A Thousand Beginnings and Endings

There are very few books that tug at your heartstrings and touch your soul and all you want to do is bask in their glory, laugh and cry and do so much more. This is one such book. An own voices anthology of retellings of Asian myths and folktales, this is something a younger me would have devoured; but the older me definitely appreciates it more for what it represents – Asian kids finding their childhood tales in mainstream YA. I am amazed at how well the authors retold the stories that we know so well, but still managed to make them feel fresh and fascinating. And every author mentioning the original story which inspired them was just icing on the cake.

These are stories of love, loss, joy, grief and heartbreak and so much more, and I show more promise you will find something that you can connect to. And I may be biased, but all the stories here that were based on Indian myths were my absolute favorites and I know that I’m going to be reading them many more times. I recommend this book to all Asian readers and anyone else who is interested in reading diverse stories.

Please find the stories, their origin myths and my individual reviews below:

Forbidden Fruit by Roshani Chokshi
Maria Makiling – A Filipino Folktale
I’ve always had some trouble following Chokshi’s writing style and I had initial hiccups too, but it turned out well. It’s a story of Dayang, the spirit of the mountain, who just wants to be loved and is so high on emotions when she does, she doesn’t really think of the consequences. It’s a tale of loneliness, love, greed and heartbreak which left me feeling unsatisfied due to the unfairness of it all.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Olivia’s Table by Alyssa Wong
The Hungry Ghost Festival – A Chinese Tradition
A beautiful story about the importance of food, keeping traditions alive and working hard to provide some solace to poor, lonely souls; while also dealing with the utter grief of losing a parent, while being bullied at school for being non-white and navigating the heartbreak of losing your love.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Steel Skin by Lori M. Lee
The Woman and the Tiger – A Hmong Folktale
This is a sci-fi tale about a young girl who is grieving her mother’s death and also the death of her relationship with her father since then. She starts doubting that he might be an android, replaced during the android rebellion that also killed her mother; but when the truth is revealed, it rocks her world and she is devastated. This story is beautiful, full of love and loss and the importance of found family.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Still Star-Crossed by Sona Charaipotra
Mirza and Sahiba – A Punjabi Folktale
A story about an Indian American girl, growing up with some form of restrictions in her conservative family but also a mischievous mother, all the talk about eating Chole Bhature and drinking Limca and bhang on Holi, dancing to punjabi song remixes, a boy who seems to instantly recognize her but she is ony intrigued by – all of this was just wonderful and so familiar. A story of a love that outlives death, reincarnation and a connection that is so powerful – this was pure Hindi movie territory that I absolutely loved reading. Wish it were a full novel.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Counting of Vermillion Beads by Aliet Te De Bodard
Tấ’m Cám – A Vietnamese Folktale
This is the story of two sisters who have been separated from their family and now live in a Palace with other girls as per the decree of the Everlasting Emperor, surrounded by an impenetrable wall. Tam and Cam are always together and their love for each other and the grief they feel when separated is wonderfully written. But this story is magical realism, which is not my genre at all, so I couldn’t totally understand the themes in the story.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The Land of the Morning Calm by E. C. Myers
The Chasa Bonpuli – A Korean Epic
Sunny is a Korean-American girl who is still dealing with the loss of her mom while her grandfather keeps insisting that she is still present as a gwisin (or ghost). When it’s announced that LMC, her mom’s most favorite online video game is being shutdown, she logs in one last time to feel connected to her again. The story incorporates Korean myths about ghosts and creatures and the underworld into a game so seamlessly, it’s absolutely thrilling to read.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Smile by Aisha Saeed
The Story of Anarkali – A South Asian Legend
Any Hindi movie lover will tell you that Mughal-e-Azam is a masterpiece and I am no exception. So, actually reading a retelling of the love story of Salim and Anarkali which questions the power imbalance in a relationship between a courtesan and her prince felt glorious. The premise is basically about choice – when you literally belong to someone, do you really love them of your own free will? This story made me very nostalgic and happy and I coouldn’t love it any less.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Girls who Twirl and Other Dangers by Preeti Chhibber
Navratri – A Hindu Festival
This is definitely my favorite story of the book. The joy of celebrating Navratri, the garba, the puja, the sense of community, everything is described so perfectly, I was overjoyed. The original tale of Maa Durga and Mahishasur is also interspersed within the story which I thought was an excellent touch. I also loved the theme of girls standing up for themselves and demanding an apology when wronged – it goes so well with the festival celebrating the power of the female divinity.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Nothing into All by Renée Ahdieh
The Goblin Treasure – A Korean Fairy Tale
A tale about a brother and sister; the brother who can’t forgive her for her childhood mistake and a sister who undermines herself in front of him because she still feels guilty. This is a story about family and forgiveness – how you must give your loved ones a chance to turn around when they have made bad choices.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spear Carrier by Rahul Kanakia
The Mahabharata – A South Asian Epic
A young American high school boy who has always wondered what it would feel like to be a hero, the meaning of heroism and what happens to those who die trying – is suddenly transported into a battlefield and asked to fight. He struggles with his loneliness, searches for his purpose and questions the ones in charge but never gets the answers he wants. This is basically a story of the Kurukshetra war told from the POV of one of the soldiers, making us wonder whether they really understood what they were fighting for. Mahabharata is my most favorite story (or epic) in the world and the Gita is too complex to understand, especially in condensed versions; that’s why the various philosophical musings throughout the story felt too dense and anyone who doesn’t have any idea about this epic will find it hard to follow.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Code of Honor by Melissa de la Cruz
Aswangs – A Filipino Folktale
The author takes a young aswang girl from the Philippines and connects her story to the Blue Bloods series set in Manhattan and I thought it was seamlessly done. Aida has been a nomad her whole life, traveling from country to country, always feeling restless, until a whispered conversation makes her heart go wild and she feels the need to come to NYC. This is the story of a girl who tries to live by a code because she is a monster living among humans, and just wants to find a family like her because she is tired of being alone.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Bullet, Butterfly by Elsie Chapman
The Butterfly Lovers – A Chinese Folktale
In a Civil war torn China, boys are the fighters, girls make the arms and marriage alliances are akin to trading goods. In this cruel situation, Liang dresses up as a girl to sneak into the armory but his whole life changes when he meets Zhu. This is a beautiful, heartbreaking story of star-crossed lovers whom even death couldn’t keep apart.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Daughter of the Sun by Shveta Thakrar
The Mahabharata – A South Asian Epic
The mashup of the story of Savitri/Satyavan with that of Shantanu and Ganga – this is the beautiful tale of a young girl who has been raised secluded and yearns for companionship. When she finds the moon to her sun, she defies curses and gods and death, ultimately getting back the love of her life with single minded devotion. The setting of the estate, the lake and the swans, the writing – everything was just pure magic.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Crimson Cloak by Cindy Pon
The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl – A Chinese Legend
Another beautiful love story, this one of a goddess falling in love with a mortal man. She tries to leave him, so that he can marry and have his own children, but he follows her into the skies, declaring his eternal love and promises to keep her happy. It broke my heart to read about the goddess having to keep living even after the death of her beloved, trying to keep their memories alive.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Eyes like Candlelight by Julie Kagawa
Kitsune – A Japanese Myth
A little booy saves a fox knowing that it might be a Kitsune. Years later, when Takeo is trying to pray to the god Inari to provide rice for his village, he finds himself enchanted by a girl Yuki, who feels almost ethereal, until she reveals herself to be the same little fox. She agrees to help his village and he promises to come back to her, but fate has other plans. Another heartbreaking tale which was wonderfully written.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ show less

This review first appeared on Sci Fi and Scary

‘A Thousand Beginnings and Endings’ is hard to place genre-wise. It’s a collection of short stories by modern Asian authors, all based on myths and legends from Asian culture. With that brief I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but the end product is a delicious free for all. There’s fantasy, supernatural horror, science fiction and contemporary romance. As with most short story collections by multiple contributors, not every story blew me away, but there was a lot to enjoy.
There are sixteen stories in total, each about twenty or thirty pages long and followed by a brief piece on the myth or folklore that inspired it. Those sections were almost as much fun to read as the stories show more themselves, with the authors explaining the personal and cultural importance of the original tales. Asia is a big place (duh!), and the range of countries and cultures represented here evidences that. China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, India and more are featured, giving a glorious variety to the stories and a rich flavour to the collection.
It offers up such delights as exotic fairy tales, subtle and moving ghost stories, epic battles in intergalactic conflicts, children discovering goblins, teenage vampires, star-crossed lovers and dance competitions. My favourite story concerned a young girl, a dead mother and an MMORPG. It was subtle, imaginative and emotional. It’s also typical of the stories in the book in that it gives a modern twist to old themes. These are often tales of what it means to be a human, the common things that transcend time, culture and geography. Family, love, rivalry, the need to fine one’s place in the world. All these things are wrapped up in stories that are engaging and packed with many small details of Asian life and culture.
Taken together they make a fascinating and enjoyable book that’s easy to read and consistently enjoyable. It’s introduced me to a number of writers I’m sure I’ll be reading more from in the future. show less

This is a collection I couldn’t wait to start. When I was about eight years old, my grandma bought me a volume of Asian Folk Tales and thus, she opened a window to a world that was exotic, mysterious, a land of fairytale to my young mind. This was the beginning of my fascination with Asian cultures, especially the ones found in India and China. I thought that this collection, edited by Ellen Oh, would feel like a magic carpet to the lands that seem so distant, hidden, often misunderstood. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be...In fact, it was a severe disappointment.

This collection consists of 15 original, mostly contemporary, tales that are retellings of myths and legends, focused on ghosts, star-crossed lovers and angry spirits, heroes and show more deities, combined with modern aspects of our societies, e.g. androids, role playing games, school cliques. Unfortunately, this combination didn’t work for me. While the human need for revenge and love and understanding lies behind the tales, the writing is choppy, uninspiring. Turning traditional tales into naive stories about bots or teenage vampires results in ridiculing the subject matter. Following each tale, there is a note from each writer, explaining their inspiration behind the story. What they don’t explain is the reason for turning beautiful myths into Nickelodeon, Twilight-inspired, cringe-worthy fanfiction. A look in their biographies answered my question. YA ‘’novels’’ and Hallmark scripts. Not really Pulitzer-worthy material. If YA audience was the target crowd for this collection, then, I’m sorry, I had no idea….

The stories that saved the book from being an unexpected DNF were:

Forbidden Fruit : A Mountain Goddess falls in love with a mortal but she hadn’t anticipated the evil done by humans. A sad tale from the Philippines.
Olivia’s Table: A young Chinese-American woman arrives in Arizona for the Ghost Festival. She is a peculiar exorcist who continues the work of her late mother. Once a year, the ghosts need to eat in order for their soul to rest in peace. They walk among the living, waiting...A beautiful story whose roots lie in the vast Chinese tradition.
The Land of the Morning Calm: A beautiful story of a family who tries to cope with a sudden, tragic loss. Korean traditions are paired with the strange world of RPG in a tale of motherhood, obsession for an artificial world and the need to move on.
Bullet, Butterfly: A tale of love, war and loss. Based on a well-known Chinese legend of star-crossed lovers.

In my opinion, the weakest moments in the collection were the stories based on the Hindu traditions. I felt the writers were highly disrespectful towards them, creating superficial ‘’tales’’ full of cliches and horrible dialogue. I think the only ‘’tradition’’ that may have inspired them was the Bollywood industry and its atrocities because the beliefs and customs of India are rich, complex, mystical. Not this, whatever it was. For example, the story Spear Carrier is supposedly inspired by the epic Mahabharata and it is an abomination.

To my extreme disappointment, this was an extremely uneven collection with very few gems in an attempt to salvage a collection that could have been glorious. Instead, it was barely passable. I definitely suggest you give it a try, though. You may find what I wasn’t able to distinguish. Having read tons of short stories collection based on myths and traditions, having been used to quality writing and not scribbles for fifteen year olds, this one appeared to me frightfully average.

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com show less

This was the first anthology we've tried for family story time, so I wasn't sure how it would go over. I think everyone enjoyed most stories, and there weren't any that at least one person didn't like. This is a collection of retellings of Asian myths and legends. It was extra fun when one of the kids recognized what the story was based off of before the explanation at the end (both kids attend/attended a Chinese immersion school), but most of these stories were new to us. The diversity of where these stories were from and the ways they were adapted was really interesting.

Highly recommended!

I was promised a short story collection of Asian mythology. What I got was androids, robots, whiny teen drama and a lot of stuff I didn’t ask for. I saw this book on someone’s tbr one day. After reading Norse mythology by Neil Gaiman and buying Greek mythology by Stephen Fry I wanted more. What better way to get more by getting a short story collection with Asian tales? I’m always complaining that we as a western society don’t get enough information from Asia!

The short stories are all written by different authors. You get a great variation of divers authors all giving their own spin on an Asian myth. Some involve mountains others are centered around family drama, and some deal with the loss of a dear one and what it means for a show more person. After the stories end there is a little section for the author to write a sort of reasoning. They explain what the original story is about and what their reasons were for making it their own.

I want to start with the good parts of the book. The theming and some of the ideas these authors were trying to say were good. There was this story about a girl having to make food for the ghosts that pass over every year and it was by far my favorite. The tales dealing with grief and losing someone were really well done. What I liked even more were the little notes with explanations from the authors.
Having said that I have to confess that for most of the second half of this book I only read the little bits were the authors explains what they were trying to do. For most of these stories some of the explanations what the original story was based on was totally lost to me. I couldn’t make the connection and I felt downright lied to at some point. Having read most of the book I just have to say what a huge letdown this was.

Getting promised a collection of great Asian mythology only to receive bad writing and teen drama is a missed opportunity. show less

Not bad for for a story collection. Obviously some highs and lows, but it finishes charmingly with a tale of kitsune that hits the right spot.

It was for English. If you’re a book and I read you for English, I automatically don’t like you.