Published by Forest Avenue Press
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Anthologies and Short Story Collections
Genres and Categories: Disabled and Neurodivergent Authors, Queer Authors, Mental Health Representation, OwnVoices Representation, Queer Characters, Chronic Illness, Hearing impairment, Medical Scenes, Mental Health, Mobility Aids, Neurodivergent, Physical Disabilities, Trauma, Action, Adventure, Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Survival Horror, Various Magic, Sci Fi Adventure, Futuristic Setting
My Rating:
Published on: 17th October 2023
Pages: 400
Disability Representation: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Brain Surgery, Cancer, Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Pain, Cystic Fibrosis, Deaf, Dementia, Diabetes, Digestive Issues, Disability as a part of life, Double Lung Transplant Recipient, Epilepsy, Eugenics, Foot Injury, Grief, Immunocompromised, Knee injury, Leg Brace, Lung Transplant Recipient, Mental Health, Mobility aid, Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), Neurodivergent, Neurofibromatosis, Pandemic, Post-Exhaustion Malaise (PEM), Schizophrenia, Seizure, Sinus Issues, Trauma, Tuberculosis.
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Too often, science fiction and fantasy stories erase—or cure—characters with disabilities. Soul Jar , edited by author and bookstore owner Annie Carl, features thirty-one stories by disabled authors, imagining such wonders as a shapeshifter on a first date, skin that sprouts orchid buds, and a cereal-box demon. An insulin pump diverts an undead mob. An autistic teen sets out to discover the local cranberry bog’s sinister secret. A pizza delivery on Mars goes wrong. This thrillingly peculiar collection sparkles with humor, heart, and insight, all within the context of disability representation.
This book was provided for free by NetGalley, Rockstar Book Tours and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!
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Soul Jar Review
Soul Jar starts with a foreword by author Nicola Griffith, who discusses ableism and its relation to fiction. This is followed by an introduction by editor Annie Carl, who recalls attending a trade show that held a panel about diversity. She explains that it wonderfully covered the inclusion of multiple communities, but it left out one: hers. It was a very familiar feeling, and something I see happen online all the time.
When the time came for audience questions, Carl asked the panel directly what information they had for supporting disabled customers and booksellers. The response was blank stares as the panellists had no response. One person in the audience had one thought. Laura Stanfill, a publicist for Forest Avenue Press, approached Carl, “We need to talk”. The result is the Soul Jar anthology!
I had high hopes for this anthology after this introduction, and while I fully support and admire Annie Carl’s mission, I owe readers an honest review. The unfortunate truth is that Soul Jar is a very mixed bag of stories in terms of quality, with some of them being of very low quality and poorly edited. I skipped one of them completely because it was full of every fantasy cliché imaginable. I’m not sure if that was the author’s intention, and it was designed to be a satire; if so, it was not apparent.
The anthology is divided into four sections. There are no explanations offered in the foreword or introduction at the beginning of Soul Jar about each section. ‘Earth in Retrograde’ appears to be stories based around our planet; ‘Gone Astray’ is about stories about wandering or going astray; ‘Wild Space’ are science fiction stories; and ‘Creature Feature’ are stories with fantastical elements or about creatures.
Soul Jar starts off well with Carol Scheina’s fantastic story of a young woman just coming to terms with her Deafness, just as an Apocalypse happens in ‘There are no Hearing Batteries After the Apocalypse’. It’s followed by ‘Holding Back’ by Danielle Mullen, where a superhero’s sidekick talks about their mentor who is ageing and losing their memory. As a comic book reader, I found this particularly well written, and could hear this in the voice of many sidekicks I’m familiar with.
In ‘Survivors’ Club’, Meghan Beaudry writes about a pandemic, and although it’s a fictional one, it echoes many of the feelings those of us with chronic illnesses felt during the COVID pandemic. Beaudry follows through with some of the more extreme eugenicist comments heard during the pandemic, and while it’s not a pleasant read, it feels fulfilling to see someone show the cruel manifestation of eugenics.
A later story, ‘Song of Bullfrogs, Cry of Geese’ by Nicola Griffith, follows a similar creative line of thought and is about a pandemic where everyone develops ME (myalgic encephalitis)/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). Considering how many people have developed Long Covid, and as a result ME/CFS after contracting COVID (something that many of us with ME/CFS saw coming at the start of the pandemic) this story is particularly poignant.
The next story I loved in Soul Jar was Lane Chasek’s ‘Which Doctor’, which presents a society where mental health is favoured over physical health – the complete opposite of our own. In Chasek’s story, a woman develops an ankle injury, but none of the normal mental health treatments her doctor offers her seem to help. Eventually, she follows a friend’s advice to see a psychologist despite the social stigma attached to doing so. It was very odd reading about a society where the situation was reversed, and Chasek’s story shows how ridiculous the belief that one type of treatment can fix everything. I hope reading it will change people’s minds about mental health.
Other stories of note for me are ‘Ziabetes’ by Lily Jurich where an insulin pump is used to fight Zombies, ‘Weightless’ by Raven Oak about space travel as a plus size disabled woman, ‘Wardrobe of the Worlds’ by Jennifer Lee Rossman where a queer mixed-race autistic girl represents planet Earth in the perfect outfit, ‘Lucy’ by Judy Lunsford which is one of the most adorable stories I’ve read in a long time, and ‘Cranberry Nightmare’ by Kit Harding a brilliant horror story featuring an autistic main character.
While there were some interesting stories further on, the quality level started to dwindle the further I got through the anthology. While most stories have disabled or neurodivergent representation, I was disappointed to find that there are several that appear to have none since the synopsis for Soul Jar boasts that “this thrillingly peculiar collection sparkles with humor, heart, and insight, within the context of disability representation”.
Well, that’s certainly not the case with these ten stories; ‘The Song of the Forest’ by Mika Grimmer, ‘Delbrot, Peace Warrior!’ by Holly Saiki, ‘Everyone’s a Critic’ by Andrew Griffin, ‘The Warp and The Wept of a Norse Villainess’ by El Park (although there are brief mentions, there’s no specific representation that is clear), ‘A Broke Young Martian Atop His Busted Scooter’ by K. G. Delmare, ‘A Ripping’ by Adam Fout, ‘The Definitions of Professional Atire’ by Evergreen Lee, ‘Lucy’ by Judy Lunsford, ‘The Other Side’ by Christy George, and ‘The Arroyo Fiasco’ by Dawn Vogel.
Disabled and neurodivergent writers do not necessarily have to write about characters like them; however, when the synopsis for the anthology suggests that’s what it’s offering, I feel that it should actually provide it. Especially when a third of the stories in the anthology don’t feature that representation.
As for the dwindling quality of the stories, I don’t know how stories were chosen or how many were submitted, but thirty-one is an awful lot of stories for an anthology, especially for a first-time editor. It makes me wonder if thirty-one was always the plan, or if that was exactly how many stories were submitted. I would also like to add that my opinion on the quality of stories didn’t depend on whether they had disabled and/or neurodivergent representation or not. In fact, one of my favourites had none at all. It was a mixed bag, depending on whether there was representation or not.
Again, I admire the aims of the editor, and overall, there are some very good stories in Soul Jar, some of which I truly recommend reading. However, I would be remiss in giving this anthology a review higher than three stars just out of support for disabled and neurodivergent writers and stories featuring representation.
The full list of stories in Soul Jar, along with disabilities represented (if any):
Earth in Retrograde
- ‘There are no Hearing Batteries After the Apocalypse’ by Carol Scheina – Deaf MC
- ‘Holding Back’ by Danielle Mullen – Dementia/Memory Loss.
- ‘Survivors’ Club’ by Meghan Beaudry – Chronic fatigue, lung transplant recipient, immunosuppressed.
- ‘Which Doctor’ by Lane Chasek – Mental health, ankle injury.
- ‘Brainstorm’ by Travis Flatt – Epilepsy.
- ‘Spore, Bud, Bloody Orchid’ by Jaye Viner – Cancer, neurofibromatosis.
- ‘Thunderheads and Burial Goods’ by Cormack Baldwin – Leg brace, crutches, tuberculosis,
- ‘Song of Bullfrogs, Cry of Geese’ by Nicola Griffith – ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, chronic fatigue, post-exhaustion malaise (PEM).
- ‘The Things I Miss the Most’ by Nisi Shawl – Seizures, epilepsy, brain surgery.
Gone Astray
- ‘The Sorrow Stealer’ by A. J. Cunder – Mental health, grief.
- ‘The Song of the Forest’ by Mika Grimmer
- ‘Delbrot, Peace Warrior!’ by Holly Saiki
- ‘Everyone’s a Critic’ by Andrew Griffin
- ‘The Weight of Grief’ by Simon Quinn – Mental health, grief.
- ‘A Guardsman Remembers’ by Danielle Ranucci – Mental health, grief.
- ‘Suffer the Silence’ by Ellis Bray – Mental health, schizophrenia.
- ‘Ziabetes’ by Lily Jurich – Diabetes, insulin pump.
- ‘The Warp and The Wept of a Norse Villainess’ by El Park
Wild Space
- ‘A Broke Young Martian Atop His Busted Scooter’ by K. G. Delmare
- ‘Weightless’ by Raven Oak – Titanium plates in the knee, knee injury, chronic pain.
- ‘A Ripping’ by Adam Fout
- ‘The Definitions of Professional Atire’ by Evergreen Lee
- ‘The Last Dryad’ by Paul Jessup – Premature baby, trauma.
- ‘Wardrobe of the Worlds’ by Jennifer Lee Rossman – Autistic MC.
Creature Feature
- ‘A Peril of Being Human’ by Julie Reeser – Mental health.
- ‘Lucy’ by Judy Lunsford
- ‘A Balanced Breakfast’ by Eirik Gumeny – Double lung transplant recipient, Cystic fibrosis, sinus problems, digestive issues, diabetes, immunosuppressed.
- ‘The Other Side’ by Christy George
- ‘The Arroyo Fiasco’ by Dawn Vogel
- ‘Cranberry Nightmare’ by Kit Harding – Autistic MC.
- ‘The Rising Currents of Ocean Fire in My Blood’ by Bethy Wernert – Autistic MC.
Over to you
Thank you for reading my review for the anthology Soul Jar edited by Annie Carl.
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