There are a lot of great ideas in this collection. Some of them, like the first story about the guy studying kaiju, could have been drawn out and expanded into a novella. Some of them missed the mark. But overall this was an entertaining collection. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great quick read/listen. The short stories were really interesting and they really gave the book range. The only think I wish is that there was more of an indicator of when a new story is starting, which we would know when reading the physical/e-book. It was interesting to hear Japanese mythology in an adult novel as I'm used to reading it in young adult & middle grade books. Some of the stories were more interesting to me than another others but as an overall collection, was really good. The female narrator was really good but the male narrator was a little monotoned though not terrible.

4 stars

A delightful collection of speculative fiction stories that draws on Japanese folklore & mixes it with futuristic and sci-fi elements. Sad, funny, heartwarming, & disturbing at points, this book is great!

[What I liked:]

•There is a nice variety of stories here. Some are very weird or grotesque right away, some are more subtle with just a hint here or there of the supernatural or otherworldly. Some are retellings of folk stories with a slight twist, while others take a few elements of folklore & meld them with sci-fi or more literary approaches.

•These are all entertaining & interesting stories, several of which were touching or made me think about my assumptions. There is no strict theme that all the stories follow, but I think all of them play with identity & transformation: people changed by death, societal shifts, changes in an intimate relationship over time, spiritual transformation, physical distortions, etc.

•“The Inn of the Dead’s Orientation for Being a Japanese Ghost” is a hilarious story! It was one of my favorites in this collection.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•A few of the stories were a bit hard to follow at certain points. For example, in the titular story I didn’t understand why the woman who asked the narrator to buy tomatoes for her was crying…how exactly did the narrator betray her? And why did the narrator start dancing? I went back and listened to those sections a few times, but still couldn’t quite get what was being implied. I think it was mostly the futuristic/dystopian stories that felt a bit vague & confusing to me.

CW: child death, infidelity, infertility, suicide, domestic violence

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

I was so excited to read Where We Go When All We Were is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu because I loved his novel How High We Go in the Dark and I love short stories. I really enjoyed this one! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Brian Nishii and June Angela and they were both great! I loved that there were two narrators to portray the different perspectives. These stories revolve around the dead and I loved the story giving the rules for ghosts. It was interesting how each story was told in a different way and I liked the touches of the fantastical. Interesting writing for sure and I’m eager to read his future work.

What a wild ride! This book has genre-bending tales, short to long, phrases to ads, ghosts to monsters. Nagamatsu explores the history, mythology, and pop-culture of Japan with a sense of frolicsome joy. My favorite story, “The Passage of Time in the Abyss” is a sad mermaid fairy tale, about time travel and the conflict of Japan’s past vs future.

This collection made me chuckle, made me confused, made me emotional and made me think. That is why we read, isn’t it?

A beautifully written and narrated collection of short stories that will have you experiencing all of the “feels”. I don’t truly know how to best describe this other than you should stop what you’re doing and grab yourself a copy. It covers so many genres that are typically not my “go to”, but am so very glad I listened.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an audio copy to listen to in exchange for an honest review.

I don't know what drew me to this book but I'm so happy I gave it a chance. Honestly- I don't have much knowledge of Japanese myths and lore but I went down a bit of a Kaiju rabbit hole during this one. It was all just so much fun to delve into. I do wish these stores could be printed with illustrations- that would be an amazing accompaniment to the audio version.

Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu is a short story collection consisting of twelve magical and genre-bending stories.

This year I really fell in love with Nagamatsu's writing and this further cemented that. My favorite short stories include “The Return to Monsterland”, “The Passage of Time in the Abyss”, and “The Inn of the Dead’s Orientation for Being a Japanese Ghost.”

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is strange, magical, haunting, and beautiful all at the same time. This book instantly became one of my all-time favorites. It reminds me of another favorite of mine, Karin Tidbeck's Jagannath, but instead of Swedish folktales they are Japanese. Listening to the audiobook without reading the print book before, I found it a little hard to keep up with the first story "Return to Monsterland" because of the format it was written in, so I did re-listen to that one later and it made more sense the second time. As the book progresses, I started to understand the format and it really hit its stride at "The Inn of the Dead's Orientation for Being a Japanese Ghost," which also happens to be my favorite story. I love how each story had a different feel to it, there were mentions and references to upcoming and previous stories throughout. Nagamatsu effortlessly mixes comedy into tragedy in a way that reflects life perfectly. The two audiobook narrators did excellent work as well. I cannot recommend it enough!

I first read Nagamatsu's novel, How High we Go in the Dark, and was excited to see the short story collection already available. This collection has a dozen twists on Japanese folklore. Similar to his novel, some of the story reflects on humanity, some are creative and poetic, and some are just plain fun

Super Creative and a little Confusing.

I bow down to Sequoia Nagamatsu's imagination! This is the first time reading his work, but wow! How he weaves multiple short stories together into a full novel is amazing! I admit at times I found it hard to follow, but I wonder if it was because I was listening to the audiobook rather than reading. Nonetheless, the stories were filled with so much emotion and the characters were very well written. I am definitely going to look into reading more of his work.

I highly recommend this novel to everyone and anyone! Be sure to pick it up.

Thank You to Sequoia Nagamatsu and Dreamscape Media, for the audio-digital ARC provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Short story collections are usually very difficult for me to rate. There’s usually a couple I love, a couple I super don’t love, and several I like fine. It’s partly the nature of collections and partly the fact that I’m not much of a short story gal.

All that to say, I at least liked every one of these stories. They felt like Black Mirror, but make it Japanese folklore: creepy, poignant, strange, and loaded with social commentary and explorations of the human condition. The open-ended-ness of many of the stories only added to the tension and thought-provoking nature.

Nagamatsu’s use of voice was likewise impressive. Each story’s narrator has a distinct psychology that bleeds through in everything from sentence structure to the choices they make.

And the cherry on top—the audiobook is worthy of its content. Brian Nishii and June Angela did an incredible job bringing these characters to life, providing an immersive and engaging experience. I think hearing these stories spoken almost made them more haunting.

I wish I had enjoyed this more. I feel like I’m not quite smart or imaginative enough to fully understand all of these stories but, either way, I felt like they were constantly off on paths I couldn’t quite follow. There are a few gems here, but I fell asleep often and had to relisten to several of them and was still left feeling confused. The endings are all rather abrupt and not entirely satisfying. This isn’t a bad collection by any means, but it just wasn’t for me, unfortunately. The audiobook narrators are quite good, I will add.

Sequoia Nagamatsu has such a creative mind, and he is a master at weaving short stories together into full novels that encapsulate the book’s setting. This one, a world where kaiju roam the planet and yokai are more than mere stories, contains surreal wonders with surprisingly accessible characters.

While the stories are fantastical, the emotions each one evokes are relevant and relatable. Characters fret about doomed relationships, grieve for lost love ones, push aside their principles to fit in socially, and yearn for a chance to fix their mistakes. While there is a sense of melancholy throughout the book, there is also hope.

I loved How High We Go in the Dark and quite enjoyed this one, and I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be looking forward to any future works the author writes!

I found this book refreshing, heartbreaking, and unique. Equal parts poetry and sci-fi, each chapter transports us to another world while remaining refreshingly human. Highly recommend!

Weird and moving series of short stories. Some stories are weirder than others, some are more enjoyable than others, some are more disturbing than others. But all are unique and interesting

Where We Go When All We Were is Gone is a collection of surreal and unique short stories that combine modern Japan and ancient myth and folklore. Some of the stories are fantastic and some of them seem a little underdeveloped, but I think overall this is certainly worth the read.

A somewhat uneven collection of short stories rife with fantastical elements. Some stories were quite exceptional while some really felt undercooked. A woman fights hard to learn more and more about kaiju and fight for their rights, but told through the eyes of the family left behind. A man can grow his neck to impossible distances is involved in relationship strife. A lost child is replaced (as desired) by a shapeshifter. Tales of the fantastical with nods to Japanese mythology abound.

The cover is not just beautiful and eye-catching. I think it honestly fits the tone of the work within wonderfully. It looks a little sensitive, ethereal, and frankly....odd. This collection is set in modern Japan, where dead, undead, and several players from pop culture and legends work to coexist. From Godzilla to Momotaro, no magical being is left uninvolved. But there is an intense sympathy for the experience of contact with and embodiment of these different forms of life. Relatable lessons and universal truths are shared through these science fiction short stories. It's a few parts fun, a few parts chilling, and another few parts quite melancholy.

I thought this book was very well done, the short stories were interesting this is just not a genre that I usually read.