Fight like a girl review & The discoverability challenge

I received this book in return for an honest review. Happy to say I really enjoyed it.

Grimbold Books  have called some of the best female genre writers together under a fantastic cover to tell tales of what it actually means to 'fight like a girl'. Of course that has been thrown as an insult by boys of all ages but what would it actually mean?

There are stories here that run a gamut of second worlds, near and far futures. There is a collection of superb female characters, often making tough choices. This is a rich and varied anthology.

As with all anthologies the variety may mean that not all stories hit the right note for all readers but there are no real duffers in here. With stories by the likes of Juliette McKenna, Gaie Sebold, Julia Knight, Lou Morgan and Joanne Hall (amongst other names you may recognise) you know there will be a quality selection.

There are women who are hard as nails, women who have tough choices and women who fight because life has left them no other option.

I was especially taken by Danie Ware's near future apocalyptic story, Unnatural History, in which the setting stood out, it would have slotted quite well into a collection of weird fiction, a particular favourite genre. Gaie Sebold's Fire and Ash takes control of your emotions in a fitting end to the collection. And those tough choices are rarely tougher than in Joanne Hall's Arrested Development

Also worthy of note were Turn of A Wheel by Fran Terminiello and Vocho's Night Out by Julia Knight -  neither author I've read before and both I'd like to read more from.

And that brings me to the discoverability challenge. As with the NewCon Press collections I reviewed in January this is a great addition to the shelves as it has a number of female writers new to me, ones I'd like to read more from.

Overall -  If you're a genre reader you need this book on your bookshelf

In February my discoverability challenge book was - All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, but I didn't get on with that one. Too disjointed, not knowing what it wanted to be (is it YA or adult, SF or fantasy, a love story or an apocalyptic tale?)