4 out of 4 stars
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Spectrum by Jennifer Roush is an anthology of short stories from different genres. Each story is written by different authors. The short stories are organized into the colors of the rainbow. For example, the first section is Red which tries to lure in readers, so all the stories in this section go with that theme. The unique thing about this book is that each of the stories was rejected by other publishers. The rejected stories were then revised so that they were able to be published in this book.
The rest of the book is broken down into five more colors. In the Orange section, the stories represent a warning to the dangers ahead or the disaster that is about to strike. In this section, the genres range from science fiction to bizarro. The next section is Yellow which consists of stories that are light-hearted. The following section is Green which represents hope. This section consists of genres that range from dramas to science fiction. After Green is Blue which represents loss, and the stories included in this section range from drama to fiction. The last section is Purple which represents the turning point. Most of the stories that make up this section are thrillers and mystery.
Out of all the sections in the book, I found the Purple section to be the most interesting. This section mostly had stories under the thriller or mystery genre which is a genre that I generally like to read. I also enjoyed some of the stories from the Yellow and Green sections, especially the ones that have a happy ending. In one of the short stories titled "Skipping Rocks", a dad is teaching his daughter on how to skip rocks. He considers skipping rocks to be something that every kid needs to learn. When the dad accidentally kills a duck by trying to skip a rock, he realizes that his daughter is going to learn two lessons that day.
I had to keep an open mind while reading this book because there were genres that I usually do not like to read. For example, one of the genres in the book was erotic fiction. I don't ever read erotic fiction, so I was a little uncomfortable as I read that story. Besides that one genre, I found the rest of the stories to be interesting to read. What I liked the most about this book was that each story had a distinctive voice to it. The authors' writing styles made the book more intriguing to read.
Overall, I would rate this book a 4 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed most of the stories, and I like the way that this book is set up. I noticed a couple of errors like punctuation mistakes, but they didn't detract from the book. I would recommend this book to those who like to read short stories.
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Spectrum
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