First-Year Orientation

by Lauren Gibaldi (Editor), Eric Smith (Editor), Adi Alsaid (Contributor)

Sixteen acclaimed authors—including a National Book Award nominee, a New York Times best-selling novelist, and a beloved actress—join forces for a cross-genre YA anthology of linked short stories about the first days of college.

Jilly cannot believe her parents keep showing up at all of her orientation events. (Except, yes, she can totally believe that.) Isaac wants to be known as someone other than the kid who does magic and has an emotional support bunny. Lilly is stuck working at the college bookstore during orientation (but maybe new friends are closer than they appear). Hira, meanwhile, just wants to retire from ghost hunting once and for all, but a spirit in the library’s romance section has other ideas. For their sophomore effort, the contributing editors behind the critically acclaimed Battle of the Bands admit us to opening day at a fictional college, with a collection that makes an ideal high school graduation gift or “summer-before” read. This colorful array of stories spans genres and moods—from humorous to heartfelt to ghostly—tackling with sensitivity, humor, and warmth what it feels like to take those first shaky steps into adulthood.

With stories by:
Adi Alsaid * Anna Birch * Bryan Bliss * Gloria Chao * Jennifer Chen * Olivia A. Cole * Dana L. Davis * Kristina Forest * Lauren Gibaldi * Kathleen Glasgow * Sam Maggs * Farah Naz Rishi * Lance Rubin * Aminah Mae Safi * Eric Smith * Phil Stamper

Genres: Young Adult, Short Stories, Anthologies, Contemporary, College, Realistic Fiction, New Adult

336 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2023

About the author

Public librarian and author of THE NIGHT WE SAID YES, MATT'S STORY (a Night We Said Yes novella), AUTOFOCUS, and THIS TINY PERFECT WORLD, all with HarperTeen / HarperCollins. Fan of dinosaurs and cheesy jokes. And you.

Reviews

[Princessofbookaholics · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall Average Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Rating for each story:
Don't Worry, Nothing Bad Happens to the Rabbit: 3 stars
The Secret Room: 3.5 stars
Oyster: 4 stars
Pearls of Wisdom: 2.5 stars
In Which a Side Character Accepts a Quest: 3.5 stars
Ay Guey: 2 stars
Holding Hibiscus: 3 stars
College Parties and Other Places to Find Your (Ex) Crush: 4.5 stars
About Face: 3.5 stars
Wayfinding: 5 stars
I'm Ric Clingerman: 5 stars
Mighty: 4 stars
Ghost Hunting for the Intrepid First Year: 5 stars
Balmoral Hell: 2 stars
They Call Me Bull: 3 stars
The Friends We Make Along the Way: 3 stars

[Eva Steepe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the plot of this book and the way it tied so many mini-narratives together but I wish it had been more clear which character was speaking when. It was difficult to tell which character’s chapter it was and who was who, which is why I only give it 3 stars despite it being an enjoyable read.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Battle of the Bands, but this was even better. Story #1 is basically Benji from Pitch Perfect plus a(n emotional support) rabbit, story #2 uncovers a hidden entrance to a secret room and possibly ghosts/time-travel??, story #3 features absolutely nothing familiar to me but is so well-written I loved it anyway, and by that point I knew I was in for a banger of a time. Every story in this collection is at least 3 stars to me and most of them are higher. Talk about a fantastic setting...

I could have done with fewer party scenes (most of you haven't even been here for 48 hours without adult supervision, damn!), but I'm really impressed by the non-zero amount of ghosts and time-warping within this collection. This is one of the only times that anthologies employing the "there's something for everyone (which means no one will universally enjoy it)" style has actually worked for me. On more than one occasion, I found myself wishing a story would develop into a full length novel because hey, I wasn't finished!!

As with Battle of the Bands, the amount of crossover between these stories, with characters on the fringes of one often starring in another, is also outstanding. Even better, there are multiple Easter eggs/callbacks to BotB! Although, there are spoilers for who wins the title event in that one, since they're headlining a concert that is the highlight of orientation in this one, so I highly recommend reading that one first -- in spring, if possible, and then coming back to this in late August or September.

Also, there are 100% fewer slutty-bisexuals-who-can't-choose-between-two-people this time around, so, thumbs-up for course correcting on that one.

I could end the review there but I liked these stories so much that I'm going to triple the review length and run down every single one. :) Spoilers may or may not abound so just to be safe...


1. Don't Worry, Nothing Bad Happens to the Rabbit - Eric Smith: first of all, best title; second, I said what I said. Not much happens, but hey, Benji plus a sweet pet rabbit! 4 stars

2. The Secret Room - Dana L. Davis: oh my gosh I can't even describe how much I loved every single thing about this story. It's perfect. 5-star fave. This is what short story collections are all ABOUT.

3. Oyster - Gloria Chao: Overly-involved Asian mom won't stop following her daughter everywhere during orientation and trying to make sure everything is perfect -- daughter will of course be learning a lesson about how much she'll miss that when she's actually alone (thankfully there is resolution on a phone call). 4 stars.

P.S. The professor's mom popping her head in on the first day of class all "hi honey! just wanted to support you on your first day of teaching; I brought balloons!" / "MOM!" was a chef's-kiss of a perfect ending. Maybe I put American Panda back on my TBR after all.

4. Pearls of Wisdom - Jennifer Chen: Similar but different problem...this girl went all the way across the country for college, is here alone, and really misses her family, their boba shop, and the familiar culture surrounding here where she lives in San Francisco. Thankfully her Taiwanese roommate's mom is there and bursting with comfort food while they bond over their shared heritage and experiences in being a minority among a sea of white kids. 4 stars.

(*comfort food and hilarity. "Aiyah, why it smell bad in here?" (it's Moonlynn/the MC. She's still in her airplane clothes because the stuff she shipped ahead hasn't arrived yet) "Ay! Such a pretty name. Why you cut your hair so short?" / "Mama!!" (Mama, however, is immediately placated by the answer that it was to save money. Fastest way to an auntie's heart.)

5. In Which a Side Character Accepts a Quest - Anna Birch: 18-year-old who chose to continue working alongside her dad, head of the facilities crew on campus, instead of attending school here because she actively wants a career in architectural restoration, which you learn on the job more than in a classroom. We love to see it!! Anyway, she gets to have a night of fun helping a newcomer participate in a scavenger hunt, thus proving she is the smartest person on campus because for the next 5 years in particular, she can get paid instead of paying out, while still experiencing basically all the fun parts of college. 5 stars.

6. Ay Guey! - Adi Alsaid: Kid from Mexico is morose about the fact that he chose a hot girl (who ignored him) and party over his best friend one night and lost the friendship over it. Goes in desperate search of Real Mexican Food in this town, specifically chilaquiles. One of the places he tries has a bathroom stall that apparently functions as a sliding door to alternate universes. It's wild and weird but still interesting enough to get 3 stars.

7. Holding Hibiscus - Olivia A. Cole: Obviously the best parties on campus are thrown by QuEEN: Queer Ecesis Entomophily Committee. "If you're gay and like tea, this is the place for tea." But really, the club is based on gardening plus a love of bugs (specifically the pollinating ones), maintaining a kick-ass greenhouse and caring for the plants on campus. There's a lot of meh history about the girl struggling with claiming her identity and the fact that she lost her best friend by kissing her in a Super Conservative Town where "don't say gay" is still pretty much the law of the land, which is meh, but there's also a goat, which is amazing! 3.5 stars.

8. College Parties and Other Places to Find Your (Ex) Crush - Kristina Forest: Basically just wandering around a college party, with flashbacks to when she was high school rivals with an annoyingly cute boy who stole the student presidency from her last year, and now they're talking it out and might go from rivals to dating after all. Fine but not memorable, 3 stars.

9. About-Face - Phil Stamper: I lied, I kind of don't really like this one. The marching band parts could have been fun, but it's landing at 2 stars mostly because I can't figure out the gender of the main character and it annoys the begeezus out of me. Context clues say (gay) guy, but then at a frat party, guys are hitting on them/playing grab-ass/trying to corner them in bathrooms and girls are warning them to watch their drink, which I was not aware was a problem guys tended to have at these things. Are they trans? Or have frat houses changed a whole lot in the last 15 years??

10. Wayfinding - Aminah Mae Safi: Dual POV, girl still missing her dead mom, lost on campus, meets boy with auditory processing issues that make him not want to even go near the concert happening tonight. They end up finding a practice room where she can play piano instead. I forgot this entire story 3 days after I read it and had to skim through the whole thing again to jog my memory, but still 3 stars for being pleasant.

11. I'm Ric Clingerman - Lance Rubin: in which a former sitcom child star tries to pass as a Regular Non-Famous person while trying to figure out what his identity under his given name is, and it honestly has no business being this funny. 3.5 stars.

12. Mighty - Kathleen Glasgow: Another child star (think female Doogie Howser), but this one trying to stabilize herself with education after a very public meltdown, tabloid stories, addiction and rehab. I wouldn't read a whole book about her, but for the length of one story I love and want to protect her. 4 stars.

13. Ghost Hunting for the Intrepid First Year - Farah Naz Rishi: yeah no this one's just fully a ghostbuster (except gentler). There's a happy Golden Retriever of a library ghost who begs for one last great day tagging after the main character before he crosses over. The ghost is wearing a hoodie & pajama pants and I am fully choosing to believe he is one of my peers from the 2000s. There's also a sad undercurrent to this one as she's suffering residual trauma that her friend recently died but she never saw his ghost for proper closure. 3 stars.

14. Balmoral Hell - Sam Maggs: wait this wasn't like...an actual (dormitory-based) cult, right? The "sacrifice" would have been a theatrical production only...right??? I'm so unsettled! 4 stars because it's wildly weird in the best way, but also because the moral of the story is: paying inflated rent & food prices to share a dorm room on campus when you're close enough to live at home is just silly.

15. They Call Me Bull - Bryan Bliss: a football player on a football scholarship, son of a football player and from a town that's REAL big on football heroes, who maybe doesn't wanna play football, not least because he recognizes that the other players are often assholes on a power trip. Still just 3 stars, but I kinda like this kid.

16. The Friends We Make Along the Way - Lauren Gibaldi: Gibaldi, being a ROCKSTAR and bringing along the stage-manager character from the previous book! Now she's doing work-study in the campus bookstore, frustratingly missing most of the orientation events due to being short staffed, but making up for it by going to the concert with the cute (male) barista across the way. 4 stars.

[bookmehnia · Rating 3 out of 5]

{53/2023} 3/5🌟 YA Fiction | 314 pages

I can still remember that day, my first day in campus. Wow. Fresh faces from school - we were still caught in between teenage and adult life, at the border where we were still stuck under the ruling of our parents and, yes, the so-called freedom (except when we need money 🤣!).

However, I can barely remember what really happened during my orientation week. I know all the first-years were assembled at the main hall a lot of times, and it was a lot of fun as we occasionally met friends from old school. We were also introduced to all the faculties and explained about the layout of the campus, where was the cafe, bank, bookshop and the list goes on.

Well, after five years being in boarding school faraway from home, and missing a lot of things happening in my family, I chose a campus that’s merely an hour away from home because I thought I want to be with my family. Ironically, I stayed in campus for four years! I could say, I had fun during my university years😅.

Campus life is fun. It’s like we are given a second chance of life and identity- to start anew. Leaving all those unwanted highschool memories faraway but sometimes memories follow us closely, we don’t know what kind of surprises we would get.

“First Year Orientation” is an anthology from sixteen different writers (mainly YA genre) about sixteen first-years where their lives sort of like intertwined with each other at Rolland College. The setting was on the first day on campus, where new students arrived amidst the hustle and bustle of campus activities for first years.

For those who had gone through these experiences, we would go down memory lanes remembering our own, but it would be an eye-opener for the going-to-be first years as the characters in the anthology all expressed their feelings not necessarily positive ones but also the negative ones - but rest-assure those feelings are all valid!

Though the experiences of all the characters may be culturally foreign to us, but we could grasp the same idea of what basically is the transformation from school to campus life.

I love some of the stories especially the ones depicting the Asian family and cultures as I feel closer to it. Having our parents hovering over us, determining the colour of the bedsheet in our dorm and what courses we should take - that hit home a lot.

If any you going into campus life looking for tips in here, I might have to say that you would find none, but we would be able to read and delve into the feelings of sixteen new students and know that we are not alone in this world with all those kinds of mixed feelings.

Thank you #pansing for this review copy in exchange of an honest review.

#justreaddontbawang #bookmehnia #JuneReads #JuneTBRs #bookstagrammalaysia #bookstagrammy #malaysiamembaca #bookstagrammer #bookgram #bibliophile #bibliophilemy #bookish #bookaddict #bookaesthetic #bookish #readersofinstagram #goodreads #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookworm #heyjune #firstyearorientation #gibaldismith

[Tonja Drecker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is written for those, who are about to embark on their first year of college, and while it does attack common issues of that group, it does so in a variety of ways to make it fun.

The sixteen stories in this read all address the first days of college and offer messages of support, encouragement, and advice. But that's about all they have in common. Each stories takes it's own twist. The characters stretch through a span of personalities and diversities, and hit just as broad a spectrum of genres and directions. Science fiction fans, contemporary lovers, and even fantasy or paranormal friends will feel at home with, at least, a few of the tales. There's something for almost everyone.

The themes are familiar and ones that readers, who are about to embark on their own educational journey, will recognize at one degree or another. The stories themselves flow smoothly and are, in general, well written. It's hard to guess what adventure might be up next because they are mixed, which is some of the fun.

This is a nice collection for fiction fans and will be enjoyed by the right readers. I received a DRC through Edelweiss and found this to be a fun way to address those first-days-of-college fears.

[Laney Estel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit different of a review for me. This book was sent to me to read by the publisher but one of the editors is the wife of a work colleague. It’s a short story collection which I don’t normally read because I want to live in the stories longer than a short story allows. I had already read their previous collaboration, Battle of the Bands, which was fun. This one is all about 16 different people who are on the Rolland college campus for the day when orientation happens. Not all are students. 2 are tv celebrities, 1 is a college age gardener on campus, 1 time travels. There are a few chapters that have really cool cultural backgrounds that were fascinating. And there is a little bit of cross referencing between the chapters so if you have really bad short-term memory, I recommend reading this all at once rather than one a day like I did. Recommend if you like YA Contemporary.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

First-Year Orientation: didn't work for me. I DNF-ed most of the stories. A lot of not-so-engaging writing and characters, and I think the "cross-genre" concept wasn't successful--it just made the book feel disjointed and the shared setting not make sense.

--Stories included:
Don't Worry, Nothing Bad Happens to the Rabbit
The Secret Room
Oyster
Pearls of Wisdom
In Which a Side Character Accepts a Quest
Ay Güey!
Holding Hibiscus
College Parties and Other Places to Find Your (Ex) Crush
About-Face
Wayfinding
I'm Ric Clingerman
Mighty
Ghost Hunting for the Intrepid First Year
Balmoral Hell
They Call Me Bull
The Friends We Make Along the Way

[Latricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all short story collections there are some that will hit batter than others and milage varies per reader. Overall I liked more than those I didn't click with. None were bad, the casts were diverse, the stories linked so Clubs, characters, and even events in some stories are background in others. I was even tempted to go back and read earlier stories to see if there were appearances on characters/events from later stories. There is a single one I spotted as going to be featured later, but more stable things I probably wouldn't have spotted or remembered.

[Jazz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of short stories that work well together, I loved the cute references and call outs to the others within some of them too. As with most collections, it was a bit hit and miss for me in terms of quality. Some stories were easily 4 or 5 stars and others were 2, so I've rounded to an average of 3.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this format of slightly connected short stories in Battle of the Bands and I love it more in First-Year Orientation. Maybe because I'm about to go to my college reunion, but this hit me in the feels.

[Phil Stamper · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a fun collection!!!

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun short story collection. Loved the variety of voices.

[Phoenix (Books with Wings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this way more than expected! Obviously it's hard to rate anthologies since some stories are better than others, but I'm going with a solid four stars.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read better anthologies

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun set of short stories!

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a lovely and well crafted anthology.

[elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

2.5 stars
~~~~~~~~~~~
I was bored by this for the most part. It just felt flat, and there was too much of the "I was scared to be a lonely nobody stuck in my dorm room for four years, but I made friends!" I have no doubt that this is the experience for many people, but too many stories revolved around that very simple plot, and I didn't really feel invested in the characters. There were a few diamonds in the rough - Balmoral Hell brought an unexpected twist and Mighty brought a very interesting story to the table.

[Starr ❇✌❇ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC from Edelweiss
TW: addiction, forced sexualization of a minor (in Mighty)
3

While I usually like interconnected short stories, as well as first year college stories, but this didn't work for me. Many of the stories didn't go anywhere and felt too mundane, and the connections between them felt too tenuous and sometimes too forced.

My favorite stories were Mighty and My Name is Ricc Ingerman, even though they were most closely connected and didn't have a consistent canon between them. But Ricc is an interesting character and Mighty was absolutely the heftiest story on here.

I also enjoyed the weirdness of Balmoral Hell, which gave something unique and strange to an otherwise flat collection.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those rare anthologies where all the stories either play off of each other or intertwine. Every character who popped up who I'd already met or there was a reference to a club that I knew from a story, was a welcome surprise.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read my full review here.