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A review by ardystvs
Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror by Lee Murray, Angela Yuriko Smith
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.