The writing style is not always perfect, but each story flows and has a powerful message. This is an amazing collection of short essays from the youth who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning about their experiences being who they are. I’m disappointed, yet not surprised in the editors. This is a very poor sample to what could have been an incredible anthology. What about the Muslim LGBT+ community? What about immigrants? What about people who do not reside in the US and have a different perspective of belonging to the LGBT+ community? I did like 2 of the stories enough to fave them for their wonderful writing (A Gay Grammar) and inspiring message (Trans-venture of an F2M), but the others are too Christian American centric for me. Where are the queer (I read only 1), bisexual (2, one if which made bisexual sound like undecided), pansexual, asexual, genderfluid stories? I can’t believe that a book that had 2 editions could not include the entire spectrum (or at least more than the usual orientations and identities we see everywhere nowadays).

I stopped at 62%, because every story in there is a lesbian, gay or transgender one. I can’t finish a book that calls itself The FULL Spectrum, yet mostly centers on the L, G and T sides of LGBT+. Check out The Full Spectrum if you can - I, of course, would recommend it. And thank you, Goodreads community, for your love and support.

Thank you to Billy Merrell and David Levithan for working so hard on this collection, and thank you to all the other writers who shared their stories with such courage and style. Each writer's story is really just beginning. The best part, for me: because The Full Spectrum features such young voices, you know that there is more to come after each narrative's end. These writers touch on a wide range of experiences, ranging from religion to family to sex to disability to mental health. But youth also brings vibrancy and intensity, a rawness of emotion that shines with rainbow colors in this collection. With youth comes inexperience, and you can see that lack of honed prose skill in these essays. And it uplifts the voices of often marginalized sexual minorities by allowing us to share our real lived experiences.

Part of its proceeds go to support GLSEN, a fabulous organization doing life-saving work. It captures a wide range of young identities and intersections, in particular with the addition of seven new narratives in the expanded edition. This book deserves five stars for many reasons. I am in the expanded edition of this book, friends! The time has come: my first five-star Goodreads rating based only on my bias for my own writing.

The full spectrum david levithan