...the Soul of Wit - Short Reviews

Hey all, I hope you're doing great! Here we go, finally some book reviews on this blog, and there are more to come, please do enjoy!

Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror, ed. by Xueting Christine Ni

It is always exciting to discover horror that reflects different, new understandings of the genre, something outside the run-of-the-mill literature straight out of the same writing workshops following the same pattern. So of course I was going to jump on this collection of Chinese stories. Speaking of East Asian horror, I am familiar with Japanese and South Korean writings but have to admit that I hadn’t read Chinese horror before, so I was hoping for a fresh sort of writing here, and I found enough of it.

In her foreword the editor and translator Christine Ni explains struggle to curate and adapt the stories for the Western reader and provides an extensive knowledge and understanding as to the status of horror in China and the Chinese way of writing scary stories. For example, it was most interesting to read that the genre doesn’t even have a proper name in Chinese, comparable terms being hard thriller or a word synonym to “terrorism”, lol.

Ultimately, I found in this anthology lots of folk tales, lots of myths, urban legends and ghost stories, but also a psychological horror story which ranks among my favorites. I have to admit that my attention somewhat drifted during a longer streak of stories heavy on myths which bordered on dark fantasy, but I definitely had my highlights which are:

The Yin Yang Pot by Chuan Ge is about a soup which has the power to unite lovers forever. For ever ever. Comes with a wonderful surprise ending!

Forbidden Rooms by Zhou Haohui; fun fact – I’m currently watching all the SAW movies and I wasn’t prepared to find people locked in a room trying to escape and the Chinese equivalent of Jigsaw (if not that extreme) here, but it fits the overall atmosphere I’m subjecting myself to right now, haha.

Huangcun by Cai Jun – in a twist of fate, an author meets a girl who claims to come from the fictional village he invented. He decides to visit her, but do I even have to ask if it is a good idea?

The Death of Nala by Gu Shi – gut punch psychological horror about a woman whose sadistic son kills their cat, and both her grief for the cat and worry about her son.

Very nice work, though, as I mentioned above, not always for my taste. I hope there'll be a second tome!

Cranberry Cove by Hailey Piper

The haunted hotel Cranberry Cove is surrounded by a mystery. Eerie occurrences have been taking place here, weird noises and assaults on men for decades, but these are about to be unveiled by investigators Emberly and Conner, who were tasked by a criminal boss who wants to find out who attacked his son in the ancient hotel.

I love Hailey Piper and her beautiful prose. Even though Cranberry Cove has the overall air and the power-duo main characters similar to X-Files, compelling villains in the shape of entities in a shabby and evil hotel which makes cracking, groaning, knocking sounds and a presence that assaults only men should be everything I ever wanted, this read was not an amazing, but rather a good read for me. I loved the humor, the dynamics between its protagonists, but I'm generally not interested in magic, although I see its literary attraction, so their background didn't really grab me. Still very worthwhile read.

American Rapture by C.J. Leede

There is a story here somewhere for someone else, but not me.

We follow a 16 year-old girl, who has been shielded all her life from the outside and brought up very religiously, go out into the world after the breakout of a pandemic which causes the infected to feel lust and want to have sex. So you have lots of people raping or attempting to rape people on the streets, and a young girl who hasn't been given the chance to figure out her own sexuality confronted with this violent form of assault.

This is a coming of age story of an mc who was not very interesting to follow, and even after her journey and transformation, way too religious-thinking for my taste.

I received an advanced listening copy from Libro FM via the Otherland Bookshop. Concerning the audiobook version, I didn't click with the narrator at all. The prolonging of the endings of sentences maybe in a bid to give a more dramatic or poetic flair, is really not necessary when you're describing your basic pervert rape apocalypse.

 

Cat Lady by Dawn O'Porter

At first glance Mia has made it – she’s in her forties, married, step-mom to a lovely boy, successful manager role at a renowned jeweler and cat-mom to little Pigeon. But on a closer look not everything is as golden as it seems; her husband’s baby mom is way too involved in all their lives, her circle of friends doesn’t fancy cats (and they let her know it at every occasion), her boss is an egotistical narc – and when things start going down, they do so thick and fast and Mia will need to re-think her whole life and her coping methods, mainly the need for order and routine and emotional distance. A certain “my pet has died” support group will play an important role in her journey, even though her cat isn’t dead.

Without even meaning to I have been lately reading books which revolve around pets and the pain of losing them (It’s been almost 16 years that I lost him, and I still dream about the dog I grew up with, it’s hard…) and it gets me every time. I enjoyed that this was a book about a woman in her 40s, how she closed herself to others to protect herself, but that it’s possible to change and have fun in life.

There aren’t enough books about people in their 40s and their struggles like, the way Mia is being pitied for being a childless woman at her age, or the way her husband's baby mama is always in their lives, how it is a valid struggle for a childless woman to deal with the mother of her partner's child who intends to be present in their lives, and maybe she doesn't want that and it's OK not to want that - the mother of the husband's child might even be a more important factor than getting along with your partner and that particular bond can break a relationship. Sometimes it is better to give up.

I see lots of people dnf’ed this book, not realizing or ignoring that there will be a character arc for Mia, she and everyone around her change a during the course of the book. Some things were exaggerated, of course, as it is ultimately a comedy, for example the hate for cats. I choose to believe people don’t hate cats and cat owners as much as presented in this book. 

I laughed and cried a lot listening to this loved the ending Mia was given, so totally worthwhile.