Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

Although normal anthologies are a hit or miss for me, this was super good. The stories were truly short but absolutely beautiful

This book had a lot of good stories. They were just things that happened with people, conversations we are a part of, memories, things that we would remember. It is a beautiful kaleidoscope of people, different situations that we fall in, tensions in life, the things that we value and definitely our biases as well.

There are many characters! Some are new lovers, some are separated and married, sometimes it’s a conversation between two mothers and a daughter, simple everyday stories like passing on recipes from one generation to another. Things that happen in the house. It made me recognize that just general everyday moments are still very true.

We are connected on such a deep level that our experiences are so similar that in another person and their story, a short story, can bring so much emotion and be teleported there, experiencing their life. Within was very well done and clearly shows the love for others and also how sometimes we have to stand up for ourselves and make hard decisions. We have to set up boundaries, and if someone does not respect us, we owe them nothing.

Indian cultures and upbringing are integral to these stories and I loved reading their words and mannerisms – they took me home. Just like the synopsis says, these are stories I would share with a best friend or family over chai or coffee.

Some stories that I will never forget: the one about the mother and son having dinner and the father interrupting the meal, the one where two exs find each other in an elevator, and the one about a young girl going to kanjak. This last one reminded me of my own life in India eating puri, halwa and chole – those days visiting people’s houses and being pampered with my favorite food and some money were good days every year until I couldn’t do them anymore. I loved that food and hope to be able to get my kids to experience them. I need to get over the paralysis I feel – it is worth making.

I love these stories because they reminded me how, at the end of the day, we are fighting everyday to be who we are.

Within: Short Stories for the Evolving Multicultural Woman was good company.

Many thanks to the author for providing me a review copy of this book via NetGalley and the opportunity to host her here! Check out my blog, Armed with A Book, to read the interview with the author.

This was an incredibly engaging anthology full of heart, healing, and culture. As a South Asian person myself, this book was full of tales I could relate to and even talk about with family members who saw themselves represented in these pages. The book is a careful and touching look into the lives of women in South Asia steeped in culture and intrigue. Stunning.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

A wonderful book of short stories which tell of life as an Indian woman. It's tales of family, love, struggle and acceptance will pull you in. Note these stories are translated so the English may not be structured well, but you'll get the jist of the story.

The author is from Kuwait but of Indian parents who feels "nowhere" or "everywhere" and felt the difficulty of finding a job, so she spent hours at Barnes and Noble writing. That's where the idea for this work came from: to demonstrate the challenges of multicultural families.

This book is a set of shortstories, varying in size but very well constructed and all with very important messages that make you think. However, it needs a more careful editing and I missed some notes with the translations of some of the sentences that were not in English. As I love India, some words were easy for me to understand but when it was a whole sentence it became impossible to understand.

However, I give it 3 ⭐ and thank Netgalley immensely for the opportunity to get to know this author's wonderful writing.

Unfortunately this book was not one I enjoyed. While browsing the premise really caught my eye however the story was poorly written during some stories and really wasn't something that caught my attention.

I really loved the short stories featured in this book from love, friendship, standing up for yourself, family all told from the Indian perspective which i really adored. Getting to know traditions and food was such a delight
The stories itself was beautifully written and page-turning you just can't get enough of them all wrapped up in a stunning cover.
I loved every bit of this book and i know you would too once you give it a read.

I purposely look for work from POC authors and South Asian authors so this was right up my alley. They mix of stories and subject matters was interesting and ultimately great to delve into. Some of the stories had slight twists to them but others were more straightforward character pieces.

Really enjoyed this book

Within is a beautiful collection of short stories written by Desi women. They cover topics from abuse, divorce, marriage, falling in love, sexuality, and family. The stories are a variety of lengths and very easily consumable, though they do leave you thinking. Many of the stories address trauma and prejudice in a though provoking yet incredibly relatable way. I absolutely adore anthologies, and I will be coming back to this one again and again.

Thank you to Netgalley and Raising World Children LLC for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a mixed bag of long and short, short stories. I can see the talent on display even though I didn't enjoy all of the stories. It may appeal most to Indian readers or those interested in that culture. 3.5 Stars

I really appreciate the free review copy!!

Thank you to NetGalley, Aditi Wardhan Singh and the publisher for proving me with an ARC in exchange for an homemade review.

A beautiful collection of short stories. However some of them are too short to make an impact and I think a lot of editing is needed. Apart from that though they’re perfect for quick uplifting and thought provoking reads.

The stories Within are simple and compellingly brief reads which make me feel like I'm having coffee with my mom or sister or best friend. They are soothing and comforting reads touching on a vast array of experiences of Womanhood.

I recieved an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Stories about different cultures and the experience of growing up among them are so incredibly important. Not just for educating people but also making the people of those sectors feel seen. This was such a special book to read as someone who grew up desi. It made me feel less alone in my experience

Some decent stories in this anthology but the book requires a LOT of editing and will have a very restricted appeal.

This is a collection of 30 stories, the length of these being quite varied right from 2-3 pages to almost of novelette size. Some are quite intelligently written, beginning one way but soon showing you a different direction. But the length works against the story a few times as it is over even before it has begun. This tale then feels like a small abrupt narration than a well-developed and well-structured tale.

The stories are quite sweet and in many cases, they seem to be written with one clear agenda in mind – to spread moralising knowledge (or ‘gyaan’ as we Indians call it) on some topic (the topic depending on the theme of the story.) Most of the stories move in the form of incidents in the characters’ lives, wherein they face a major/minor problem, and either sort it out by themselves or though some other character spouting motivational thoughts. They are basically happy stories and meant to spread joy and awareness in the reader’s mind. All the stories are from the female character’s point of view, though in one case, this isn't immediately apparent.

Each story is titled after some abstract noun or thoughts such as ‘Disgust’, ‘Soulmate’, ‘Bias’, ‘Perfection’, and so on. The titles are apt in most cases. The tales tackle some difficult topics such as body shaming, homosexuality, ethnic bias, and domestic abuse.

Is it a must-read collection then? Sadly no. And a major reason for this is its writing. The entire book, every single one of the 30 stories, is written in a conversational language, with lots of slang (“Why are you getting agro?”) and ‘Hinglish’ usage (“Toh this day is not just yours, na.”) I don’t understand how international readers will understand such sentences with such a lot of Hindi and even Marathi peppered in the content with no meanings provided. Adding regional lingo works only when skilfully done; in this case, it unfortunately wasn’t. It doesn’t stop only at word usage. There are many grammatical errors -- tenses, sentence structure, punctuation… - and word usage errors too. In some cases, the character’s age doesn’t match their style of speaking. The lines sound so artificial at times. There are many repetitive dialogues as well, and when there's a series of dialogues, it's tough to follow who said what as there is no clear indication of the speaker’s identity.
Basically, this is a very quick, feel-good kind of read but it will mainly appeal to Indian readers because of the language use and the references to Indian customs without any footnotes provided. Let me clarify, it’s only for those Indian readers who don’t mind wonky grammar.

No story crossed the 4 star mark for me. My ratings ranged from 1 star to 4 stars, and this was after I decided to ignore grammar. If I included the language issues in my ratings, they would have slid much further down.

2.5 stars, based on the average of my ratings for all the stories.

My thanks to Raising World Children LLC and NetGalley for the DRC of “Within: Short Stories for the Evolving Multicultural Woman”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Raising World Children LLC
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This book's synopsis and cover drew me in on NetGalley initially. Though I am not a person of Desi culture, I think these stories shared messages that are universal to many's experiences. I felt like I was given really beautiful insight into the experiences of Desi women through these stories and I really appreciate this window into other perspectives and cultures.

I am normally not a person who reads short stories because I often am left feeling like the story's would have benefited from being fleshed out further and I struggle with engaging with them. This was very much the case with many of these stories, though I did enjoy them overall and appreciate the messages being shared

I think that in the end, this collection of short stories just was not for me. I don't mean culturally, although that may be an element; my visceral understanding of the stories is limited since I'm not a member of the South Asian diaspora community. However, I really enjoy reading books written by and about people of a variety of cultural backgrounds, so that wasn't a turnoff for me at all.

My issue was that every story I read broke a cardinal rule of writing: show, don't tell. Every story felt like it was just the author telling me about a snippet of someone's life rather than showing me a window into it. The message behind every story was clear, because after the dialogue, the author just said it. The combination of the telling rather than showing with the fact that many of the stories didn't feel like "stories" at all (in that they didn't have a plot or a story arc) were ultimately off-putting for me.

I understand that the intent was a slice of life, so I could have dealt with the lack of story arc if I had been shown rather than told. I could have potentially dealt with being told rather than shown the author's intent if there was an intriguing story. But the combination of the two just made this book an underwhelming experience for me.

This was a treat to read!
So many short but indulging stories, full of emotions and lessons. I really loved the writing style that was concise but insightful.

This was such an interesting selection of stories for me. It was like stepping into another persons life and culture, so many things different but so many things the same. I liked the short story format, it was easy to dip into when I did not have much time. It also gave you a chance to think about each story in the busy times inbetween.

Tldr; “Within” is a series of 30 short stories. The stories vary in quality but I liked reading about the diversity of the South Asian experience.

In “Within,” Aditi Wardhan Singh tells 30 short stories, each one featuring a different South Asian woman as a protagonist.

I appreciated how the stories tackled a variety of heavy topics such as homophobia, abuse, and infidelity. By having diversity in the protagonists of each story, Singh was able to avoid some of the common South Asian tropes in literature. Families could be toxic or supportive; characters could be immigrants or second generation Americans; characters could be Hindu or Muslim.

The stories vary in both length and quality; some stories read like poetry, while others actually have a plot. I found some stories more engaging than others. Many of the stories are too short to broach such heavy topics, which resulted in me not being able to connect with the characters. The stories I found most compelling were ones to which I could relate, such as the challenges of being an American-born South Asian and the movement to normalize periods in South Asian communities.

Overall, I loved the diverse South Asian representation in this book but found the actual stories to vary in quality.