more clear. But I did like the ending, and the representation.

Rep: gay Muslim MC, gay Muslim love interest, multiple Muslim side characters

CWs: homophobia, racism, abuse by a family member, descriptions of a dead dog

Alison Evans - Stormlines 2/5

This story just wasn't really for me. I couldn't get into it, unfortunately.

Benjamin Lan - Questions to Ask Straight Relatives 5/5

This was both funny and an interesting discussion of dealing with homophobia from family members, as well as internalized homophobia.

Rep: gay Chinese MC, lesbian Chinese side character

CWs: (internalized) homophobia Michael Earp NOTE: I received 'Kindred Stories' as part of the AusYABloggers Kindred Book Tour. You can follow this tour on instagram through the hashtags: #KindredStories #AusYaBloggers #AusQueerYA #LoveOZYA #OwnVoices. As well as through the accounts: @ausyabloggers @walkerbooksaus @littleelfman.

I no longer know the lines between literary analysis, review and emotive response. This review is going to be a mess but at least it's mine.

It's not the dark I find scary. It's the light. In the light, you can see everything. Even the things you don't want to (136).

The thing about sexuality for me is that it's so hard to pinpoint. Where did this start? Why did this start? Is it real? Am I faking it? What will people think? Goodreads acts as a shadow for me. I'm googling if I can hide reviews from family because twenty-three doesn't mean ready. There's so much that ties into my identity, we are multi-faceted humans who have embraced so many things. Considering this: 'Kindred' is essential reading. Showcasing sexuality, gender, pronouns, disability, race, religion, hope, futures - this is something that might have made the path easier for me when I was younger. This is a collection that will make the present easier for so many young readers. To be able to identify yourself in a text is a truly incredible (and necessary) thing.

'Kindred Stories' is a collection of Australian #LoveOzYA voices that have come together to create a collection of diverse tales. There's the dystopian with 'Rats' and 'Each City', the eerie coming from 'Light Blub' and the heartwarming with 'I Like Your Rotation' and 'Waiting.' Each story offers something new, there is no way that queer youths will finish the book without finding at least one story that they identify with, or are inspired by. That's impossible.

I'm not sure if it's an 'I want to be you' or an 'I want to bed you' crush (98).

I found myself finding familiarity in lines, and characters. Understanding my bisexuality is taking a long time. But overwhelming questions of what constitutes a crush and how do I ensure that I 'look' the part, should I even 'look the part' were met within the stories. Over and over again I found something to relate to, something to make me laugh, and something to make me cry. I think that this is an important collection, for all people to read. To understand the risks posed to our community even today. To understand how human we all are at our very core.

As a collection, I think it's important to also share thoughts and feelings for all of the pieces. Giving back to the authors that are helping to build us up and represent us.

Rats - Marlee Jane Ward
Within this story, readers are met with dystopia, underground worlds and the opportunity to embrace Open Air. Michelle is one of the rats and indicates how chilling being yourself in public can be, a loss of personal security. When Michelle is pushed into Maita, a studying above ground, worlds transform. We are met with cheeky crushes and the reality that not every fight can be won alone, Michelle needs Maita's help. We need each other to survive.

In Case of Emergency, Break Glass - Erin Gough
'Break Glass' hit all my cafe and catering feels. Amy is struggling with her boyfriend, kissing him just isn't fun and she's late for work again. But arriving at the function, Amy is left to work out what really is going on in the world when she meets Regi, dozens of birds tattooed on her arm. I would've loved a full feature novel of this story, more was definitely necessary.

Bitter Draught - Michael Earp
So different to Earp's story in 'Underdog' I wasn't excepting the fantasy within this story. Simeon's sister is sick and if he can find the witch he may be able to save her. His boyfriend Wyll is there by his side, but the witch warns him, there is always a cost. This story explores privileging of love, and I would adore reading even more similar things from Earp in the future.

I Like Your Rotation - Jax Jacki Brown
I think this was one of my favourites in the collection. Jem and Drew are both wheelchair users who connect through swimming and the necessity of disabled representation within pride. The characters are both so real and made me cry. I think another important aspect of this is the reality that not all crushes eventuate, there's always hope, but contemporaries where our protagonists remain single are always incredibly interesting to me. This is one of the most important stories in the collection and I will definitely be looking for more of Brown's work.

Sweet - Claire G Coleman
Claire Coleman is undeniably one of the most incredible speakers I've witnessed. She understands the links between luck and hardwork within the publishing industry. I definitely look up to her in many ways. Discussing her story with a few other readers, I've reached the opinion that it did not achieve what Coleman had hoped for. A role reversal story, this one can be considered problematic for some readers and should contain content warnings for transphobia. I do still hope to read more of Coleman's work and look forward to her other writing.

Light Bulb - Nevo Zisin
There’s a dizziness to this story that is part of it's charm. Our protagonist loves the dark, it's safer there. Zisin explores the realities of concealing and revealing our true selves. This entire story speaks on another level and I can guarantee I will be rereading it. Truly gorgeous. I love this and its darkness. Another favourite.

Waiting - Jen Wilde
I love my bicons. Waiting in line for PrideCon, Vanessa makes Audrey put her jumper on to hide her Rosa Diaz tee. Wilde shows us what friends can do, and the kindness of strangers. It had all the cheese and honest truth telling necessary of a YA story and was just super great. I am also in love with Josie now.

Laura Nyro at the Wedding - Christos Tsiolkas
This is the one that made me cry the most (which by default means it's good). Jack and Paul have decided that they're going to get married. But Jack wants to invite his father, accused of sleeping with a minor, to the wedding. This story navigates some really difficult territory, showcasing discussions of trauma, identity and family. I've also discussed this one with a number of readers, and have established that it may not have been a great fit for the collection and required further closure and perspective on the pedophilia in the story. Not necessary the best fit for a collection for teens.

Each City - Ellen van Neerven
I just finished 'Heat and Light' for one of my university subjects so I was definitely ready for the dystopian world that van Neerven provided. Our protagonist and partner, Talvan live in a futuristic world where activism is still risky. Their home is robbed and our anonymous protagonist is forced to flee the country, hoping for any communication possible with family. van Neerven consistently tells chilling and honest stories.

An Arab Werewolf in Liverpool - Omar Sakr
You can feel the poetry in Sakr's voice and tone. This story follows Wafat and Noah's secret loves and relationships as they face homophobia. I really loved the innocence of it all, teenage sexual urgency. There's an underlying sense of humour in this piece. I wanted to have more of this.

Stormlines - Alison Evans
I follow Evans on multiple social media platforms and they're always impressing me with stories and knowledge. I haven't yet read their other works, but if this is anything to go off, I am so keen. This piece explored Marling finding New in a mangrove after a storm. Marling is forced to consider loneliness and how it affects ver. Where we create homes is important.

Questions to Ask Straight Relatives - Benjamin Law
I'm also familiar with Law's online presence and was really excited to read this piece. As a nonfiction piece, I think this was important to include and even more important to have at the conclusion of the collection. Discussing cultural differences in sharing sexuality and affection is incredibly interesting and reminds you to stop and take a second to consider the world, what really underpins the 'gay voice'?

Growing up and having to question yourself - while everyone else asks invasive and hurtful questions - is painful. At the same time, it also means you've asked some of the most important questions before anyone else will. Queer isn't just a sexuality. It's a fundamental viewpoint and different way of looking at the world (283).

At its core this collection is just really damn pure. I often found myself wanting a bit more fleshing out of narratives and more time spent on certain stories but at the end of the day this is something incredible. The collection's conclusion includes a variety of resources for teens and showcases the authors properly, reminding you where to find them and what they've written before. Kindred does incredible work in reinforcing #ownvoices within Australian Young Adult Fiction.

Congratulations team, you've done amazing! Happy Pride! x Michael Earp

Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by Brooklyn Saliba

Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories features stories by Australian authors Jax Jacki Brown, Claire G Coleman, Michael Earp, Alison Evans, Erin Gough, Benjamin Law, Omar Sakr, Christos Tsiolkas, Ellen Van Neerven, Marlee Jane Ward, Jen Wilde, and Nevo Zizin.

Honestly, I can’t even begin to explain how important this book is because everyone should have a copy in their collection of books! It’s a must read and I personally found there was a lot to love about this short story anthology. Plus now I’m also excited to discover more work from these Australian authors as I’ve previously only read Jen Wilde, but hope to read Erin Gough and Alison Evans soon!

The stories are all incredibly diverse and it was great to see how each author brought something so interesting and incredible to each story as it was filled to the brim with emotion and pride. As the reader, I felt myself getting swept up in these characters’ stories and just feeling so proud of all these characters!

I dare you to try and not be moved by these stories because it’s near impossible. For example, in Rats – where a supposed “street rat finds her crew in peril, only to also encounter a fateful meeting that same day” – my heart swelled right from the get go! Just the way these characters (not just in Rats, but in each of the stories) just leapt off the page – I just wanted them all to be happy!

Which brings me to say, I love that most of these characters felt comfortable in their skin. It makes me happy and proud reading about people of different orientations just being happy and owning it in their own skin – as everyone should be! The number of non binary characters that made their way into these stories just made me feel excited that these people are being included. From bisexual and gays to lesbian characters, it just really goes to show how amazing these authors are at bringing these characters to the page so effectively and a voice.

I can’t really fault anything with these stories, if at all – I wish they were longer. It really felt like you could read full length books on what happens to the characters after their individual stories whether it be first meetings to weddings or literally just everything in between!

Can we also appreciate that one of these stories, by the wonderful Jax Jacki Brown, featured a gay female character who is confined to a wheelchair along with the other prominent character in the same story is as well? I had honestly never read a story where the main character was wheelchair reliant, and I just found her narrative to be really empowering – this character, when meeting up with another, goes on to say how people that are able bodied with two legs to walk on don’t really take the needs of disabled people into account when it comes to different things such as accessing buildings. It just makes you want to stand up for everyone to have equal rights so we’re all treated equally.

Another highlight for me was Jen Wilde’s story of a bisexual fangirl at a convention who feels anxious despite the slight presence of her closest friend, before she unexpectedly meets fellow fangirls who are all queer too! One is even the designer of a t-shirt the main character wears! I just love seeing fangirls and fanboys and people sharing their love for fandom whilst celebrating their pride, it just makes my heart happy!

Something I loved in the introduction of this book was Michael Earp’s writing a human is a human is a human – it’s so true! We all have the same basic needs and all have the right to love whoever we wish to so everyone should respect that! We are not hurting anyone with who we choose to want to be with!

Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories is available from Book Depository and other good book retailers. Lastly, a huge thank you to the team at Walkers Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and also to the lovely AusYABloggers crew for having my own blog on the blog tour! Michael Earp A really enjoyable collection of stories. As with all short stories, some were better than others - after attending the Sydney Writer's Festival panel on this book, I know some of the authors here hadn't written fiction before or hadn't written short stories before, and in a couple of cases it was quite obvious - either in a somewhat juvenile writing style or in a couple of cases the story feeling more like an essay or personal reflection. But for all of that, some of these were BRILLIANT. Some of them were absurd, some wonderful, some touching and sweet, and all of them Australian. YAS for Aussie fiction! And, more importantly, all of them queer. Gay, lesbian, NB, Trans, these stories had a bit of it all - and a wonderful range of intersectionality as well.
I highly recommend this collection - and all of the #LoveOzYA collections. This is a great initiative and I look forward to what comes out of it next. Michael Earp 10 were good, one was…okay, and one was frankly horrible. Video review up on my channel tomorrow.

Review copy kindly provided by AusYABloggers and Walker Books as part of the Kindred Blog Tour. My review is entirely honest. Michael Earp A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher for review.

Kindred was something I’d been excited about since I learned it was going to exist. There is a general lack of queer fiction in the Australian YA world, and to see 12 queer authors writing #ownvoices (or at least #ownvoices adjacent) stories in one anthology is incredible. And yet. I wasn’t a huge fan. I ended up giving this two stars because I honestly felt like giving it two stars, and then when I did an average of my ratings for each individual story it was 2.4, which rounds down to two. Now, rather than review every single story, I’ve got three reasons why I felt Kindred was a two star read for me.

1) There was no consistent theme

To me, the cover screams contemporary. There is absolutely nothing about the cover that made me think there would be anything but contemporary stories in this anthology. The blurb also did not indicate that there were going to be range of genres in the anthology. The marketing didn’t, either. For me, I went into Kindred expecting a contemporary Australian anthology and I didn’t get that. I was confused when the first story seemed to be some kind of dystopian. It took me a while to wrap my head around it, and then every other story jumped around in genre, as well.

This is a ‘me’ thing, as I did go in expecting one thing and never could acclimate to Kindred being another thing. But I still think that the lack of cohesion to the stories wasn’t great. I think they could have been broken up into sections depending on genre. That would have made a lot more sense than it jumping around everywhere.

2) Not all the stories were YA

Look, when your title literally says #LoveOzYA in it… you’d better be YA. And yet three stories weren’t YA. There were two stories about characters in their twenties, which are definitely in the NA age range, and then there was a memoir at the end that wasn’t fiction or YA. I honestly think that a YA anthology should be, well, YA only.

3) Two of the stories were problematic

Two stories in this anthology were inherently problematic, meaning that they were problematic at their core. The first problematic story used reverse oppression as an education tool. I feel like this was not necessary in an anthology meant for queer teens. Yes, everyone always has something to learn, but this story felt like it was meant for an entirely non-queer audience, or, at the very best, uneducated cis people. Either way, I don’t think it had a place in this anthology because of the young readers that could be harmed by seeing themselves as oppressors when in the real world they are the oppressed.

The second story (which also features a non-YA protagonist) features a character with a father who went to prison for having sex with his high school student. This paedophilia was never addressed. Even if the character himself had no issue with it, I still think it needed to be addressed by someone else in the context of the teenage girl whose teacher abused his position of power. I was very uncomfortable with this story being included because of that issue of ambivalence.

~

In addition to what I’ve mentioned there were positives to the anthology, like the range of queer identities in the stories, and the intersectional diversity. I did actually enjoy the majority of the stories, but the two I mentioned above really impeded my enjoyment overall. I can’t say whether or not I would give my stamp of approval to Kindred. I think it’s one that I’ll let you make a decision on because for me it was overall a miss.

© 2019, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

trigger warning: paedophilia (student/teacher relationship), queerphobia, racism, ableism, reference to suicide of sibling, bullying, use of ableist language, suicidal ideation, depression themes (please note this is not a complete list, there were too many to list as I went along, but these are major ones that stood out to me) Michael Earp A fantastic collection of queer stories from own voices authors! Many of the stories varied in terms of tone, genre, identities and subjects - some capturing the sweet love of adolescence, others about darkness and depression, and yet others about surviving an unfamiliar world together. There's some memoirs, essays and fictional stories mixed in as well.

The intersectional representation was also fantastic, covering many different identities including disability, transgender, cultural and more.

My favourite stories were: Lightbulbs by Nevo Zisin, Questions to Ask Straight Relatives by Benjamin Law and the story by Jen Wilde.

One story (Laura Nyro at the Wedding by Christos Tsiollkas) pushes the boundaries when it comes to forgiveness and paedophilia. I felt rather uncomfortable at it and didn't think it was appropriate for the teenage audience, given the characters in the story were in their 30s.

A full review will be published on my blog.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an early copy for review. Michael Earp