Young Blood Six: The Best Essays Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer from 2014 to 2015

by Ruel S. de Vera (Editor), Rosario A. Garcellano (Editor), Pam Pastor (Editor)

235 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the time spent reading the essays in this collection. Went through a rollercoaster of emotions as I read essays on depression, deaths, triumphs, nostalgia, lost loves, train rides, and even a zombie apocalypse.

[niceu_a · Rating 4 out of 5]

YB has always been a reflection of our generation. My favorites: the young and jaded, online dating app trials (“there was this girl who posted: ‘Treat me like a princes’ (sic). Princes, man” hahaha), corporate slavery, temptations to unfriending on FB, meeting a father for the first time and being ‘underwhelmed’ and the father asking his son to shoot the thread in the needle (“I belong to a generation in which everyone appears to be educated but no one seems to know how to do things.”), wuss generation, the 4P’s scholar, the heartbroken (and took the solo trip to Sagada), the depressed, the suicidals, the receding hairline, frustrations of Metro Manila commuters and ‘the best idea’ of riding a bike, the real Muslim extremist, the one with the cool golden retriever dog, the mother in a package, DDS, hospital scenes of life and death, the Pope’s Ph visit (”If I had my way, they would have had him with them for the rest of his visit, not necessarily because we want to, but because they needed him more”) and the spoken word artist Juan Miguel Severo’s ‘Imagine them naked’.
In short, I like it. :)

[Angela Alcano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read the 7th, and not this one. However, there is no record of that in Goodreads yet. Parking my rating in this one for now.

I remember my first encounter with Youngblood was when I was about 14. My classmate had it and let me borrow under the strict condition that I take care of it. That lunch period, I spilled gravy all over it. I expected her wrath but she remained gracious about it.

If only I can get my hands on first 6 books, that will be great!

Kudos to the young writers involved in this project. I managed to relate to many of the essays (the one on the education system, being away from the home country, self-esteem issues, father-daughter moments, and a lot more). All of the political ones depressed me though. How brilliant these young minds are. Certainly more mature than I was in my earlier years!