A Thousand Beginnings and Endings

“We fell in love with all those myths about powerful gods being vulnerable, about humans becoming heroes. Such stories taught us about mythology, about the beauty of folktales and legends, and about how stories of gods and goddesses are also stories about the human heart. But we never found similar compilations that were distinctly Asian.”

“It was an ill-fated thing to claim that a heart is safe. Hearts are rebellious. The moment they feel trapped, they will strain against their bindings.”

“Can’t they see the ghosts all the time?” she asked. “Not like you and I can. The Festival is when ghosts are most themselves instead of what the living want them to be. Not everyone will like what they see tonight.”

“The brain is just a highly complex circuit of electrical impulses, so it stands to reason that it can be artificially manufactured. Scientists have been trying to understand this process for decades. What. Makes. Emotion?”

“You don’t know how to choose until you’re right there, on the precipice, giving away your everything for something that may be real or may be a shadow, a ghost you’re chasing.”

“We can’t go home, but that doesn’t mean we have to be caged.”

“I finally know how it ends.”

“Belonging meant he could place me wherever he liked, whether in his bed or in this dank tower. Belonging is not love. It never was.”

“There are three reasons I know fall is awesome: the most anticipated Bollywood movies are always on a fall release schedule, my mom starts practicing her delicious party dishes, and it means it’s time for Navrātri!”

“Many years ago, a girl and a boy lived with their parents in a bark-shingled home near a flowing river’s edge.”

“When I’d agreed to his offer, it was because I had thought I’d be a hero.”

“I almost murdered a girl yesterday…”

“Don’t forget we’re only ever soldiers here in Shangyu, and soldiers never get to be the ones who wake up from a spell, or who even get to break a spell. We’re just the dragons guarding the gate, ordered to keep breathing the fire of those who cast the spell in the first place.”

“She sang for her parents, for the hue-switching heavens, for herself. She read fairy tales, epics, and legends and imagined performing them on a stage draped in velvet. But it wasn’t enough. She longed for a friend.”

“…whatever I might make for myself in this life: hearth, home, or family—they would mean nothing without you.”

“She could charm bears with that smile, Takeo thought. If he were a bear, he would lie down with his head in her lap and not move until the hunters came for him.”

We would have been overjoyed to have found this anthology, filled with characters with skin and hair and names more like ours, in our beloved libraries. It’s the book that was missing in our lives for far too long.

We would have been overjoyed to have found this anthology, filled with characters with skin and hair and names more like ours, in our beloved libraries. It’s the book that was missing in our lives for far too long.

→ Forbidden Fruit — Roshani Chokshi ★★★★★ ←
They were beautiful in their fragility, disappearing as fast as a bloom of ice beneath sunlight.

→ Olivia’s Table — Alyssa Wong ★★★★★ ←
“If you honor everything I’ve taught you, then I promise that I will never leave you.”

→ Steel Skin — Lori M. Lee ★★★☆☆ ←
Yer’s father was an android.

→ Still Star-Crossed — Sona Charaipotra ★★★☆☆ ←
“You don’t know how to choose until you’re right there, on the precipice, giving you’re your everything for something that may be real or may be a shadow, a ghost you’re chasing.”

→ The Counting of Vermillion Beads — Aliette De Bodard ★★★☆☆ ←
But nothing gets through the wall. Not leaves, not birds, not girls—not the sister of her heart, the one who’s always had enough fire for both of them, dragging her into scrapes and trouble as if there were no other way to live.

→ The Land of the Morning Calm — E. C. Myers ★★★★★ ←
I don’t believe in ghosts in the real world, but that’s the joy of the Three Kingdoms.

→ The Smile — Aisha Saeed ★★★★★ ←
Belonging is not love. It never was.

→ Girls Who Twirl and Other Dangers — Preeti Chhibber ★★★☆☆ ←
Let the gods have their battles of good and evil. We were here to dance.

→ Nothing into All — Renée Ahdieh ★★★★☆ ←
But in truth the brother and sister were searching for something else entirely. Something they’d sworn to keep secret. Something they’d caught sight of only once, eight years ago: Goblins.

→ Spear Carrier — Rahul Kanakia ★☆☆☆☆ ←
But a hero wouldn’t be so lonely and so afraid. A hero wouldn’t shout for help, and then, hearing only silence, go back to his trench and cry.

→ Code of Honor — Melissa de la Cruz ★☆☆☆☆ ←
I almost murdered a girl yesterday. Literally.

→ Bullet, Butterfly — Elsie Chapman ★★★★★ ←
The commanders keep telling us we’re so close to finishing the way, that it’s almost the end—but whose end?

→ Daughter of the Sun — Shveta Thakrar ★★★★★ ←
Savitri Mehta’s parents had named her for light.

→ The Crimson Cloak — Cindy Pon ★★★★★ ←
All the storytellers get it wrong.

→ Eyes Like Candlelight — Julie Kagawa ★★★★★ ←
Takeo never saw the fox again. But sometimes, on warm evenings when he was outside, he could almost imagine he was being watched.

FINAL AVERAGE RATING: 3.87/5
Normally, I’d round this up to a solid 4/5, but honestly, there are so many gems and this collection feels so important that I didn’t hesitate to give this 5 stars. ♥

“Do not trust the fruit of Maria Makiling.”

“Do not trust the fruit of Maria Makiling.”

“Don’t talk to strangers,” Mom had said, over and over. And don’t trust the ghosts, especially not during the Ghost Festival.”

“She has this memory. Only a chaotic set of images and sounds, but vivid, like neon scripts streaming across a black screen.”

“You don’t know how to choose until you’re right there, on the precipice, giving away your everything for something that may be real or may be a shadow, a ghost you’re chasing.”

“At night, it sings—a quivering, warbling sounds that rises in her dreams, becomes her sister’s voice. It wouldn’t be so bad, if the bird spoke of cryptic wisdom, or of the dream Tam had, the one that started everything, but instead it’s small, everyday things, the kind of talk they had before Tam changed.”

“Harabeoji says my mother is a gwisin. That’s the Korean word for ghost.”

“Belonging meant he could place me wherever he liked, whether in his bed or in this dank tower. Belonging is not love. It never was.”

“This whole holiday is about good defeating evil, right? Dinesh is not going to magically get what’s coming to him. So, it’s on us.”

“As the leaves fall/As the sky turn to night/Summon the magic/To turn nothing/Into all”

“When I’d agreed to his offer, it was because I had thought I’d be a hero. But a hero wouldn’t be so lonely and so afraid.”

“I try not to let myself get angry because that’s when I most desire human flesh.”

“Don’t forget we’re only ever soldiers here in Shangyu and soldiers never get to be the ones who wake up from a spell, or who even get to break a spell. We’re just the dragons guarding the gate, ordered to keep breathing the fire of those who cast the spell in the first place.”

“She yearned for someone who didn’t fear her brilliance.”

“Despite how the legend goes, the truth of the matter is, Dear Reader, I saw him first.”

“Yuki met his gaze, eyes glowing a subtle gold in the candlelight, the tip of a bushy tail peeking behind her robes.”

“I finally know how it ends.”

“I finally know how it ends.”