Welcome to Litsy!

A Chinese feast yesterday means Hunan-style lotus root for breakfast today! They used a lot of doubangjiang this time for extra deliciousness.

I‘ve seen a lot of people say they loved the first story in this collection but weren‘t nearly as keen on the rest. Me, I‘m loving it all as of 55%. Kim Fu has a lot to say about monstrousness, from a great variety of angles. I like her short fiction much more than her novels.

A solid collection of stories, some better than others, yet all have something to offer. I particularly enjoyed those with a future bent to them.

A collection of short stories that encompass sci-fi-fantasy and magical realism. From an AI that examines life and death, a fantastical coming of age, a social media mystery and a haunted doll, each one is a reflection of the human experience.

So I finished the tagged short story collection a few days ago (July #BookSpin!) and really enjoyed it, best ss collection I've read in a while. Literary but genre-blurring. But I guess I *really* liked it cause last night I dreamt I found a Kim Fu book that I hadn't read yet and was so happy. Haha thanks, subconscious. Now I have her only backlist that I haven't read on my Libby wishlist.

(fledgling robin in our backyard pic just cause)

I didn‘t understand all of the stories, but many were so strange and interesting. Do You Remember Candy was amazing!

I've been trying to go slowly with this one and just read one story a week, but it is getting harder to do. If you like bizarre, almost magical, yet a feeling that is melancholy and somehow almost hopeful, this short story collection will likely be for you. I still have a ways to go to finish, but I am absolutely loving it so far!

Book 27🎧 2.9⭐️

I really enjoyed the first story and could have read a whole book just based on that one!

Some others were good, some unmemorable.

No literal monsters here, just more monsters of the mind.

Wow new year same me, although actually finishing a skip the line loan in the allotted days is unusual. Leaving it with four hours to go….one of my toxic traits. Also these short stories are so good. Hype is real.

4⭐️/5⭐️

She found herself smiling or grimiacing her mouth upturned involuntarily

I‘ve read and enjoying two of Kim Fu‘s novels, so I was excited to come across this story collection, and it does not disappoint. It defies genre, with stories from sci-fi to horror to literary fiction. I really enjoyed this.

An uneven short story collection. The first was my favourite, so I spent the book waiting for another to move me in the same way. That story, "Pre-Simulation Consultation," is a brilliant sci fi investigation of memory and death, all dialogue with emotional resonance. While the others had great concepts, they started to feel repetitive in execution. I could see the "how to write an effective short story" structure poking up into the story itself.

Ooh well the first story in here brought tears to my eyes, so that's how this book is going so far. "Pre-Simulation Consultation," what a name for such a story.

Oh man some of these stories are still rattling around my brain. Some were super uncomfortable and I mean that as a compliment.

I‘m a sucker for a good book filled with short stories.

Light touches of science fiction, horror or fantastical elements give these twelve tightly-wrought stories an unsettling quality. My favourites include Liddy, First to Fly—a girl grows wings; June Bugs—a nightmarish beetle infestation; and Do You Remember Candy—the generational divide regarding nostalgia for the taste of food. #CanadianAuthor #shadowgiller2022

Alice‘s Depressive Specialist said they were living in a paradise, and Alice had to agree, in the sense that the recent past was worse, the future would almost certainly be worse, and the present was far worse for most other people, living elsewhere.

If you:

1) enjoy a blend of sci-fi and horror

2) appreciate ambiguity in fiction

3) liked Paul Tremblay‘s Growing Things

4) love thought provoking content

5) don‘t mind feeling deeply unsettled in your gut from time to time

I highly recommend checking out this short story collection! My favorite story in the collection was June Bugs, but they were all mesmerizing! Kim Fu successfully provoked a variety of emotions with each immersive tale!

“She doesn‘t create sensations, she awakens the memory of them, and only in those who are primed for it, who want so badly to return to those memories, who want to believe.”

“After I killed my wife, I had twenty hours before her new body finished printing downstairs.”

One of the most intriguing opening lines I‘ve ever read.

Each story, so far, has seemed so simple at first, and then each one ends in a startling, breathtaking way. This collection deserves more attention than it is getting.

“One adult can be lured into pretend, can taste the tea in our toy cup, hear the voice on the toy phone. One adult could have seen what we saw and carried it quietly with her forever. But not four… Four adults can talk to each other until reality straightens, until doubt is crushed, until their memories unstitch and reform. Four adults never see a miracle at once.”