Review - Truth & Dare

TRUTH & DARE
Edited by Liz Miles
Running Press Kids

Truth & Dare is a collection of short stories about those teens who, as the synopsis says, "dare to be different." Though the stories are contemporary/realistic in nature, many of them are written by authors better known in other genres (such as Sarah Rees Brennan, author of the Demon's Lexicon series). Included in the collection of 20 short stories are authors you've probably heard of before, both older and newer voices. Heidi R. Kling, Gary Soto, and Cecil Castellucci as well as a host of writers I hadn't heard or read anything by.

As with any anthology there were some pieces here that I really adored and others that I could have done without. I was thrown off more than once by stories that seemed to end abruptly without a resolution.

The stories in this collection cover topics from love and sex to family and high school. It would have been nice if the stories were organized according to topic just because it was a little disconcerting to go into a story with no idea what it was about. There was a wide variety in length as well as subject matter and writing style, including one story told entirely in tweets. You won't like every story in the collection, but you will find some surprising gems and, most likely, be introduced to some great new or forgotten writers. Personally my favorite stories were those by Saundra Mitchell ("The Last Will and Testament of Evan Todd"), Ellen Wittlinger ("Rules for Love and Death"), and Jennifer R. Hubbard's "Confessions and Chocolate Brains."