The teen librarian at our library has been bringing up (or perhaps I should say swooning over) this story collection since she first read it, and now that I have read it as well, I have to agree that her starry-eyed state is completely justified. There’s not a dud in the bunch, and while I was looking forward to the authors I already knew (Rainbow Rowell, Gayle Forman, Kelly Link, David Levithan, and Holly Black), I really enjoyed encountering the others for the first time as well, and will probably look up some of their other books in the next few months.

For once, I read this book the way I always intend to read short story collections (but rarely do): I parceled out one or two stories at a time over the course of several days. It was a perfect way to absorb each story and let it settle before reading the next one.

In order of appearance:

“Midnights” by Rainbow Rowell: After years of New Years’ parties with the same crowd, Mags finally gets her midnight kiss with her longtime best friend, Noel.

“It’s going to get worse,” he said. “You’re going to keep changing.”
“Well, so are you,” she said.
“I never change.”
Mags laughed. “You’re a kaleidoscope. You change every time I look away.”
-Rainbow Rowell

“The Lady and the Fox” by Kelly Link: Miranda is the goddaughter of Elspeth Honeywell, and spends every Christmas at the grand Honeywell house. Year after year, she encounters a man – a ghost? – in the garden, but only when it’s snowing.

“Angels in the Snow” by Matt de la Pena: Shy is catsitting for his boss – and slowly starving – over Christmas, when Haley, another tenant in the building, comes down to ask about a plumbing problem. She’s Shy’s age, beautiful, and a great cook, but Shy has to overcome his pride to accept her help.

“Polaris Is Where You’ll Find Me” by Jenny Han: Natalie lives with her adoptive father, Santa, at the North Pole, and has a crush on one of the elves, Flynn; her Christmas wish is a kiss from him.

“There are two kinds of children. The kind who believe and the kind who don’t. Every year, it seems there are fewer in the world who do. Papa says it’s not an easy thing to ask a child to believe in what they can’t see; he says it’s its own magic. He says that if you have that magic inside you, you should protect it all your life and never let it go, because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.”
-Jenny Han

“It’s A Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown” by Stephanie Perkins: Marigold visits the Christmas tree lot next to her apartment building, trying to get up the courage to ask one of the guys who works there if he will voice one of her animation videos. Before coming out with her question, she accidentally buys a Christmas tree that North helps her bring home – then he helps her reorganize her whole apartment, which she and her mother haven’t bothered to unpack since they moved in (after discovering that they were Marigold’s father’s other, secret family). And then it starts to snow.

“I’ve always felt lucky to live someplace where snow is rare, you know? It’s the rareness that makes it so special.”
“That could be said about a lot of things.”
-Stephanie Perkins

“Your Temporary Santa” by David Levithan: A boy dresses up as Santa to help his boyfriend’s little sister keep believing for one more year.

“Krampuslauf” by Holly Black: The narrator and her friends Penny and Wren throw a New Years’ party in her late grandmother’s trailer to trap Penny’s two-timing prep school boyfriend, but some magical guests show up as well.

“Sometimes I felt like I was waiting for my life to begin and more than anything, in that moment, I wanted to force some kind of beginning. I wanted things to be different than usual.”
-Holly Black

“What the Hell Have You Done, Sophie Roth?” by Gayle Forman: The title character is regretting her decision to leave New York for the Midwest for college, but things begin to look up when she meets someone who shares her sense of humor (e.g. making fun of reindeer sweaters) at a caroling night.

“Beer Buckets and Baby Jesus” by Myra McEntire: Prankster Vaughn has to save the church Christmas pageant (which he inadvertently ruined by accidentally setting fire to the church barn) and if he can impress the pastor’s daughter Gracie at the same time, well…that’s just extra motivation.

“Welcome to Christmas, CA” by Kiersten White: Maria lives in a tiny California town called Christmas; she can’t wait to graduate and move away with her savings (tips from working in the Christmas Cafe). But when the cafe gets a new chef named Ben – someone who has a knack for knowing (and cooking) exactly what each person wants to eat – Maria thinks she might stick around a little longer.

“Star of Bethlehem” by Ally Carter: Teen pop star Liddy Chambers swaps tickets with a stranger at an airport to escape her tyrannical manager, Derek; she flies to Oklahoma, where she pretends to be an Icelandic exchange student visiting her boyfriend Ethan and his family, who rally around her even when they know she’s a fake.

“The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer” by Laini Taylor: Neve is a poor orphan whose closest friends perished in a fever last summer; her highest hope is to reach “Age” and be set free so she can settle a plot of land in Fog Cup (as gloomy as it sounds). When the town’s fire-and-brimstone preacher declares his intention to marry her, Neve begs for help from an old god – and the Dreamer answers. A bit Maggie Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races), a bit Neil Gaiman (“The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains”).

“Some kinds of misery make you hate the world, but some kinds make you hate yourself…”
-Laini Taylor

These stories are set in different places and times, real and imaginary, past and present. The characters are different as well: optimistic and pessimistic, gay and straight, poor and middle-class and wealthy, Christian and Jewish and pagan, Black and white, skeptical and romantic. (One can see why it’s YA authors who are leading the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign.) All in all, it’s a pretty near perfect collection, and I’m looking forward to Stephanie Perkins’ other anthology, Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories.

For nearly two months, I have been immersed in the world that Kristin Cashore created in Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue, completely swept up in the events of the Seven Kingdoms and the Dells. Every element in these books is perfectly balanced:

• Character. Each book features a strong female character: Katsa (Graceling) is “Graced” with what others think is the power to kill, but she comes to realize is the power to survive. Fire doesn’t have Katsa’s physical strength, but she has mental grit, and a determination to use her “monster” powers of influence only for self-defense, not to control people as her father did. Bitterblue is neither a Graceling nor a monster, but a queen – and she must figure out how to put her kingdom back together after her father’s manipulative 35-year rule.
• Setting. Cashore’s talent for world-building is comprehensive. Graceling and Bitterblue take place in the Seven Kingdoms (largely in the Middluns, Monsea, and Lienid), where some people are born with two different-colored eyes that denote a Grace – some kind of special power – and are subject to their kings’ control. Bitterblue takes place in Monsea, but there is news of uprisings and rebellions in other kingdoms, and the discovery of a tunnel that might lead to an entirely new land. That new land is the Dells, where Fire takes place. There are no Gracelings in the Dells, but there are monsters: brightly-colored animals and, rarely, people whose beauty is compelling to others and can be used to mesmerize.
• Plot. Most of the kings in the Seven Kingdoms are corrupt, and King Leck of Monsea is beyond corrupt: he uses his Grace to control people’s minds. In Graceling, Katsa starts the Council to combat the kings’ unfairness; she teams up with Prince Po of Lienid to rescue his niece, Leck’s daughter Bitterblue, once they realize that Leck isn’t as kindly as his reputation suggests. In Fire, the Dells, too, is about to explode into conflict: the new king, Nash, and his brother Brigan, the commander of the army, face threats from powerful lords from the north and the south. The royal family wants Fire to use her powers to compel captured spies to give up their secrets; she is reluctant, because her father Cansrel used his monster powers to influence King Nax (Nash and Brigan’s father), but she agrees, after setting some ground rules. Just as war breaks out, Fire is kidnapped by a monster-trader and a peculiar, creepily sinister boy with two different-colored eyes.
• Theme. These books are full of adventure and intrigue; Katsa, Fire, and Bitterblue face significant physical, mental, and emotional obstacles, and they all insist on their independence, while also learning who they can trust and rely on. They are determined to do the right thing, but the right thing isn’t always clear; they are especially concerned that they not abuse their powers (Katsa’s Grace, Fire’s monster-ness, Bitterblue’s position as queen). The importance of independent thought – and the danger of the lack of it – is highlighted in each of the three books by the existence of those with the power to control others’ minds, read others’ thoughts and feelings, or communicate wordlessly. Trust and consent is especially important in romantic relationships; each character has to overcome some deception or lie of omission in a relationship and recover from it. The truth – in their own lives as well as the broader historical context – is valued highly.

These three books neatly avoid the trilogy trap where second book merely serves as a bridge from the world-building of the first book to the action, climax, and denouement of the third. Fire is set in another land – the Dells, not the Seven Kingdoms – and precedes Graceling by a number of years. A reader could pick up Fire before Graceling and not, I think, be lost; a reader could also go straight from Graceling to Bitterblue – as I was tempted to do – and not be confused, though the ending of Bitterblue would be less satisfying.

Romance is an element in each of the three books. Katsa and Po, in Graceling, remind me of Lyra and Will in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (which is an exception to the “trilogy trap” I mention above) in the way that they face obstacles together. Katsa is staunch in her refusal to marry and insists on her independence; she also has no wish to be a mother, and takes measures to ensure that this does not occur. (Like Alanna in Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet, Cashore’s leading women have access to a version of birth control: in their case, it’s herbs.) But just because Katsa won’t marry doesn’t mean she’s a nun, and the attraction and love between her and Po is undeniable.

Fire, too, insists on her independence, breaking off a sexual relationship with her longtime friend Archer when he becomes jealous and controlling (hypocritically so). “You don’t love me as much as I love you,” he says to her, and she replies, Love doesn’t measure that way. Fire finds love with Brigan, the king’s brother and the commander of the army; having seen firsthand Cansrel’s effect on King Nax, Brigan is suspicious of Fire and guards his mind against her. Their relationship is a slow process, but is all the stronger for it as they learn to trust one another.

Bitterblue begins to fall for Sapphire (Saf) while she is in disguise, and when he finds out her true identity, he is furious. His reaction causes Bitterblue to examine more deeply her identity as queen, and the wealth and power she has taken for granted. They reconcile (more herbs are required), but like many first loves, they are not meant to be; my guess is that Bitterblue ends up with Giddon, in whom she often confides and to whom she promises always to be honest.

World-building, adventure, intrigue, and romance aside, the cover designs deserve to be mentioned. Beautiful and timeless, they represent their main characters’ talents (fighting/survival for Katsa in Graceling, archery for Fire and her friend Archer in Fire, ciphering and keys for Bitterblue) and colors (Katsa’s blue-and-green eyes, Fire’s hair, Bitterblue’s name).

If you look carefully, there’s a face somewhere in each: one of Katsa’s eyes reflected in her knife, Fire’s face floating behind her bow and arrows, Bitterblue’s face behind the set of skeleton keys that gain her entry to Leck’s rooms. But the faces are not so much a part of the image that they will look dated a decade or two from now.

Graceling, Fire, and Bitterblue were every bit as good as I’d been told to expect, and I’m sure I will be thinking about them and recommending them to other readers for years to come. I’m already tempted to re-read Graceling – my favorite of the three – but I’ll try to make myself wait. The audiobook versions of all three books are excellent, but Graceling, with a full cast, was again my favorite. (Don’t give the print books a miss, though – they’ve got useful maps, and Bitterblue has illustrations of Ashen’s embroidery cipher, the Dellian alphabet, and the bridges.) If you loved His Dark Materials and are looking for your next fantasy series, here it is.