Review Detail

This short story collection encompasses a wide array of genres and styles, although each does address some sort of first or last. This can be as unusual speculative fiction such as Julian Winter's The First Time I Dated a Vampire, which approaches this in an oddly realistic way, or Silverman's own The Last Dinosaur, which melds grief with the unlikely existence of prehistoric creatures. The realistic entries also were very distinctive. I think my favorite was Monica Gomez-Hira's The First Day of College, since leaving home is such a pivotal experience, and this story underscored the unique challenges of being a first generation student settling in to the college environment while trying to uphold family traditions. While alarming in its detail and accuracy, I also enjoyed Tess Sharpe's The First Time We Buried a Body, a story which true crime fans will love, and which makes me want to investigate this author's other work.

A lot of the stories deal with romantic relationships, like Nina Moreno's The First Kiss, Keah Brown's The First Crush, and Anna Meriano's The First Breakup, and a large number of the stories highlight characters who represented many facets of the LGBTQIA+ community. The authors represent diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds as well.