Scan barcode
ardystvs's review against another edition
5.0
Unquiet Spirits is an important book for broadening and diversifying discussions about gender and race in today's politics. Exploration of local supernatural and ghost stories to describe the history of women's oppression and the current status of women's rights and liberation in Asia is not only an interesting choice, but also an effective tool in emphasizing the importance of personal narratives in enriching our understanding of the experiences of Asian women in the diaspora. Although some essays veered away from ghost stories and instead focused on folklore, myth, and religion, the collection remained true to its goal of painting a clear picture of what it means to be a woman of Asian descent, including their suffering, obligations, frustrations, motivations, and longings.
The best essays in this collection are those that perfectly balance history, trivia, memoir, and literary analysis. Some of my favorites are Yi Izzy Yu's The Substitute, Ai Jiang's The Unvoiced, The Unheard, The Unknown, The Unquiet, Benebell Wen's Ghost Month in Taiwan, and Vanessa Fogg's Hungry Ghosts in America. Those that didn't stand out to me were those that lacked cohesion or failed to meet the definition of a messay.
I also appreciated how the essays were organized and how that choice connected each essay with the goal of demonstrating that Asian horror stories share common themes and are frequently cautionary tales about discrimination and violence against women. Thus, despite having few unremarkable essays, Lisa Kröger, who wrote the foreword, was completely right that each and every essay in this book is important—no word is wasted.
The best essays in this collection are those that perfectly balance history, trivia, memoir, and literary analysis. Some of my favorites are Yi Izzy Yu's The Substitute, Ai Jiang's The Unvoiced, The Unheard, The Unknown, The Unquiet, Benebell Wen's Ghost Month in Taiwan, and Vanessa Fogg's Hungry Ghosts in America. Those that didn't stand out to me were those that lacked cohesion or failed to meet the definition of a messay.
I also appreciated how the essays were organized and how that choice connected each essay with the goal of demonstrating that Asian horror stories share common themes and are frequently cautionary tales about discrimination and violence against women. Thus, despite having few unremarkable essays, Lisa Kröger, who wrote the foreword, was completely right that each and every essay in this book is important—no word is wasted.
fallingdownrabbitholes's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, and Car accident
jamiezaccaria's review
5.0
A wonderful collection of essays from some brilliant Asian women horror and spec-fic writers.
amethystarchild's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Unquiet Spirit” is a deeply personal and intriguing collection of essays. Across multiple authors you are introduced to a multitude of haunting female ghosts across Asia, ghosts that have found their way into each writer’s life. They symbolize, trauma, tradition, hunger, all of these ghosts reflect the unquiet feelings inside us.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading through these essays and receiving multiple perspectives from a diverse collection of Asian diaspora writers. I learned a lot about the mythology and culture of the different countries, that I’d been totally unaware of before. If you enjoy thoughtful essays and want to read some with an element of the supernatural thrown in, this is the collection for you.
“Unquiet Spirit” is a deeply personal and intriguing collection of essays. Across multiple authors you are introduced to a multitude of haunting female ghosts across Asia, ghosts that have found their way into each writer’s life. They symbolize, trauma, tradition, hunger, all of these ghosts reflect the unquiet feelings inside us.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading through these essays and receiving multiple perspectives from a diverse collection of Asian diaspora writers. I learned a lot about the mythology and culture of the different countries, that I’d been totally unaware of before. If you enjoy thoughtful essays and want to read some with an element of the supernatural thrown in, this is the collection for you.
amethystarchild's review
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
“Unquiet Spirit” is a deeply personal and intriguing collection of essays. Across multiple authors you are introduced to a multitude of haunting female ghosts across Asia, ghosts that have found their way into each writer’s life. They symbolize, trauma, tradition, hunger, all of these ghosts reflect the unquiet feelings inside us.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading through these essays and receiving multiple perspectives from a diverse collection of Asian diaspora writers. I learned a lot about the mythology and culture of the different countries, that I’d been totally unaware of before. If you enjoy thoughtful essays and want to read some with an element of the supernatural thrown in, this is the collection for you.
“Unquiet Spirit” is a deeply personal and intriguing collection of essays. Across multiple authors you are introduced to a multitude of haunting female ghosts across Asia, ghosts that have found their way into each writer’s life. They symbolize, trauma, tradition, hunger, all of these ghosts reflect the unquiet feelings inside us.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading through these essays and receiving multiple perspectives from a diverse collection of Asian diaspora writers. I learned a lot about the mythology and culture of the different countries, that I’d been totally unaware of before. If you enjoy thoughtful essays and want to read some with an element of the supernatural thrown in, this is the collection for you.
kleonard's review against another edition
5.0
This is an excellent anthology about fantasy and horror in Asian literature, and how Asian writers today understand, shape, and re-use stories of ghosts and vampires and kitsune in their own work, and how others tap into this wealth of lore as well, using it to grapple with things like diaspora, bigotry, and problematic traditions. The essays are uniformly well-written, and I enjoyed and learned from them.
jackphoenix's review
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Find my review of this book online in LIBRARY JOURNAL
mackenziedyll's review
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of Unquiet Spirits in exchange for my honest review!
This was an amazing and enlightening read. Unquiet Spirits is a series of anthology stories following 21 Asian women and their connection to folklore, culture and feminism. I am so thankful to these writers for sharing their unique and personal stories. I would definitely recommend this for someone who likes folklore, ghosts, and short stories.
Overall, I give Unquiet Spirits a 3.5 stars!
This was an amazing and enlightening read. Unquiet Spirits is a series of anthology stories following 21 Asian women and their connection to folklore, culture and feminism. I am so thankful to these writers for sharing their unique and personal stories. I would definitely recommend this for someone who likes folklore, ghosts, and short stories.
Overall, I give Unquiet Spirits a 3.5 stars!