Strangers Among Us is a collection of themed science fiction and fantasy stories, where the theme is characters (usually main characters, although occasionally it's someone ancillary) who either suffer from mental illness or disability or are otherwise neurodivergent. It's a good concept for a book, although like all short story collections, it's a mixed bag, and in this case, I feel like maybe a little more editorial control would have helped.The problem is that we seem to get too many stories

I am not a fan of anthologies or short stories but I read this book because it has a psychological angle. The book is a series of stories written by fantasy/science fiction writers all of whom write about mental illness or difference. I liked some of the stories but the book did not hold together for me. I was looking for some thread to connect them and there was none.

Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts is an anthology of nineteen short stories, which was collected and edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law. Nineteen short stories are penned by a mix of authors well known in the science fiction and fantasy genre.For the most part, I rather like most if not all of these contributions. Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts is an anthology of nineteen short stories of speculative fiction through the lens of mental illness –...

A very interesting book about how it is to live with mental illness. I really liked the variety in the different stories. Some of the short stories I wished for being longer. A great project to bring the topic mental illness to the younger public. An enjoyable read from the first sentence throughout the book. Highly recommended not only to YA readers.****ARC received for my honest opinion****

This review is based only on the story by Kelley Armstrong.This story is a very short one, but it packs a lot into it. What looks like a very bad situation ends up with lots of hope and a new beginning.

(Disclaimer: I run a blog doing reviews of books involving autism, and was able to buy a copy of this book at a discounted price for this reason. Two individual stories involving autism from this volume will be reviewed separately on the official blog; the rest of my general opinions are going here.)"Strangers Among Us" is an anthology devoted to exploring the topic of mental illness. While this is a worthy goal, the anthology itself falls short of expectations in several respects.The basic diff...

I normally don't review anthologies unless I've committed to review them due to a request, or I downloaded them from Net Galley or Edelweiss. One reason is that I usually don't read the entire anthology when I haven't agreed to review it. A short story can get very short shrift from me, then I'm on to the next one. So, in order to be fair to the anthology, I'm going to be very open about the fact that I read about a third of Strangers Among Us edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law. I also didn...

Really good short story anthology, all dealing with mental illness in some way, even if it's just seeing reality slightly off-kilter.

I'm very picky when it comes to anthologies. This is one of the best I've read in years, with a variety of thoughtful stories that pay homage to the theme while delivering a strong, yet unique, experience with each story. I especially enjoyed the 1st 2 tales by Kelly Armstrong and Suzanne Church, but the anthology continues to deliver one strong story after another. Hat's off to editors Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law for choosing a difficult theme and acquiring stories that deliver. That part of

As a collection featuring “underdogs and outcasts,” it succeeds. But as an exploration of “the line between mental health and mental illness,” it doesn’t really work. Preoccupied with dramatic symptoms, most of the stories in this volume miss the mark on positive representation, and only a few subvert the reader’s expectations.To a certain extent, it’s true that society dictates the definition of ‘mentally unwell.’ This is particularly evident in "The Culling" by Kelley Armstrong, which details

A thoughtful anthology that takes the idea of individuals with mental health issues. Many of the stories take those ideas and give them a unique or interesting twist. Sometimes you don't even know that there is anything wrong with the person in your story, it seems like the rest of the world.I especially enjoyed Kelley Armstrong's entry - The Culling

There really is no way for me to accurately review this book of short stories. They are strange, they are speculative, they are intriguing, and they mess with your feels. Each one is different than the last. I tried to put aside a few of the stories to review as my favorites, but I ended up with about ¾ of the stories as being “favorites”. So that being the case I’m just going to say this is one of my favorites of this year, and possibly all time. They were all just so different that I was compl...

Review first published on My Blog.Nineteen stories that explore mental illness in many different aspects, both in SciFi/Fantasy and things that you could see today. I bought the series because it had a story by Kelley Armstrong and I had a different idea of what the stories would be about. While the stories were not what I was expecting, I found the stories intriguing and extremely well done. They depicted that even those will mental illness of all types are worthy of love and respect, some of t...

I Recommend This Book YesI'll be the first to admit that Kelley Armstrong was the main draw to this book as she is one of my favourite authors. However I found myself enjoying all of the stories. It's such a unique anthology based around the themes of mental health and mental illness, issues that are very close to my heart. Normally I find anthologies hard to get through and always some stories I don't connect with; not the case with this one! I will say that my personal favourite was Kelley A...

Only read "The Culling" by Kelley Armstrong3.5 starsMarisol lives in a dystopian future where resources are scarce, which led to society regularly "culling" the population, killing anyone who is different (for example because of a disability or mental illness). Since Marisol has a history of mental illness in her family, and she shows some signs as well, she and her loved ones are always worried she'll be found out and killed. The story paints a very bleak and horrifying vision of the future, bu...

I read this book as a pre-release .pdf e-book obtained through NetGalley, provided by the publisher.This is a collection of 19 short stories, by 19 different authors, all Canadian or associated with Canada in some way. These are classified as science fiction or speculative fiction. They have one feature holding them together – a character with a significant mental disability; some of the stories have it associated with a physical disability. In some of the stories, mental health treatment active...

I was thrilled to hear about this anthology, and yet disappointed at the same time when I realized that it wasn’t exactly getting much advanced attention, especially when social reform and visibility for those with disabilities are hot topics on so many lips these days. Maybe it’s because the book’s primarily Canadian, I don’t know, but either way, I haven’t heard nearly as much as I’d hoped about this anthology, and it’s a damn shame because it’s a great collection filled with powerful stories

I thought this was excellent. I will go into more detail (especially my favourite authors that blew me away) but suffice it to say, this was a great and noble undertaking that hit all the right notes.Recommended to anyone who has ever/ always felt like the orange in our apple tree society...... so I ended up writing a full review on my blog: https://spinningjennysbookblog.blogsp...and would be honoured if you read it and gave some feedback!

A collection of shorts dealing with the mentally different, a mixed bag, some good, some I stopped reading. The nattering smart kitchen was a scary thought! An all Canadian collection by a non-profit? publisher.

This anthology aims to try and give voice to those friends, neighbors, and strangers whose lives are impacted in some way by mental illness. Like any anthology, there are some hits and misses. The pieces that really stood out for me were Amanda Sun's "What Harm", A.M Dellamonica's "Tribes", and Robert Runte's "The Age of Miracles", which really threw into sharp relief the truths behind some of those who may seem different from the norm. Unlike most anthologies, though, this one is in support of