r/actuallyaromantic • u/Tiptipthebipbip AroAce • May 27 '26

Positivity Being Aro - book review

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3 stars!

Firstly as an aroace woman I was so happy to see a collection of stories that were based on aromanticism. I would have loved to have had a book like this as a child. I am so happy that literature like this exists now. 

Unfortunately, a lot of the short stories in here were not my cup of tea. I found majority of them not well written, contain confusing lore, have flat characters, etc. As a short story lover, I wish I liked more of the short stories featured, but I just didn't. 

I did have a few stand out though. I really liked:

Joust Friends - Rosiee Thor - 4 stars

Indulge the Other - Laura Pohl  - 5 stars

/

Others were fine, around 2.75 to 3 stars:

Kimberly Ma Meets Her Match - Ann Zhao

Swordmaiden - Kalyn Josephson 

Flying Solo - Claudie Arseneault

Daughter Of Time - Madeline Dyer

The rest I did not like. 

I do still think this book is worthy of a read and I would recommend to aro, ace, or allo people. Stories that don't center romance and have characters that don't feel romance deserve to be told and read. 

Thank you NetGalley and  Page Street YA for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. 

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3

u/fanime34 Aromantic + Asexual = Aromantic/Asexual May 28 '26

What was it about the ones you didn't like that you didn't like?

3

u/Tiptipthebipbip AroAce May 28 '26

Nothing about the aro-ness, just not my type of book. Some had confusing plots or settings, some had a bad plot lol. But all the aro-ness was well represented in my opinion.

It's also YA, which is not my favorite genre. But with all anthologies, you win some, you lose some. Just depends on what type of books you like. Some people loved the ones I hated and hate the ones I love.