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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
Overall rating 3.5 stars.
Some stories I liked more than others. Review will up on my blog (https://findingtheplotofmylife.wordpress.com/) 4/9/2018
Sent to me in exchange for an honest review.
Some stories I liked more than others. Review will up on my blog (https://findingtheplotofmylife.wordpress.com/) 4/9/2018
Sent to me in exchange for an honest review.
I wanted to like this one more than I did. Maybe it was the short-story format or perhaps it was the fact that I didn't realize it was meant for a YA audience, but it just didn't wow me. I love the intention - to put together several retellings of Asian folklore - but the execution felt lacking and shallow. It could have been so much more.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It was the first time that I had heard many of these folklores and myths, even with some retellings. The author notes with a few of the stories really added to the story but I also understood without it. There was also a great selection of authors, many who I am looking up other books from to get more of their writings.
my favourite stories were from Roshni Chokshi and Aisha Saeed
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Average rating = 3.57 - less than I expected actually?
I think I enjoyed this book more than the rating implies somehow?
There were 15 short stories here, and they did vary in terms of how much I liked them somewhat. But overall, this was a fantastic little read and great to see so many differen tales from different cultures.
Each story also a a fantastic little peices written by the author detailing the original myth, and why they chose it - this was a fantastic idea and defintiely added to the stories themselves!
Broken down -
Forbidden Fruit by Roshani Chokshi — 3 stars
So this story was ok. It didn't particular catch me, but I wasn't expecting it too as I don't always connect with short stories. It was a nice enough opener, but I think it almost read too much like a fairy tale. So reading it, it just felt like the author was writing down the myth rather than retelling it.
Olivia’s Table by Alyssa Wong — 4 stars
This one did feel more like a retelling, but lacked the strong plot thread I had been expecting. It felt more like a story of "here is this festival we have". That said, there were a couple of nice pointers. And I love a good ghostly tale.
Steel Skin by Lori M. Lee — 3.5 stars
This felt more like what I had been expected. An obvious retelling of a story. My problems with it came from the predictability of it. I knew the ending from the first page, and so it fell a little flat for me. Having read the description of the tale it is based upon, I do wonder whether knowing this tale ahead would have helped to mask the ending of this short story?
Still Star-Crossed by Sona Charaipotha — 3.5 stars
This one felt a little odd and disjointed. The guy in this story felt creepy, but this did also feel intended. There were a couple of nice moments towards the end, and the story did start to pick up.. .but then it finished before it felt it could go anywhere.
The Counting of Vermillion Beads by Aliette de Bodard — 3 stars
This... I found a little harder to follow. It was one of the ones that benefited from the author's intentions however, as it was nice to see her make this story her own.
The Land of the Morning Calm by E.C. Meyers — 5 stars
I loved this story. It achieved a lot in such a short space. It handled grief and death in the family, but I also liked the inclusion of video games as a way to explore the mythology. For such a short story, it felt fully realised and well told.
The Smile by Aisha Saeed — 4 stars
Another story that benefited from some of the author's explanation. It was a really nice retelling of a story for modern times. It again felt like a fairy tale, but because of the explanation, could see where the bigger changes were made to the story - and agree with the reasoning behind them!
Girls Who Twirl and Other Dangers by Preeti Chhibber — 4 stars
This was less a retelling so much as a way of seeing how myths can affect real people. I liked that this felt like a change of place - there was little to no fantasy, but was contemporary in nature. It definitely felt like a fable with a lesson to learn from myth which I appreciated.
Nothing Into All by Renee Ahdieh — 3 stars
I'm hard pressed for something to say about this one, and not sure why. I enjoyed it well enough, though I think this might have worked better as a fully realised story? It just need that little bit more oomph to get it going.
Spear Carrier by Rahul Kanakia — 2 stars
This story attempted to dive straight into the action... which simply did not work in the slightest, because the author then had to go back and retroactively tell us what had happened. The main character in this was annoying, and the type of person I'd avoid. He kinda felt like those... neck-beard atheists who pretend to be so deep and clever in their solitude and ugh.
I wanted more of the crab character - did he get out alive?
Code of Honor by Melissa de la Cruz — 1.5 stars
This story... read like badly written fanfiction. Twilight fan-fiction. It was too faux-dark with it's descriptions , but was just another super generic vampire going to high school schtick.
I've read from other reviews that they feel this story was done to promote the author;s own books - but this is not something I have problems with at all. Like, I can see the allure of wanting to have a reference to another one of your stories in another book, and don't think it was necessarily an attempt to advertise her work but reference it for those who might care. But the writing style was too dated for me to enjoy it, or be intrigued by a full book series on just more generic vampires - I simply did not see how it was relevant to any asian mythology, even though we were told it supposedly was.
Bullet, Butterfly by Elsie Chapman — 3.5 stars
This one is a little bittersweet, and I liked that. It was a nice way to re-imagine a story, keeping a number of the same themes, just flipped around. It just didn't stand out much to me personally.
Daughter of the Sun by Shveta Thakrar — 4.5 stars
I rather enjoyed this one - it was a nice tale, and happy. It felt like a retelling in places, but genuine myth in others. What definitely added to it however was the commentary after - the author did well to explain the feminist undertones she wanted to include in the stories, and why she chose the ones she did... and it definitely really added to the story for me!
The Crimson Cloak by Cindy Pon — 5 stars
Another story that was added to by the author explaining her reasonings. This was written in a lovely style too that really helped drive home this was a retelling, but also why it was being retold. It was a lovely story, and again felt really well balanced.
Eyes Like Candlelight by Julie Kagawa — 4 stars
Finally, we end on a nice little kitsune tale. I liked that this took a maybe more well known mischievous fox spirit, and showed a different perspective on these mythical beings. It was another bittersweet tale, but I loved some of the imagery towards the end.
I think I enjoyed this book more than the rating implies somehow?
There were 15 short stories here, and they did vary in terms of how much I liked them somewhat. But overall, this was a fantastic little read and great to see so many differen tales from different cultures.
Each story also a a fantastic little peices written by the author detailing the original myth, and why they chose it - this was a fantastic idea and defintiely added to the stories themselves!
Broken down -
Forbidden Fruit by Roshani Chokshi — 3 stars
So this story was ok. It didn't particular catch me, but I wasn't expecting it too as I don't always connect with short stories. It was a nice enough opener, but I think it almost read too much like a fairy tale. So reading it, it just felt like the author was writing down the myth rather than retelling it.
Olivia’s Table by Alyssa Wong — 4 stars
This one did feel more like a retelling, but lacked the strong plot thread I had been expecting. It felt more like a story of "here is this festival we have". That said, there were a couple of nice pointers. And I love a good ghostly tale.
Steel Skin by Lori M. Lee — 3.5 stars
This felt more like what I had been expected. An obvious retelling of a story. My problems with it came from the predictability of it. I knew the ending from the first page, and so it fell a little flat for me. Having read the description of the tale it is based upon, I do wonder whether knowing this tale ahead would have helped to mask the ending of this short story?
Still Star-Crossed by Sona Charaipotha — 3.5 stars
This one felt a little odd and disjointed. The guy in this story felt creepy, but this did also feel intended. There were a couple of nice moments towards the end, and the story did start to pick up.. .but then it finished before it felt it could go anywhere.
The Counting of Vermillion Beads by Aliette de Bodard — 3 stars
This... I found a little harder to follow. It was one of the ones that benefited from the author's intentions however, as it was nice to see her make this story her own.
The Land of the Morning Calm by E.C. Meyers — 5 stars
I loved this story. It achieved a lot in such a short space. It handled grief and death in the family, but I also liked the inclusion of video games as a way to explore the mythology. For such a short story, it felt fully realised and well told.
The Smile by Aisha Saeed — 4 stars
Another story that benefited from some of the author's explanation. It was a really nice retelling of a story for modern times. It again felt like a fairy tale, but because of the explanation, could see where the bigger changes were made to the story - and agree with the reasoning behind them!
Girls Who Twirl and Other Dangers by Preeti Chhibber — 4 stars
This was less a retelling so much as a way of seeing how myths can affect real people. I liked that this felt like a change of place - there was little to no fantasy, but was contemporary in nature. It definitely felt like a fable with a lesson to learn from myth which I appreciated.
Nothing Into All by Renee Ahdieh — 3 stars
I'm hard pressed for something to say about this one, and not sure why. I enjoyed it well enough, though I think this might have worked better as a fully realised story? It just need that little bit more oomph to get it going.
Spear Carrier by Rahul Kanakia — 2 stars
This story attempted to dive straight into the action... which simply did not work in the slightest, because the author then had to go back and retroactively tell us what had happened. The main character in this was annoying, and the type of person I'd avoid. He kinda felt like those... neck-beard atheists who pretend to be so deep and clever in their solitude and ugh.
I wanted more of the crab character - did he get out alive?
Code of Honor by Melissa de la Cruz — 1.5 stars
This story... read like badly written fanfiction. Twilight fan-fiction. It was too faux-dark with it's descriptions , but was just another super generic vampire going to high school schtick.
I've read from other reviews that they feel this story was done to promote the author;s own books - but this is not something I have problems with at all. Like, I can see the allure of wanting to have a reference to another one of your stories in another book, and don't think it was necessarily an attempt to advertise her work but reference it for those who might care. But the writing style was too dated for me to enjoy it, or be intrigued by a full book series on just more generic vampires - I simply did not see how it was relevant to any asian mythology, even though we were told it supposedly was.
Bullet, Butterfly by Elsie Chapman — 3.5 stars
This one is a little bittersweet, and I liked that. It was a nice way to re-imagine a story, keeping a number of the same themes, just flipped around. It just didn't stand out much to me personally.
Daughter of the Sun by Shveta Thakrar — 4.5 stars
I rather enjoyed this one - it was a nice tale, and happy. It felt like a retelling in places, but genuine myth in others. What definitely added to it however was the commentary after - the author did well to explain the feminist undertones she wanted to include in the stories, and why she chose the ones she did... and it definitely really added to the story for me!
The Crimson Cloak by Cindy Pon — 5 stars
Another story that was added to by the author explaining her reasonings. This was written in a lovely style too that really helped drive home this was a retelling, but also why it was being retold. It was a lovely story, and again felt really well balanced.
Eyes Like Candlelight by Julie Kagawa — 4 stars
Finally, we end on a nice little kitsune tale. I liked that this took a maybe more well known mischievous fox spirit, and showed a different perspective on these mythical beings. It was another bittersweet tale, but I loved some of the imagery towards the end.
*3.5 stars
I only truly enjoyed about 5 of the short stories but those 5 were so exceptionally amazing, they well made up for the others. Would 100% recommend this book to anyone.
I only truly enjoyed about 5 of the short stories but those 5 were so exceptionally amazing, they well made up for the others. Would 100% recommend this book to anyone.
Usually when I have trouble reading, I pick up a short story collection. A Thousand Beginnings and Endings has been on my TBR for about a year, and it felt like a good time to read it.
I love Asian folklore and mythology. I read the typical Greek stuff in school and eventually spread out to learn different cultures, my favorites being Japanese and Egyptian. I read the Bhagavad Gita last year and was so happy to see a retelling in this collection!
We all need to diversify our reads. This is a YA collection of fantasy stories, and coming from someone who typically reads adult horror, I loved it. I give the entire collection a 4.5 star rating.
Some of my favorite stories:
Olivia’s Table by Alyssa Wong
Still Star-Crossed by Sona Charaipotra
The Land of the Morning Calm by E.C. Myers
Bullet, Butterfly by Elsie Chapman
Daughter of the Sun by Shveta Thakrar
I love Asian folklore and mythology. I read the typical Greek stuff in school and eventually spread out to learn different cultures, my favorites being Japanese and Egyptian. I read the Bhagavad Gita last year and was so happy to see a retelling in this collection!
We all need to diversify our reads. This is a YA collection of fantasy stories, and coming from someone who typically reads adult horror, I loved it. I give the entire collection a 4.5 star rating.
Some of my favorite stories:
Olivia’s Table by Alyssa Wong
Still Star-Crossed by Sona Charaipotra
The Land of the Morning Calm by E.C. Myers
Bullet, Butterfly by Elsie Chapman
Daughter of the Sun by Shveta Thakrar