Blackout

Gr 8 Up–This collection of short stories by six acclaimed YA authors—Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon—explores what happens when teens experience a blackout during a heat wave in New York City. While all of the stories feature different characters and story lines, they are interwoven as the teens head to the same block party and are tangentially connected to characters from the other stories. Each of these love stories is unique and features romantic tropes that are well loved: the meet-cute, the enemies to lovers, the second chance romance, the friends to lovers, and more. The stories are a celebration of what it is like to fall in love and to find yourself in unexpected places. This collection is also a love letter to New York City, exploring not only well-recognized landmarks but also the life beat of the different neighborhoods. While the authors are well-known, the voices of the narrators for each story will also be familiar to audiobook fans as many are YA alums and include Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Dion Graham, Imani Parks, Jordan Cobb, Shayna Small, A.J. Beckles, and Bahni Turpin. Having different narrators voice each story truly makes them feel like individual stories and makes each set of characters unique. All characters are Black, with some identifying as queer.