A review by caitlin_bookchats
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Spectacular short story collection. Each story distinct; wide variety of settings, characters, topics, lengths; thoughtful questions raised.

I didn't love every story, but I loved most of them and there were very few that I did not value in some way. Truly a quality collection.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Torture

Triggers vary widely by story, particularly memorable: The Regular discusses the search for a serial killer who targets high dollar sex workers. Some of the content is in the killer's voice. The detective is also dealing with the death of a child by abusing body modification tech. The Literomancer mentions some racial slurs used by children towards another child. It also details torture of one character by another. The torture is not glorified or seen as necessary/good but it is graphic/detailed. A Brief History of the Trans Pacific Tunnel mentions "comfort women", forced prison labor, and the cover up of both. The Litigation Master and the Monkey King - mentions the historical 15th? century massacre of a Chinese city and what, 50 years later, the ruling dynasty does to continue to cover it up. The Man who Ended History: a Documentary details atrocities performed by the Japanese by Unit 731 during WWII and the ways the USA and western world is complicit in covering them up. (Medical experimentation on humans) It includes but does not endorse denialist phrases. The Simulacrum mentions cheating (mentioned here because it's not in the list of triggers.