sophia_sol: photo of a 19th century ivory carving of a fat bird (Default)
soph ([personal profile] sophia_sol) wrote2022-07-12 10:04 am

Spirits Abroad, by Zen Cho

A short story collection by my favourite writer of short stories! This is a recently re-released and expanded collection; the original was published by a smaller press back in 2014, which I loved, but now it exists with Extra Stories so obviously I had to buy this version too.

Most of the stories in this collection are old familiar friends to me, but there were a few stories I've never read, and they were also excellent. Cho really excels at writing about the intersection between the supernatural and the mundane, and at writing about people who have all the quirks and foibles and irritating habits of real people but are still people you like and care about. This peaks in her skill at writing ghost grandmas/ghost aunties but really everything she writes is great -- every single story in this collection is worth reading, which I find is a rarity in short story collections!
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[personal profile] lirazel 2022-07-12 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Aww, I'm so happy for you!
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[personal profile] aurumcalendula 2022-07-12 03:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for mentioning the extra stories - I hadn't realized there were more in this edition!
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[personal profile] china_shop 2022-07-12 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I read very few short story collections, but this is my gold standard. I love it so much!
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[personal profile] nnozomi 2022-07-13 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I love Zen Cho's work so much. This is on my list of books to order as soon as the mail seems reliable...
writing about people who have all the quirks and foibles and irritating habits of real people but are still people you like and care about.
Oh yeah, excellent description. I also love everything she does with Malaysian-English (managing to make it both authentic to a native speaker, or so I'm told, and understandable to people not from the region, as well as just plain delightful).
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[personal profile] genarti 2022-07-13 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
Yesssss, I love Zen Cho's stories and these particular stories so much!
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[personal profile] verity 2022-07-13 03:35 pm (UTC)(link)
EXTRA STORIES 👀👀👀
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[personal profile] lokifan 2022-07-13 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Really must get hold of this one, I've heard such good things (and I enjoyed Sorcerer to the Crown & its sequel!)