A Tyranny of Petticoats

Stay tuned to my blog for a full review to come later. In the meantime:

I liked this anthology more than I ever expected to. I think it's definitely worth a read. Buy it or encourage your local library to get it - because I'd love for more people to read diverse stories about strong women like what's in here and maybe that'll encourage more people to write them.


This is a collection of 15 short stories by young adult authors telling historical fiction stories where diverse girls aren't merely a footnote, but take the stage in their own tales.

I'm not usually a big reader of short stories, but with the premise of this one, I couldn't pass it up. So, because reviewing an anthology all together is difficult for me - and probably shouldn't ever be done - let's look at each story individually. (And get prepared for a review, ‘cause this is a long one!)

Mother Carey's Table by J. Anderson Coats
This story takes place in 1710 and is about a young black girl (and her ‘Pop' - who's a runaway slave) that's pretending to be a boy and signs on with a band of privateers.
Genre: Historical Fantasy

I love pirates and privateers. That's the first thing you should know. And I love how this anthology starts off with an ‘oh, btw, she's a black girl'. I like how a big fuss isn't made over that and, damn, but we need more stories like that. The writing style is a little odd - definitely not the sort that I personally am used to - so it took a bit to fall into a rhythm with it. Finally, I did enjoy the story, but I will say, it's not exactly a happy one.

Rating: The Journey by Marie LuThis story takes place in 1723 and is about a young Inuit girl.Genre: Historical FantasyOkay, so, though I did like this story, it kind of feels pointless. Or like it's just a section of a larger story. I don't know, maybe that's what it's supposed to be like. I will say that I have very mixed feelings about this story and it seems rather anticlimactic. I will add, though, that I liked learning a little more about Inuit culture because this is something completely new to me, so that was cool. (And the dogs were adorable!)Rating: **Madeleine's Choice by Jessica SpotswoodThis story takes place in 1826 New Orleans and is about a black girl deciding between the offer of a wealthy white ‘protector' that she's in love with and the offer of marriage from her black childhood friend that doesn't make her heart race.Genre: Historical RomanceI have to admit, there's a lot of stuff in this story that I didn't know about - I had no idea about the black women kept basically as mistresses to wealthy white men - and I found so much of it fascinating. I also never really thought about things like this from the black's perspective. So all that was very interesting. As for the story itself... I liked it a lot more than I expected, especially once I realized it was a romance story because I really, really wasn't in the mood for romance.Rating: **

El Destinos by Leslye Walton
This story takes place in 1848 and is about the three fates of mythology reincarnated as beautiful young Mexican women.
Genre: Historical Fantasy

While the idea of this story was brilliant and interesting, I didn't actually enjoy it much. I can't really put my finger on why I didn't like it, but I'll try. It felt kind of - or really - pointless. I didn't care for the writing style or the characters. It's not a bad story, it just wasn't for me.

Rating: High Stakes by Andrea CremerThis story takes place in 1861 and is about a young assassin hired to work as a bodyguard for a poker game among various fantasy races that will determine the ‘faction' that leads the Civil War.Genre: Historical FantasyThis story was awesome! This story is definitely more along the lines of what I was expecting from these stories. I loved the writing style and the main character was great. How such a strange sounding plot could work so well, I don't know, but I loved it too and there was even a plot twist or two.Rating: **The Red Raven Ball by Caroline Tung RichmondThis story takes place in 1861 and is about a young heiress that, in an attempt to help her uncle, takes on the job of searching for a confederate spy.Genre: Historical FictionThere are a few words that, when in a book synopsis, is pretty much a guarantee that I want it. For historical books, one of those words is ‘spy' so as soon as I knew that's what this story was about, I knew I'd enjoy it. And I did. This story is really good and, even if the ‘twists' were exactly what I saw coming, I'd love to see this story continued.Rating: **Pearls by Beth RevisThis story takes place in 1876 and is about a young socialite that was raped and then told she has to marry her rapist. She runs away to become a school teacher.Genre: Historical FictionThere was a lot of things that I usually don't like in my stories in this one. Once the whole issue of rape came up in the book - though, given the sensibilities of the time, it naturally wasn't called such - I didn't think I'd like it much. Rape as a plot device or as backstory pisses me off. But in this story, it was actually handled in a way that I liked and made me admire the main character. I also don't like reading about teachers - not because I don't like them, but because I don't like kids. Gotta admit though, I kind of liked these kids. (I already wanted to read Across the Universe, but if this is indicative of Revis' usual writing, I'm even more excited for that book!)Rating: **

Gold in the Roots of the Grass by Marissa Meyer
This story takes place in 1877 and is about a young second-or-third generation Chinese girl that is a medium and her attempt to help a recently departed spirit.
Genre: Historical Fantasy

I...really didn't like this story much. I think that's because I don't really like ghost stories and that was the major focus of this story. Also, I just couldn't connect to our main character. I did like the slight twist - which I totally should have seen coming - so that was rather nice.

Rating: The Legendary Garrett Girls by Y.S. LeeThis story takes place in 1898 and is about two sister, the owners of a saloon in the lawless town of Skagway during the gold rush years.Genre: Historical FictionI've always thought the Klondike gold rush was fascinating. (I've even played a computer game where you take charge of a character headed for the Gold Rush!) And this story was actually really fun. Even though we have the narrator character, this story was really about both the sisters and it was awesome to see a story that showed such a strong bond between two different girls. (As they allude to themselves, think honey and vinegar.)Rating: **

The Color of the Sky by Elizabeth Wein
This story takes place in 1926 as is about a young black girl that loves physics. She's been inspired by the first ever black woman aviator - Bessie Coleman - and when she meets her idol, her life forever changes.
Genre: Historical Fiction

The first thing I want to say is that this wasn't an easy story to read. I know racism and sexism exist - and existed even more a hundred years ago - but this is not a theme I find myself wanting to read. That being said, this story was amazing. Seriously, there's something about aviators that I find so compelling and the way this story was handled was just beautiful.

Rating: **Bonnie and Clyde by Saundra MitchellThis story takes place in 1934 and is about a young cross-dressing bank robber.Genre: Historical FictionOkay, so this is the shortest story in the book and, really, it does very little. (And I can't even give you more of a synopsis than that.) It tries to be about the Great Depression and ‘sticking it to the man' but it should have just been a fun little cross-dressing bank robber. That would have served the writing style and length much better. And so much of it is a recap of what happened in the past.Rating: **Hard Times by Katherine LongshoreThis story takes place in 1934 and is about a teenage girl that is a hobo and jumps trains in an effort to find a job during the Great Depression.Genre: Historical FictionThis was surprisingly good. Yeah, the basis of the story is on the desperate side but the big thing for me is that it was never bleak. This story is filled with so much hope - hope for a future that the main character may never see and hope for a world that may never be - that, even though I didn't expect to like it, I quite enjoyed it.Rating: **City of Angels by Lindsay SmithThis story takes place in 1945 and is about a young girl - of Native American descent - who went out west to be a screenplay writer, and instead found herself working as a riveter on airplanes for the troops during World War Two.Genre: Historical FictionLately, I've found myself wanting to read more fiction about WWII. I don't know what it is, but I find the men that went out and fought and the women that supported them both fascinating. Also, there's something that this story did that I was waiting for pretty much the entire book (and no, I'm not going to tell you, because realizing that, yes, that's where this story is going, was half the fun) that made me love it.Rating: ****Pulse of the Panthers by Kekla MagoonThis story takes place in 1967 and is about a young black girl that gets to meet a few members of The Black Panther Party - a group of civil rights activists.Genre: Historical FictionI liked this story. I liked it a lot. I found it interesting and - as someone that's never had much use or interest in such recent history - I learnt some things I didn't know. However...the story's basically pointless. Nothing really does anything or changes or...anything, really.Rating: **

The Whole World is Watching by Robin Talley
This story takes place in 1968 and is about college age black woman and her contribution to the peace protests to end the Vietnam war.
Genre: Historical Fiction

I think there's a reason I've never read about hippies from the sixties before: I just don't get them. At all. And, you know, all this time I thought all those movies and tv shows flanderized the hippies but, if this author can be trusted, turns out they were right all along. And, seriously, ‘existential lesbian feminism'? Gee, I wonder why feminism gets such a bad name. Not saying this is a bad story, if you like this kind of stuff, it's well written but this combined with a main character that I kind of actively hated made this a story I didn't enjoy at all.
(I'm also glad this is the final story because I really struggled to call this ‘historical' even if that's what all these tales are supposed to be. I honestly have trouble calling anything that's happened in at least the last hundred years ‘history' - must less something that happened in the sixties. This story takes place one year before the moon landing, for pities sake.)

Rating: *

Overview
All in all, I liked this anthology more than I ever expected to. I think it's definitely worth a read. Buy it or encourage your local library to get it - because I'd love for more people to read diverse stories about strong women like what's in here and maybe that'll encourage more people to write them.

(Originally posted on my blog: pagesofstarlight.blogspot.com)