e-ALC, 09:04:43
Narrated by: Nile Bullock, Natasha Chandel, Dana Wing Lau, Abby Manning, Gill Messer, Rebecca Mozo, Sean Rohani, Mark Sanderlin, & Kare Malina White
Release Date: September 2, 2025
Published by: HarperCollins
Read from: December 1-2, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Homophobia, Mental Illness, Suicidal Thoughts
For Readers Interested In: Anthology, Audio, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Holidaze, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Realistic Fiction, YAFourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read!
From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible days in between, it’s clear that Americans don’t just have one holiday. Edited by the esteemed Dahlia Adler and authored by creators who have lived these festive experiences firsthand, this joyful collection of stories shows that there isn’t one way to experience a holiday.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I sometimes struggle with anthologies, but this one was just fine. I loved seeing all of these different holidays being represented. All of them are often overlooked in the bookish world, so it was great to see something that celebrated so many different cultures in an own voices lens. I would have read this a long time ago if I knew it celebrated holidays from the beginning to the end of the year. I thought it was just winter holidays like that other one. (I really need to read synopsis smh lol)
So the stories I loved were stories that had the culture or the holiday shown and still told another story around it. Like the Lunar New Year story was so good. And the Dia de Los Muertos story was also good. It made me cry actually. I don’t think I’ve ever had a short story in an anthology do that. All of these stories taught me a lot tbh, but I liked them so much more when I got to learn something and still felt entertained I guess. And with these power house authors, for the most part, that was all of them lol
There were SOME that I wish were less teachy. Not less teachy, but if you’re going to have that amount of teaching, add some more filler or more story to it? Idk how to explain it. It just felt like info dumping. I know this is an anthology and it could be hard to get all of that information, and “story” into a short story, but I’m just saying, it would have worked better for me.
I do want to say I loved the selection of holidays that were chosen. As a Black woman it was refreshing to see Juneteenth and Kwanzaa in a book. But other than that, learning what and how the Jewish community celebrates Yom Kippur, or the different ways the Latine celebrate Dia de Los Muertos. It was very cool. And because it was written by own voices authors, I know I can trust what I read and build more knowledge upon that. It made it that much more enjoyable.
This anthology was a fun time. I learned, I laughed, I even got teary. Definitely didn’t expect to go through just a broad range of emotions while reading. But I had a good time. Please put this on your reading list to celebrate the new year with! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Overall, I give this
