Strangers Among Us

I enjoyed this, it makes you think. I got it for the Kelley Armstrong story and find it is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood in that it explores how society could be if the worst came to the worst and people started being persecuted for the slightest differences, for not conforming to society's idea of normality and health.

Strangers Among Us has a brilliant premise, that "the other minded", people with so-called mental disabilities, may not be disabled at all. It may be that they are evolutionary steps forward into the future. In the way that people who are living with functional Asperger's Syndrome are almost ideal candidates for computer programming and coding, other differences may show real utility, if we just had a way to harness them. This collection of stories is highly interesting for "new idea" junkies. Because there are some new authors and some seasoned veterans, the collection is a little uneven and prone to be dark, but it is well worth reading, just for the provocative ideas.

Thanks to NetGalley and Laska Media Groups for granting my wish and providing me with an ARC to review!

Strangers Among Us is a speculative short story collection about neurodiversity. The stories in this volume explore the world through different perspectives, aiming to highlight some of the difficulties that mental variances can cause people, largely because of discrimination from others.

The book’s goal is admirable. There aren’t a lot of speculative fiction pieces that deal so directly with neurodiversity. While mental abilities are often explored in science fiction and fantasy, these stories often focus on telepathy and mind control, not hallucinations, anxiety, and learning disabilities. And when characters with mental illnesses are featured, they are rarely the protagonist, and often not treated with a lot of nuance. Strangers Among Us tries to reverse these problems by showcasing a variety of characters with a wide array of mental health issues. And, for speculative fiction lovers, every story has some sort of fantasy or sci-fi twist, and each one focuses on something new and interesting for readers.

While I found that the book started off slow, the stories rapidly became more and more interesting to me. Some standouts were AM Dellamonica’s Tribes, about a school haunted by spirits that only one girl can see; AC Wise’s How Objects Behave on the Edge of a Black Hole that traverses the lives of two sisters, one who just so happens to hallucinate a better version of her sibling, and what this does to their relationship; James Alan Gardner’s The God and the Sleepwalker that details how a “disabled” employee saved the lives of all his supposedly more intelligent and capable shipmates; and Edward Willett’s I Count the Lights, another story about how dangerous it is to assume that if someone’s brain works differently, they have nothing to offer.

So many of these stories were creative, innovative, and thought-provoking, and more than a few will pull at your heartstrings. They do an exceptional job at building empathy for people that society often shuns and mistreats. Sure, there are a few submissions that I thought were either weakly put together or treading well-worn ground, but, overall, the collection was quite unique and interesting. I look forward to what future volumes this editor and press put out that deal with people too often forgotten in the pages of speculative fiction.

I read this book as a pre-release .pdf e-book obtained through NetGalley, provided by the publisher.
This is a collection of 19 science fiction or speculative fiction short stories, by 19 different authors, all Canadian or associated with Canada in some way. Holding them together is that each story has a character with a significant mental disability; some with a physical disability. Mental health treatment itself interferes with some of the goals of protagonists. In some cases mental hospitals or drugs are used by those in power to prevent a protagonist from taking action against them.

Stories involving genocide or societal discarding of those deemed imperfect are cautionary in nature. Some are full of hope. Some depict the disabled as having some hidden ability which serves an important role in communicating with ghosts, fey, or others. One was very humorous, such that I burst out laughing during the story.
Some of the stories are speculative fiction, some are science fiction. One example is whether the event horizons of black holes give rise to ghosts. Some have people with bionic implants – leading to two classes of people, with inherant bigotry and discrimination. Sometimes, fully biological humans are needed under specific conditions. Sometimes, these nonhuman entities control part of society – from warring factions to cliques and clubs in a school. Some of the “help” offered by society is unhelpful, as seen in the story “The Weeds and the Wildness”, where the push to ensure that everyone is “normal” is massively dehumanizing.
Everything from space travel through eugenics through human trafficking to hybridization are covered. There is something here for nearly everyone.
I particularly enjoyed the humorous story in the book, “The Age of Miracles”, which portrayed someone arguing and discussing things with his household appliances and the dog. The appliances are part of the “Internet of Things” who try to micromanage his life and choices, from whether or not he eats an average amount of toast to whether he's eating enough, whether he's putting suitable effort into a job search, and report his actions to his Mom for not eating right, and not doing what she wants, while interrupting him from what he's doing. These objects reveal that the reason he believes a conspiracy theory, making him appear crazy, is the work of the dog – augmented by technology so it can speak. How much technology is too much? That idea was in a book given to him by his mother, and is discussed by the appliances and the protagonist. Has the technology operating his home made him an extraneous thing in the house?

The publisher, Laksa Media Group, gives a portion of the revenues from their books to worthwhile charitable causes, projects and events.

When I originally requested this book through Netgalley, it was because it featured Kelley Armstrong and I'm a huge fan of her work. However, the great things about these kinds of anthologies is that there are several phenomenal pieces beyond that of just the author that caught your attention.

What I took away from these stories is that sometimes the only true strangers in our lives are ourselves. In fact, there are a lot of thought provoking tales that will help to peak your interest. Some of the stories can be difficult to get invested in, or at least up until the point where you get that "aha" moment. But others will leaving you pondering exactly what happened. They touch upon the difference between true reality and that of one's own belief. There is an undertone of acceptance and understanding for mental illness and how it can affect the world around you. For example, in one where a sister is haunted by the ghost of her living sister, the other sister eventually theorizes that perhaps we all experience our own entrance into a black hole as we meet our end and how these black holes are responsible for creating ghosts.

One of the best examples of this is The Culling, in which the world has begun to die. As time goes on, less food and water is available. In order to ensure there is enough for everyone who is living, there is a yearly culling. First, they began with those who were sickly or physical disabled. Then those who have a physical deformity and then to those with psychological issues. I suppose this was a intriguing story, because in truth, it reminded me of Martin Niemöller'a poem of "First they came for..." But the other thing that intrigued me was the ending. It reminded me of the ending of The Giver, in which you can really infer your own opinion of what truly happens. While it might seem obvious to one reader, another might interpret it differently. Either way, it was thought provoking and as the first story featured in this anthology, it really set the tone for the rest of the book.

A book like this is perfect for anyone because it offers a wide variety of stories. Some feature paranormal or fantastical themes. Some dystopian. Some science fiction. Perhaps you like an underdog story. Or maybe you're a fan of a story that will keep you thinking after it's over. And yet, all of them are interesting and though I can't guarantee you will like or enjoy all of them, I do believe you will be able to find at least one story that you will enjoy, if not more. I highly recommend this as a must read.

I would like to thank Laksa Media Groups and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I am so impressed with this book. Not every story was an easy read, and in fact a couple of them were downright uncomfortable to read. But all of them were eye-opening and thought-provoking, which I think was part of the aim of this book.

The idea of these stories was to explore that area between mental health and mental illness...and how society defines those things. In some stories, that area is more gray than in others.

My favorite story out of the anthology was "The Intersection" by Lorina Stephens. I found this story to be the sweetest out of the whole book. Not the most lighthearted, but definitely not the darkest by far. Some of the stories in the book are rather dark in nature. "The Intersection" was the story that I was able to relate to the most out of all the stories in the book. I rather lost hope of actually relating to any of the stories after awhile, and just settled for enjoying them, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that this one I really connected with on that level.

A portion of the net revenue of this book will go to the Canadian Mental Health Association. And because this book deals so heavily with mental illness, there is a very thorough section in the back of the book that has mental health resources for not only Canada, but also the United States as well as Ireland, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

There is probably quite a bit in this book that has the potential to be triggering. The stories really pull no punches, but personally, I appreciate that. Mental illness pulls no punches either, so it's pretty fitting.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and I am never compensated monetarily for my reviews.

A very interesting book about how it is to live with mental illness. I really liked the variety in the different stories. Some of the short stories I wished for being longer. A great project to bring the topic mental illness to the younger public. An enjoyable read from the first sentence throughout the book. Highly recommended not only to YA readers.

A very different anthology that I have ever come across. Definitely will buy the book when it comes out!

I'll be the first to admit that Kelley Armstrong was the main draw to this book as she is one of my favourite authors. However I found myself enjoying all of the stories. It's such a unique anthology based around the themes of mental health and mental illness, issues that are very close to my heart. Normally I find anthologies hard to get through and always some stories I don't connect with; not the case with this one! I will say that my personal favourite was Kelley Armstrongs story The Culling. In this story the world is dying and every year people are selected to die, at first it starts with the weak and disabled but then moves to those deemed to have a mental illness. The ending was brilliant and it was a very affecting story to read. Other works are more sci-fi based such as a story where a man is convinced that there are 'others' who mow peoples gardens and that they are in fact taking over their minds as well. I absolutely loved that and the descriptions of the gardening and the flower arrangements totally made me want to get outside and plant something!

There was such a variety of stories over what is normally a not often talked about subject that i can't recommend this book enough. This is an anthology I know I will keep coming back to in the future.

Obscure and odd, this collection of short stories is indescribable. If you want to read about stigma against mental illness in a variety of fantasy settings, this is the anthology for you.

There really is no way for me to accurately review this book of short stories. They are strange, they are speculative, they are intriguing, and they mess with your feels. Each one is different than the last. I tried to put aside a few of the stories to review as my favorites, but I ended up with about ¾ of the stories as being “favorites”. So that being the case I’m just going to say this is one of my favorites of this year, and possibly all time. They were all just so different that I was completely engaged through the whole thing.

I daresay that even if you aren’t a fan of the short story, you will find at the very least a handful of anecdotes within this anthology that would make it worth the read. For those that enjoy Sci-fi and speculative fiction, along with short stories, this is right up your alley and must be read.

Thank you Negalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I don't generally read short stories, but the premise of this collection drew me in. My biggest complaint about short stories (and this is all down to me, nothing to do with the writing or writers, if anything it shows their skill) is that they always leave me wanting more. Especially well written sci-fi or fantasy short stories like the ones that fill this collection.

I want to know more about the Dog, the one unaugmented human on his spaceship whose job it is to keep the ship safe while everyone else is unconscious during their jumps. I want to know more about the 70 year old rebel fighter. I want to know more about the society where the Culling takes place.

All the stories in this collection are excellent and I really enjoyed all the different angles that the authors approached the premise from. From schizophrenia to autism, to anxiety and depressive disorders, there is a wide range of mental health issues represented. In most short story collections I find there are a couple of "fillers" - stories that aren't great but are included to pad out the volume. There is no "filler" in this collection. The stories are wonderfully insightful, understanding and sympathetic. It is a great collection about a difficult topic.