Isabel Yap

Yap's worlds sucked me in immediately, and journeying into each of these stories was something akin to a trance. I've long been a fan of Small Beer Press and the single-author collections they release, but this one may end up being my favorite. The stories are steeped in the nuanced world-building and lore, and the characters bring every page to life. I can see the lack of genre throwing off all readers--many of these are the reason the term 'speculative fiction' was invented, because they show more simply don't fit neatly into the realm of science fiction or fantasy or horror, and rather contain a bit of everything--but I loved journeying through this book. Of course, I had my favorites--among them, "Only Unclench Your Hand", "How to Swallow the Moon", and "A Spell for Foolish Hearts"--but even in the few stories where the plots and characters just didn't engage me all that much, I still found myself compelled to keep going by Yap's gorgeous writing.

Absolutely recommended. show less

This was fantastic. Yap explores what happens when a magical anime girl grows up in this series of five linked short stories. The women who had gained magical powers and the duty to fight the Grey for the Goddess when they were 13 are now 25. One is on the verge of getting married. They're holding down jobs, trying to have relationships, and are pretty tired of fighting.

Yap explores duty, loyalty, friendship, and family in these stories. And she does so masterfully, in a world where magical show more girls are given powers to fight a secret war. The stories are interconnected and she weaves them together, revealing the backstory and the contemporary story so that each new story builds on the previous.

This is really, really good. I'm really glad I read these. show less

Never Have I Ever is one of the best collections of short fiction I have read in a long while. These 13 stories of Isabel Yap's share common themes of love, pain, and overwhelmingly the connection of the modern world with the myths and legends that birthed it. The opening story, "Good Girls", is a sort of horror romance, both for its inclusion of the Philippines own distinct take on the vampire - the manananggal - and for the existential challenge of growing up a "troubled" young girl. "A show more Spell for Foolish Hearts" is a queer love story in a San Fransisco where witchcraft is less unusual than people really communicating with each other. The heartbreaking "Asphalt, River, Mother, Child" asks how the spirits of Filipino folklore would face a nation whose police have a license to kill narcotics suspects in the street.

Yap has written stories with ghosts, elementals, kappa, and androids. Her characters live in a world where all food is manufactured, and where saints turn paper to a feast. But most importantly, these are all stories about people trying to reconcile their present with their dreams of the past. Their voices are full and real, as is their pain. But even the horror stories have life at the end. Many of the stories are set in the Philippines, and the author trusts us to catch up with the language and culture that is rarely explored in western media. I am so glad I was offered a chance to read this book, and I am going to be following Yap's work in the future. show less

An engrossing collection of shorts, and while many might be considered horror or dark fantasy, they are all an exploration of humanity through a veneer of Filipino culture, folklore, and mythical monsters. These stories embrace the weird and the dark, but also have a glimmer of hope and celebrate human resilience. I've read many of these stories already, but it was a pleasure revisiting them again, and finding new ones. Highly recommended.