Game On

November 15, 2021
Games of many sorts lead to triumph, tragedy, angst, joy, hookups, and breakups for teens in tales set both on and off the playing field. Prefaced by content warnings for four entries, these previously unpublished stories by a stellar cast of YA contributors feature casts notably diverse in racial and sexual identity in settings ranging from a football field and an amusement park to a house abandoned for decades in the wake of a bloody mass murder. The disquieting stories are well outnumbered by more upbeat ones, though. Bisexual Mexican American Maddi, who lives with an anxiety disorder, struggles to keep her hot college roommate, Olivia, from finding out that she plays quidditch in Anna Meriano's "Just Tell Them You Play Soccer." While Benji, in Shaun David Hutchinson's steamy "Spite and Malice," finds a competitive card game gives him the nerve to take a chance with neighbor Dan, giddy Fei (Anglicized as "Faye") teams up with her crush, Pierce, who presents White, to solve multilingual puzzles in "Mystery Hunt" by Gloria Chao. Other young players pair off or form groups of various combinations and grow, grapple with racism, deal with grief, and even expose a killer. Readers will find this collection fresh, thought-provoking, and wise in the ways of adolescent coming-of-age. A few chills but mostly thrills and likely to broaden anyone's notion of what winning is all about. (author bios) (Anthology. 13-18)

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December 21, 2021
Grades 8-12 The 15 inclusive stories in this YA anthology range in genre from the romantic to the horrific and have one thing in common: all the characters are driven by a game or competition. "Let it Spin," by Sona Charaipotra, turns spin the bottle into a competition that ruins a friendship. "The Liberty Homes," by Katie Cotugno, is a haunting tale about a group of friends playing Manhunt while things disappear around them. "Mystery Hunt," by Gloria Chao, is a linguistic scavenger hunt with romantic tension. Several stories include diverse representation. Amanda Joy's "Hell Week" is set at cheer camp, where one cheerleader is afraid of coming out to her parents. In "One of the Good Ones," by Isaac Fitzsimons, a gay, Black football player struggles to explain his feelings about the police to his white brother. These stories have heart--a competitive heart--and collectively remind readers that, just like in life, how you play the game matters. Brittney Morris's Slay (2019), about a virtual reality gaming community, is the perfect complement to this anthology.

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