While there is a clear moral to the story in the book’s final chapter, Zhang writes deftly to keep any of her characters from being clear cut. The messiness in turn reveals truth: that when the chips are down, human instinct and that of crabs in a bucket are largely the same.
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‘What the Dead Know’ a Pensive Look Back at Life and Death
What the Dead Know is about a lot of difficult stuff, and Butcher doesn’t shield us from the gore. But she does wisely keep it tastefully select in its details, delivering realness without exploitation.
Wishes get Colonized and Corporatized in Shubeik Lubeik
The repercussions from wishes are negligible for the haves and devastating for the have-nots. Following the rules is detrimental for some, and far outside the sphere of concern for others. As with many things designed to “make life better”—technology, say, or medicine—the artificial scaffolding around wishes exacerbate, rather than reduce, inequality in the society they occupy.
‘Cassandra’ a Journey in Time Travel and Self Acceptance
Cassandra’s is captivating story about the benefits and costs of being able to do-over the rougher parts of your day, and about accepting yourself for yourself, no matter who you happen to be.
‘Butcher’ a Fairy Tale of Trauma
The trauma at the heart of The Butcher is something wound as tightly around every detail as tightly as ivy on a tree. There’s a difference between surviving something and coming back whole, Veris notes early in the book, and it becomes increasingly clear that she’s the one who hasn’t been the same since.
‘Fox Wife’ A Magical Tale of Revenge (Really)
As the various plotlines come together, the story does verge on zany, but successfully toes the line. And for a story that started with death and revenge, I was happy to allow Choo some coincidences (or, perhaps, twists of fate) to lead the characters to an improbably happy ending.
‘Fifty Beasts’ a Strange and Magical Collection of Shorts
Though many of the stories verge on the dark or twisty side of things, there really is a strong sense of playfulness throughout. It’s like watching shadow children frolic, or sprites dance, things that are having fun but can also devour you whole.
‘Beautiful’ Unflinchingly Humanizes the Invisible Cost of Modern Life
It’s one thing to understand that the status quo demands a human cost in some far-off corner of some anonymous country. It’s another to put faces and stories to that cost, and to see how steep that cost really is, and how our culture is complicit to it.
‘Want Me’ A Look at Sexual Desire Buffered with Kindness
This isn’t a titillating read, but that doesn’t mean that it’s an easy one. Yet the rawness of her recollection was as compelling as it was hard to read, turning Want Me into a thought-provoking exploration into a single person’s experience that looks much too familiar for even someone far outside of her singular experience.
‘Child’ a Powerful Glimpse into ‘Invisible’ Lives
It’s not easy to read about children being abused and neglected, or about prevalent drug use, or the conditions in shelters that are only tolerable because the shelters beat the alternative. Invisible Child, though, was never meant to be easy reading.
Ring Reads 