raforall's review
5.0
Star review in the 12/1/21 issue of Booklist and on the blog: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2021/12/what-im-reading-3-reviews-in-current.html [link lie 12/3]
Even better than the first volume and I loved that one.
Three Words That Describe This Book: full range of scares, engrossing, translation
I wish I could have highlighted every story, but alas, I get around 2o0 words.
My favorite was The War by Wojeiech Gunia from Poland. This story was stunning, intensely unsettling, and uncomfortably topical. I read it twice even though I had more than half the book still to go.
Also Chinese author Zhang Yueran's lyrical and terrifying, gross and beautiful-- Whalebone Spirit. It is a perfect read for fans of The Memory Police by Ogawa or Tender is the Flesh by Bazterrica
Haitian author Gary Victor is one I could not fit in my review. "Lucky Night" was based on well known Hatian folklore that would be tangential to our "selling your soul to the devil." It was also very political which I loved.
The most heartbreaking thing about this book is not only that these amazing voices have been silenced because they have not been translated into English before this but also that many of them [it is revealed] had commissioned, at their own cost, English translations of their work in the hopes that someday someone would ask for them. Kudos to Jenkins and Cagle for diligently seeking them out and commissioning quality translations.
What I learned from reading this-- Clearly Horror is thriving across the globe, and there is no longer an excuse to not carry these authors in your collections. This volume is a place to start fixing that problem.
Even better than the first volume and I loved that one.
Three Words That Describe This Book: full range of scares, engrossing, translation
I wish I could have highlighted every story, but alas, I get around 2o0 words.
My favorite was The War by Wojeiech Gunia from Poland. This story was stunning, intensely unsettling, and uncomfortably topical. I read it twice even though I had more than half the book still to go.
Also Chinese author Zhang Yueran's lyrical and terrifying, gross and beautiful-- Whalebone Spirit. It is a perfect read for fans of The Memory Police by Ogawa or Tender is the Flesh by Bazterrica
Haitian author Gary Victor is one I could not fit in my review. "Lucky Night" was based on well known Hatian folklore that would be tangential to our "selling your soul to the devil." It was also very political which I loved.
The most heartbreaking thing about this book is not only that these amazing voices have been silenced because they have not been translated into English before this but also that many of them [it is revealed] had commissioned, at their own cost, English translations of their work in the hopes that someday someone would ask for them. Kudos to Jenkins and Cagle for diligently seeking them out and commissioning quality translations.
What I learned from reading this-- Clearly Horror is thriving across the globe, and there is no longer an excuse to not carry these authors in your collections. This volume is a place to start fixing that problem.
spooky_librarian's review against another edition
4.0
I loved Valancourt’s first volume of world horror stories and greatly appreciated the editors’ mission to solely focus on horror from non-English speaking countries. And this new volume delivers even more chills and thrills crafted from the minds of award-winning authors hailing from all over the globe. Twenty-one short stories from twenty countries and translated from sixteen languages! It doesn’t get better than that!
What I loved most about this anthology was the opportunity to experience fear outside of my usual expectations for horror fiction. My recommendation as you dive into this book is to ask yourself not how each story “scared” you, but how they unnerved you, disturbed you, how each story upset you, made you uncomfortable. Because horror has the ability to provoke all of those feelings and there lies the beauty in diversifying your reading of the genre.
•
Some of my favorites in this anthology were:
-The Recording of the Will (Bulgaria)
-Lucky Night (Haiti)
-The Bell (Iceland)
-The War (Poland)
-The Ant (Malta)
-Mask (South Korea)
-The Old Wound and the Sun (Japan)
Readers who enjoy translated fiction and horror anthologies should probably add this to their Christmas wish list and it’s available for purchase on the Valancourt website next month!
(Thanks so much to Valancourt Books for this beautiful review copy)
What I loved most about this anthology was the opportunity to experience fear outside of my usual expectations for horror fiction. My recommendation as you dive into this book is to ask yourself not how each story “scared” you, but how they unnerved you, disturbed you, how each story upset you, made you uncomfortable. Because horror has the ability to provoke all of those feelings and there lies the beauty in diversifying your reading of the genre.
•
Some of my favorites in this anthology were:
-The Recording of the Will (Bulgaria)
-Lucky Night (Haiti)
-The Bell (Iceland)
-The War (Poland)
-The Ant (Malta)
-Mask (South Korea)
-The Old Wound and the Sun (Japan)
Readers who enjoy translated fiction and horror anthologies should probably add this to their Christmas wish list and it’s available for purchase on the Valancourt website next month!
(Thanks so much to Valancourt Books for this beautiful review copy)
lene_kretzsch's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
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