A review by nini23
Not So Stories by Joseph Elliott-Coleman, Adiwijaya Iskandar
4.0
Not So Stories is a delightfully diverse collection of stories based on myths, legends, folktales from around the world. A lot of them involve animal anthropomorphism often to depict human cruelty (like George Orwell's Animal Farm), deplorable colonialist attitudes and power structures within relationships and communities. This book is a direct repudiation of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories with its colonialist justifications. This creates a whole new debate of its own where literary 'classics' or mainstream culture such as Dr Suess cartoons or Agatha Christie novels have obvious racist content: do we wholescale reject the work or call it a product of its time?
The anthology starts off very strongly and the first three stories knocked my socks off: How the Spider Got Her Legs by Cassandra Khaw, Queen by Joseph E. Cole and Best Beloved by Wayne Santos. Of all the authors featured, I had only read Cassandra Khaw and Jeannette Ng before (Rupert Wong series and Under The Pendulum Sun respectively). There is a common refrain of "Best Beloved" which I gather is from Kipling's original work but evokes in my fantasy reading mind Robin Hobb's Fool addressing Fitz. Unfortunately as with most anthologies, it was uneven and I got mired in some of the stories in the middle which resulted in this book being picked up and put down periodically. I'd also like to mention that each story was accompanied by a black and white illustration which is a great idea but the stick drawings seem to have been done haphazardly and without much care.
So this poor book languished for quite a bit before my guilt in having to finish a review for Netgalley pushed me to finish it and to my surprise, I had actually been quite near the end. The last few stories (There is Such Thing as a Whizzy-Gang and How the Camel Got Her Paid Time Off ) were fairly underwhelming but I'll always remember that frisson of excitement and energy I felt reading those first few brilliant stories. There were a few in the middle that were pretty good like Samsara by Georgina Kamsika and How the Tree of Wishes Gained its Carapace of Plastic by Jeannette Ng. In truth I would need to go back and re-read the whole book again to give it a more thorough review.
Overall, I feel like this is an important book with important voices and tales to be heard. It may make some people squirm because of its unflinching look at the effects of colonialism but too often mainstream literature has celebrated colonialist narratives. The foreword of the book has one of the most articulate treatise I've ever read of why we need diverse representation in literature and media. Thanks to Netgalley and Abaddon Books for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
The anthology starts off very strongly and the first three stories knocked my socks off: How the Spider Got Her Legs by Cassandra Khaw, Queen by Joseph E. Cole and Best Beloved by Wayne Santos. Of all the authors featured, I had only read Cassandra Khaw and Jeannette Ng before (Rupert Wong series and Under The Pendulum Sun respectively). There is a common refrain of "Best Beloved" which I gather is from Kipling's original work but evokes in my fantasy reading mind Robin Hobb's Fool addressing Fitz. Unfortunately as with most anthologies, it was uneven and I got mired in some of the stories in the middle which resulted in this book being picked up and put down periodically. I'd also like to mention that each story was accompanied by a black and white illustration which is a great idea but the stick drawings seem to have been done haphazardly and without much care.
So this poor book languished for quite a bit before my guilt in having to finish a review for Netgalley pushed me to finish it and to my surprise, I had actually been quite near the end. The last few stories (There is Such Thing as a Whizzy-Gang and How the Camel Got Her Paid Time Off ) were fairly underwhelming but I'll always remember that frisson of excitement and energy I felt reading those first few brilliant stories. There were a few in the middle that were pretty good like Samsara by Georgina Kamsika and How the Tree of Wishes Gained its Carapace of Plastic by Jeannette Ng. In truth I would need to go back and re-read the whole book again to give it a more thorough review.
Overall, I feel like this is an important book with important voices and tales to be heard. It may make some people squirm because of its unflinching look at the effects of colonialism but too often mainstream literature has celebrated colonialist narratives. The foreword of the book has one of the most articulate treatise I've ever read of why we need diverse representation in literature and media. Thanks to Netgalley and Abaddon Books for this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.