Fifteen top young-adult authors let us in on provocative secrets in a fascinating collection that will have readers talking.
A baby no one knows about. A dangerous hidden identity. Off-limits hookups. A parent whose problems your friends won’t understand. Everyone keeps secrets—from themselves, from their families, from their friends—and secrets have a habit of shaping the lives around them. Acclaimed author Ann Angel brings together some of today’s most gifted YA authors to explore, in a variety of genres, the nature of secrets: Do they make you stronger or weaker? Do they alter your world when revealed? Do they divide your life into what you’ll tell and what you won’t? The one thing these diverse stories share is a glimpse into the secret self we all keep hidden.
With stories by:
Ann Angel
Kerry Cohen
Louise Hawes
Varian Johnson
erica l. kaufman
Ron Koertge
E. M. Kokie
Chris Lynch
Kekla Magoon
Zoë Marriott
Katy Moran
J. L. Powers
Mary Ann Rodman
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Ellen Wittlinger
Initial thoughts: This anthology of short stories was very diverse in terms of culture, race, sexuality, and socio-economic status. That's something that particularly stood out to me, making Things I'll Never Say a valuable contribution to YA short stories. Alas, there were a couple of stories that left no impression on me and so, dragged down the overall rating. Without those, three stories I didn't care for, the average ratings would've amounted to 4 stars for the book.
On the other hand, several of them were truly excellent and it's for those that I think this book is worth picking up. These stories that received 4.5 or 5 stars from me were:
+ Storm Clouds Fleeing from the Wind by Zoë Marriott + A Thousand Words by Varian Johnson + Partial Reinforcement by Kerry Cohen + For a Moment, Underground by Kekla Magoon + Choices by Mary Ann Rodman + Quick Change by E.M. Kokie + A Crossroads by J.L. Powers
