Sinful Book Reviews

I’ve recently taken a break from Short Story Saturday, but the past few months have been filled with stories from this book. You can read all those by visiting the Necessary Noise tag. I liked the idea of evaluating each story individually, but I also wanted to write an overall book review.

Necessary Noise is a collection of short stories about families, edited by Michael Cart.

What I think this collection does really well is offer very diverse stories and definitions of “family” There are stories about siblings who have trouble getting along, parents who have dysfunctional relationships with their children, and sort of adopted families. Here’s a quick highlight of my favorites: Necessary Noise, A Woman’s Touch, Sailing Away, and Snowbound. There’s a good mixture of sad, funny, and moving stories. What’s more, these stories are written by big name YA authors of the past twenty years. Even if this one is a bit older, it’s a worthwhile book. It really encourages the reader to think about what “family” really means, and how it may not mean the same thing to everyone.

I recommend this book to readers interested in family stories or in sampling these authors’ works. It’s suitable for ages 13 and up.