A review by arifel
Beyond the Line of Trees: Stories by Vida Cruz

4.0

This gorgeous illustrated collection offers four short stories from Vida Cruz, a Filipina author and former Tiptree fellow. I hadn't come across any of these stories before (one is a winner of the Writers of the Future contest, which despite the controversy surrounding that particular event is an amazing achievement!) and jumped at the chance to pick up one of these super-limited first printing chapbooks to familiarise myself with Cruz's writing. I was not disappointed! The stories here deal with the intersection of supernatural forces and of human societies grappling with traditions and change in many forms. Its hard to pick favourites, but the standouts for me were "The Song of the Mango", the story of Saha a woman whose brother is killed and turned into a magical healing mango tree, sending her on a path from being a dissatisfied handmaid to the village leader to a grumpy mango witch in a forest, to her capture by conquering forces and eventual escape. Saha's narration - told in the past tense from a significant distance, which adds to the mystery of the story - is gloriously bad-tempered, and the worldbuilding is detailed and interesting, making me wish I could get a mango worth eating without getting on a long haul flight!

The final story, "Odd and Ugly", weaves a non-linear love story into a fable with strong overtones of Beauty and the Beast, with a story between a kapre, or tree spirit, and a young woman who invites herself in as his housekeeper. As the tale unfolds we learn more about the kapre's history (an african slave brought over to the Philippines during the colonial occupation), and the heartbreaks past and present of both of the main characters.

Review Link: http://www.nerds-feather.com/2019/09/questing-in-shorts-august-2019.html