A Thousand Beginnings and Endings
Ratings19
Average rating3.9
- Ellen Oh
- Elsie Chapman
- Renée Ahdieh
- Sona Charaipotra
- Preeti Chhibber
- Roshani Chokshi
- Aliette de Bodard
- Julie Kagawa
- Rahul Kanakia
- Lori M. Lee
- E.C. Myers
- Cindy Pon
- Aisha Saeed
- Shveta Thakrar
- Alyssa Wong
- Melissa De La Cruz
A really solid collection of short stories. I enjoyed most of them, and so feel like many of the ones I didn’t enjoy would be by their intended audience — especially since this is a YA collection and while a lot of them wouldn’t be out of place in an adult collection some of them are more high school focused (I don’t say that as a bad thing, but there are a lot of modernizations in this collection!). There were a few I think missed the mark they were aiming for, but I expect some variation in any anthology. I also really enjoyed how many countries and traditions these stories covered, and the author’s notes on the stories they chose to retell.
Some personal highlights:
“Olivia’s Table” by Alyssa Wong, which is a lovely meditation of grief and haunting with a lead character I really felt for. The titular Olivia is cooking for a ghost banquet in an Arizona ghost town, and there’s some fascinating history in that setting.
“The Counting of Vermillion Beads” by Aliette de Bodard, concerning sisters who have been taken as two of the Emperor’s census girls and their separate paths to escape. I love de Bodard’s prose and her characterization of complicated families from her other works, and this is a lovely rewrite of a Vietnamese tale to focus on the sibling dynamic.
“The Smile” by Aisha Saeed, which also had beautiful writing and some good musings on love and possession. I really liked the twist on the original tale here.
“Bullet, Butterfly” by Elsie Chapman, a tale of star-crossed lovers in a war-torn dystopian setting. Gorgeous writing and a really interesting setting to see unfold.
“Eyes Like Candlelight” by Julie Kagawa, which features the two meetings between Takeo, the village headman’s only son, and a kitsune. I really loved the main character and the take on kitsune.
Definitely a book I would recommend to lovers of folktales and short stories.
A really solid collection of short stories. I enjoyed most of them, and so feel like many of the ones I didn’t enjoy would be by their intended audience — especially since this is a YA collection and while a lot of them wouldn’t be out of place in an adult collection some of them are more high school focused (I don’t say that as a bad thing, but there are a lot of modernizations in this collection!). There were a few I think missed the mark they were aiming for, but I expect some variation in any anthology. I also really enjoyed how many countries and traditions these stories covered, and the author’s notes on the stories they chose to retell.
Some personal highlights:
“Olivia’s Table” by Alyssa Wong, which is a lovely meditation of grief and haunting with a lead character I really felt for. The titular Olivia is cooking for a ghost banquet in an Arizona ghost town, and there’s some fascinating history in that setting.
“The Counting of Vermillion Beads” by Aliette de Bodard, concerning sisters who have been taken as two of the Emperor’s census girls and their separate paths to escape. I love de Bodard’s prose and her characterization of complicated families from her other works, and this is a lovely rewrite of a Vietnamese tale to focus on the sibling dynamic.
“The Smile” by Aisha Saeed, which also had beautiful writing and some good musings on love and possession. I really liked the twist on the original tale here.
“Bullet, Butterfly” by Elsie Chapman, a tale of star-crossed lovers in a war-torn dystopian setting. Gorgeous writing and a really interesting setting to see unfold.
“Eyes Like Candlelight” by Julie Kagawa, which features the two meetings between Takeo, the village headman’s only son, and a kitsune. I really loved the main character and the take on kitsune.
Definitely a book I would recommend to lovers of folktales and short stories.
