A review by eddiford
Not So Stories by Joseph Elliott-Coleman, Adiwijaya Iskandar
4.0
I really love the concept of this anthology--I read the Just So Stories as a kid, and I was excited to see this reclaimed take on them from colonized cultures.
I must admit, I thought this was a kids book, aimed at the same demographic as the "original," so to speak, but it definitely isn't suitable for young children.
With any anthology there will be a wide range of quality, and of course I liked some stories better than others. I thought "The Cat Who Walked By Herself" didn't make much sense and mostly just was a "Men Bad" story, didn't like it at all; "How The Camel Got Her Paid Time Off" is hilarious, a worker's rights fable in the format of something like "Tuca & Bertie" or "Aggretsuko" with a literal camel who smokes cigarettes and explicit references to the "original" book.
"Samsara" is a perfectly good little story, but feels only tangentially connected to the anthology's premise; it deals with themes of cultural identity, whitewashing, and tradition, but there's no talking animals, no magical fairytale qualities. Similarly, "There Is Such A Thing As A Whizzy-Gang," while I have to assume it is inspired by some Indigenous Australian folklore, is really just a short little horror story with no solid connection to the themes. Neither are bad stories by any means (In fact, I found "Samsara" quite lovely and touching), but I'm not sure either really belong in this collection, given its explicitly stated intent.
Overall, however, I enjoyed the anthology, I really like the idea of it and I thought it was executed pretty well, but it certainly had some entries that, as they say, did not understand the assignment, which of course is likely to happen with any anthology.
I must admit, I thought this was a kids book, aimed at the same demographic as the "original," so to speak, but it definitely isn't suitable for young children.
With any anthology there will be a wide range of quality, and of course I liked some stories better than others. I thought "The Cat Who Walked By Herself" didn't make much sense and mostly just was a "Men Bad" story, didn't like it at all; "How The Camel Got Her Paid Time Off" is hilarious, a worker's rights fable in the format of something like "Tuca & Bertie" or "Aggretsuko" with a literal camel who smokes cigarettes and explicit references to the "original" book.
"Samsara" is a perfectly good little story, but feels only tangentially connected to the anthology's premise; it deals with themes of cultural identity, whitewashing, and tradition, but there's no talking animals, no magical fairytale qualities. Similarly, "There Is Such A Thing As A Whizzy-Gang," while I have to assume it is inspired by some Indigenous Australian folklore, is really just a short little horror story with no solid connection to the themes. Neither are bad stories by any means (In fact, I found "Samsara" quite lovely and touching), but I'm not sure either really belong in this collection, given its explicitly stated intent.
Overall, however, I enjoyed the anthology, I really like the idea of it and I thought it was executed pretty well, but it certainly had some entries that, as they say, did not understand the assignment, which of course is likely to happen with any anthology.