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Project Unicorn, Volume 2: 30 Young Adult Short Stories Featuring Lesbian Heroines
PROJECT UNICORN, VOLUME TWO is a collection of thirty young adult short stories featuring lesbian heroines. As ghosts and robots, mermaids and werewolves, the characters in this extensive and varied collection battle monsters and inner demons, stand up to bullies, wield magic, fall in love, and take action to claim their lives--and their stories--as their own.
Written by wife-and-wife authors Jennifer Diemer and Sarah Diemer, this volume of stories, with genres ranging from science fiction and fantasy to the paranormal, is part of Project Unicorn, a fiction project that seeks to address the near nonexistence of lesbian main characters in young adult fiction by giving them their own stories. PROJECT UNICORN, VOLUME TWO contains these full three collections of Project Unicorn stories: Artificial Hearts, Myth, Magic and Glitter and Winged Things.
Written by wife-and-wife authors Jennifer Diemer and Sarah Diemer, this volume of stories, with genres ranging from science fiction and fantasy to the paranormal, is part of Project Unicorn, a fiction project that seeks to address the near nonexistence of lesbian main characters in young adult fiction by giving them their own stories. PROJECT UNICORN, VOLUME TWO contains these full three collections of Project Unicorn stories: Artificial Hearts, Myth, Magic and Glitter and Winged Things.
Unknown Binding
First published January 11, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 6, 2021
Another great book full of stories that uplifts you in many ways.
January 15, 2014
Artificial Hearts
I am head over heels in love with this newest release from Sarah and Jenn. I had read 70% of the stories, like always on blog that releases them twice a week free, but I'm always racing for the editions released for all the new stories. I was so in love with these stories. Girls made as instruments, clones who have different heart and souls, Girls who are ships, creations. All the stories of freedom and love and longing and hope and fighting back, and standing up, of wanting more and reaching for the stars.
I cannot ever say enough about these amazing stories and the work they are doing building a stunning new mythos of brave, beautiful multifaceted women for young gay women to grow up with. My hat is off to you all over again.
Myth, Magic and Glitter
Guh. I continue to deeply love all the stories that Jenn and Sarah write for Project Unicorn. They are all multifaceted and almost completely different (with admittedly a specific theme to each of the set books), but they are so glorious. I truly cannot rec this whole set of stories of LGBT girls(-boys) enough.
My favorites of this set by Jenn were "Flowers for Clouds" (which has Cherry Blossoms, gods and mortals) and "Even in Another Time" (which has Sappho in the past, and beautiful mortal girls in the present). My favorites of this set by Sarah were "True if by Sea" (which is the first transgender tale, WOOT) and "Dear Salome" (where we reclaim even slut shaming and fierce pride).
Winged Things
Guh.
Just guh.
I usually tell you about all my favorite stories by each person in these reviews (and I did love the whole thing). But there was one above and beyond in this one that gutted me, from thoughts to heart, once again, yanking the floor out from under me on what I expect from Jenn & Sarah's stories. Things that shoot them even higher, take their mastery to even broader strokes.
If you read this collection for nothing else, read it for "The Gray Road." I teared up and it was perfect, beautiful, amazing, painful, heart breaking all at once. And I will keep it tucked in my hat with the other pieces these beautiful women write, covering every single part and parcel of the life of amazing gay girls in our world and every world.
I am head over heels in love with this newest release from Sarah and Jenn. I had read 70% of the stories, like always on blog that releases them twice a week free, but I'm always racing for the editions released for all the new stories. I was so in love with these stories. Girls made as instruments, clones who have different heart and souls, Girls who are ships, creations. All the stories of freedom and love and longing and hope and fighting back, and standing up, of wanting more and reaching for the stars.
I cannot ever say enough about these amazing stories and the work they are doing building a stunning new mythos of brave, beautiful multifaceted women for young gay women to grow up with. My hat is off to you all over again.
Myth, Magic and Glitter
Guh. I continue to deeply love all the stories that Jenn and Sarah write for Project Unicorn. They are all multifaceted and almost completely different (with admittedly a specific theme to each of the set books), but they are so glorious. I truly cannot rec this whole set of stories of LGBT girls(-boys) enough.
My favorites of this set by Jenn were "Flowers for Clouds" (which has Cherry Blossoms, gods and mortals) and "Even in Another Time" (which has Sappho in the past, and beautiful mortal girls in the present). My favorites of this set by Sarah were "True if by Sea" (which is the first transgender tale, WOOT) and "Dear Salome" (where we reclaim even slut shaming and fierce pride).
Winged Things
Guh.
Just guh.
I usually tell you about all my favorite stories by each person in these reviews (and I did love the whole thing). But there was one above and beyond in this one that gutted me, from thoughts to heart, once again, yanking the floor out from under me on what I expect from Jenn & Sarah's stories. Things that shoot them even higher, take their mastery to even broader strokes.
If you read this collection for nothing else, read it for "The Gray Road." I teared up and it was perfect, beautiful, amazing, painful, heart breaking all at once. And I will keep it tucked in my hat with the other pieces these beautiful women write, covering every single part and parcel of the life of amazing gay girls in our world and every world.
May 23, 2017
30 stories in just about 300 pages makes for incredible short short stories. Most of them had interesting concepts, but the story had not much room to do anything with them. I would love to read some of those being expanded upon. Namely Violina which is about a robot girl whose body is also a violin, Mary A through Z about 26 identical girls raised in a lab in order to see the effects of nature vs nurture, True if by Sea a transgender little mermaid retelling (sort of, at the very least its obviously inspired by it) and also Don't Eat the Bluebird which introduces a different take on werewolves.
On the other hand there were several stories that I thought stood well on its own. My favorite is definitely Speak of the Devil, a story told in verse. I can't judge it as a poem but I loved how my whole perception of what's going on completely changed every few lines. The runner ups are Flower Constancy, a historical fiction with a dash of magic about butterflies and loss and Solitary Birds another story with themes of loss and loneliness, and The Gray Road which, now that I think about it has also the same themes with more overt homophobia added in.
In fact a lot of the stories dealt with the loss of a loved one, isolation, or homophobia. Though it always ends on a happy, or at least hopeful note. I didn't mind that at all, but it might be surprising to those who pick this up expecting happy fluffy lesbian stories. So, overall this was a mix of several really good stories, and a lot of stories that fell -literally- too short. None of them were flat out bad though, so I will be picking up the first volume sometime which I for some reason skipped over.
On the other hand there were several stories that I thought stood well on its own. My favorite is definitely Speak of the Devil, a story told in verse. I can't judge it as a poem but I loved how my whole perception of what's going on completely changed every few lines. The runner ups are Flower Constancy, a historical fiction with a dash of magic about butterflies and loss and Solitary Birds another story with themes of loss and loneliness, and The Gray Road which, now that I think about it has also the same themes with more overt homophobia added in.
In fact a lot of the stories dealt with the loss of a loved one, isolation, or homophobia. Though it always ends on a happy, or at least hopeful note. I didn't mind that at all, but it might be surprising to those who pick this up expecting happy fluffy lesbian stories. So, overall this was a mix of several really good stories, and a lot of stories that fell -literally- too short. None of them were flat out bad though, so I will be picking up the first volume sometime which I for some reason skipped over.
March 30, 2020
I rated all the stories individually, and my average came out to exactly 3 stars. In general, I really appreciate what the authors are trying to do. They're right that there's a lack of lesbian heroines in YA stories, and I really like being able to read a book where every story features a character "like me." However, most of the stories - while interesting concepts - don't "grab" me in a way that I feel compelled to give a higher rating. This might be that I'm just not the biggest fan of mythical/magical realism stories. But it's not that I never like them, because if done well I can still feel really attached to the narrative (my favorites of this collection were "True if by the Sea", "Mary A through Z", and "When Thou Wakest").
Overall, the stories were interesting, just not for me.
I'm not gonna knock stars for this, but the book (my copy, at least) could use a final edit. Normally I don't point out in reviews if there was like, a single misplaced apostrophe, but there are a handful of errors I noticed throughout that I really think should have been caught before this went to publication (most glaringly, in "Flower Constancy" Violet is mistakenly referred to as "Anna" when her and Charity are walking together in the forest).
Overall, the stories were interesting, just not for me.
I'm not gonna knock stars for this, but the book (my copy, at least) could use a final edit. Normally I don't point out in reviews if there was like, a single misplaced apostrophe, but there are a handful of errors I noticed throughout that I really think should have been caught before this went to publication (most glaringly, in "Flower Constancy" Violet is mistakenly referred to as "Anna" when her and Charity are walking together in the forest).
September 6, 2016
Beautiful short stories, and very creative worlds :)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews