It’s about a Chinese-American teen who takes over preparing the Yu Lan (Hungry Ghost Festival) meal at a hotel in Arizona, after her mother-who had spent many years holding the task-has passed away. “If you honor everything I’ve taught you, then I promise that I will never leave you.”Īlyssa Wong is probably my singular favorite short story author, and she always writes these gorgeous, haunting tales (typically with some horror-esque or death-related vibes, and often a queer protagonist, which this story features both of). The writing felt so reminiscent of a classic, old myth or legend, in all the best ways, and I only wish it could have been longer! It’s the retelling of an old myth about Maria Makiling, a goddess associated with Mount Makiling in the Philippines, and her mortal lover.

What a stunning introduction to the collection! I’ve never read any of Roshani’s work before, but this made me immediately wish to do so. They were beautiful in their fragility, disappearing as fast as a bloom of ice beneath sunlight. → Forbidden Fruit - Roshani Chokshi ★★★★★ ← It’s hard to narrow down my favorites to just a few, but if I had to pick a top 3, it would go to: Honestly, this is the kind of diverse representation we need more of in the bookish world! I love retellings, but more than anything, I was obsessed with the idea of this collection being written singlehandedly by Asian authors, writing Asian stories. Ellen Oh is a wonderful woman (you may know her as one of the co-founders of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement!), and I knew that her co-editing efforts would lend to a perfectly wonderful anthology. I have been so excited about this collection ever since I first heard about it.

It’s the book that was missing in our lives for far too long. We would have been overjoyed to have found this anthology, filled with characters with skin and hair and names more like ours, in our beloved libraries. A young woman takes up her mother’s mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. Myers, Cindy Pon, Aisha Saeed, Shveta Thakrar, and Alyssa Wong.Ī mountain loses her heart. SYNOPSIS: Fifteen bestselling and acclaimed authors reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are by turns enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate.Ĭompiled by We Need Diverse Books’s Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman, the authors included in this exquisite collection are: Renée Ahdieh, Sona Charaipotra, Preeti Chhibber, Roshani Chokshi, Aliette de Bodard, Melissa de la Cruz, Julie Kagawa, Rahul Kanakia, Lori M. GENRE: Fantasy/Sci-fi/Contemporary Anthology RELEASES: June 26th, 2018 Greenwillow Books

A thousand endings and beginnings