A review by lauralhart
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu

2.0

I’d heard good things about The Paper Menagerie, so I decided to try The Hidden Girl as an intro to Ken Liu. This is a collection of speculative and scifi short stories, most of which were extremely disappointing. When these stories were best (ex. the trilogy of stories about Maddie), they painted clear pictures of different worlds and followed the arc of active protagonists facing wild challenges. At their worst (The Message, Thoughts and Prayers), the stories were hard to visualize, relied too heavily on clichés, and ended before the real excitement began. It was also often difficult for me to reconcile whether the stories were all supposed to be connected; some of the threads were obvious, but others left me scratching my head. I’ve already forgotten most of the stories here, but may eventually return to the few I connected with. Overall, I don’t recommend this title.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.