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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
mysterious
reflective
slow-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:
Complicated
I wish I had an ounce of artistic ability so I could paint all of the beasts Ge wrote about in this.
Strange Beasts of China contains perhaps the most powerful, all-consuming, fascinating worlds in any fantasy novel I have ever read. This is magical realism at its best. Artful storytelling, wonderful mythology, and a moving plot. I felt so connected to the main character. My favorite section was the one about flourishing beasts.
Strange Beasts of China contains perhaps the most powerful, all-consuming, fascinating worlds in any fantasy novel I have ever read. This is magical realism at its best. Artful storytelling, wonderful mythology, and a moving plot. I felt so connected to the main character. My favorite section was the one about flourishing beasts.
medium-paced
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is definitely a strange book and I feel like I missed a lot of social commentary. What I enjoyed the most is this hazy, almost dreamlike atmosphere and the beasts. There are some parts that left me a bit confused, but overall a fascinating book.
I think this type of short story collections, where the stories all follow a connected thread work a lot better for me than a book filled with separate stories.
I think this type of short story collections, where the stories all follow a connected thread work a lot better for me than a book filled with separate stories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Death of parent
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved the absurdism of this book. It's basically a collection of short stories about 'beasts' with a thin plot linking them. All these humanlike beasts exist in this fictionalized Chinese city "Yong'an", and people are mostly ambivalent to their existence or where they came from. Each 'beast' is described with completely arbitrary defining characteristics such as liking to eat ice cream or braised pork. The absurdism in this one could have worked out badly, but it landed really well - funny without being over the top.
There are also some excellent non sequiturs thrown in, like (paraphrasing) "in Yong'an hell doesn't exist so the souls of the dead float around aimlessly." If you like Ottessa Moshfegh, specifically "My year of rest and relaxation", you would probably like this book too. Another book this reminds me of is "There's no such thing as an easy job" by Kikuko Tsumura.
There are also some excellent non sequiturs thrown in, like (paraphrasing) "in Yong'an hell doesn't exist so the souls of the dead float around aimlessly." If you like Ottessa Moshfegh, specifically "My year of rest and relaxation", you would probably like this book too. Another book this reminds me of is "There's no such thing as an easy job" by Kikuko Tsumura.
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Read this if/when:
- Just hearing the word Bestiary sends a pleasant shiver down your spine.
- Genre-defining works bring you joy.
- You're tired of eurocentric fantasy.
- You like [b:The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories|24885533|The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories|Ken Liu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511290092l/24885533._SY75_.jpg|44534169].
- Meta-commentary on the writing process interests you.
You might not like this if you don't like:
- Structural narrative repetitions.
- Complicated, ambiguous plot reveals.
- Metaphors.
- Unnamed narrators.
Very short summary:
Told through a series of interconnected stories, each chapter focuses on one species of the myriad of"beasts" in a fictional Chinese city as the unnamed novelist narrator writes their stories, but the stories of beasts slowly become more personal as more and more of the narrator's life is revealed.
My thoughts:
I don't think it's a book everyone will love. Some readers will likely be put off by the way it defines genre categorisation. It's too literary to be pure fantasy, too metaphorical to be literary, too whimsical to be sci-fi or dystopian, etc. It's also structured as a series of connected stories, each one focusing on another imaginative 'human-like beast', but that structure means some narrative beats are repeated through the books (i.e: The narrator gets information about a new beast, looks for clues, calls her enigmatic professor, etc.). The plot reveals also get a little vague towards the end of the book, and it likely benefits from a rereading.
However, I think the right readers will truly love this book. As for me, for years, I've looked for something similar to [a:Ken Liu|2917920|Ken Liu|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1400610835p2/2917920.jpg]'s short stories. What I wanted was:
1) The mixture of genres, fantasy, sci-fi, detective, literary, etc, that worked so perfectly together
2) The fascinating eastern-inspired world-building
3) The way that speculative fiction and stories of 'other worlds' were used to tell such raw, touching stories that it helped you understand this world better.
With this book, I finally got what I wanted. It's imaginative, surprisingly disturbing at times, very touching and subtly humorous at others.
To think that I found this book through a total coincidence, and now it's one of my favourites gives me real hope about life, though it's another one of those books that makes me so sad about the number of incredible books that I can't read because there are no English translations.
- Just hearing the word Bestiary sends a pleasant shiver down your spine.
- Genre-defining works bring you joy.
- You're tired of eurocentric fantasy.
- You like [b:The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories|24885533|The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories|Ken Liu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511290092l/24885533._SY75_.jpg|44534169].
- Meta-commentary on the writing process interests you.
You might not like this if you don't like:
- Structural narrative repetitions.
- Complicated, ambiguous plot reveals.
- Metaphors.
- Unnamed narrators.
Very short summary:
Told through a series of interconnected stories, each chapter focuses on one species of the myriad of"beasts" in a fictional Chinese city as the unnamed novelist narrator writes their stories, but the stories of beasts slowly become more personal as more and more of the narrator's life is revealed.
My thoughts:
I don't think it's a book everyone will love. Some readers will likely be put off by the way it defines genre categorisation. It's too literary to be pure fantasy, too metaphorical to be literary, too whimsical to be sci-fi or dystopian, etc. It's also structured as a series of connected stories, each one focusing on another imaginative 'human-like beast', but that structure means some narrative beats are repeated through the books (i.e: The narrator gets information about a new beast, looks for clues, calls her enigmatic professor, etc.). The plot reveals also get a little vague towards the end of the book, and it likely benefits from a rereading.
However, I think the right readers will truly love this book. As for me, for years, I've looked for something similar to [a:Ken Liu|2917920|Ken Liu|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1400610835p2/2917920.jpg]'s short stories. What I wanted was:
1) The mixture of genres, fantasy, sci-fi, detective, literary, etc, that worked so perfectly together
2) The fascinating eastern-inspired world-building
3) The way that speculative fiction and stories of 'other worlds' were used to tell such raw, touching stories that it helped you understand this world better.
With this book, I finally got what I wanted. It's imaginative, surprisingly disturbing at times, very touching and subtly humorous at others.
To think that I found this book through a total coincidence, and now it's one of my favourites gives me real hope about life, though it's another one of those books that makes me so sad about the number of incredible books that I can't read because there are no English translations.
slow-paced
So the premise is something of an alt-history, with different "strange beasts" being things very similar to humans, but slightly different, such that sometimes you might not even really notice at first (long fingers, thinner limbs, bumps...). Each of the 8 or so chapters/sections deals with a different strange beast, such as Sad Beasts or Prime Beasts. There's some backstory for each (where they came from or their role in society) and then the protagonist would encounter one, and discuss it either with friends or a former teacher, or report on it / interact as part of work.
It felt super slow and dry at first, such that I had to switch to a different book so this didn't kill my reading mojo, and that worked well enough that I found returning to this gave it some more flow.
It mostly reads like a collection of standalone, related stories, but there is a thread with the main character and their close circle developing through the novel.
It felt super slow and dry at first, such that I had to switch to a different book so this didn't kill my reading mojo, and that worked well enough that I found returning to this gave it some more flow.
It mostly reads like a collection of standalone, related stories, but there is a thread with the main character and their close circle developing through the novel.