Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women features fourteen outstanding short stories from women that beautifully capture what it means to be both a woman and Asian.* Each author brings her own voice, perspective, experiences, and cultural history to the anthology, which gives it a robust and dynamic appeal. Whether the stories are based in science fiction, folklore, or the seemingly mundane world, each addresses the central themes in a unique way.

Here is my breakdown and thoughts on each story:

1. The Genetic Alchemist's Daughter (Elaine Cuyegkeng): A twisted tale about the pursuit of "perfection" and who defines it.

My thoughts: Wow. A fantastic way to start the anthology with hints of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and The Stepford Wives. I'd love to see this worked into a full-length novel.

2. Kapre: A Love Story (Rin Chupeco): Mythological creatures from the Philippines take center stage in an unconventional love story.

My thoughts: I'm a sucker for mythology and folklore, so this story satisfied on multiple levels. I loved the inclusion of different creatures that have wildly contrasting views on humanity and the relationship their kind should have with humanity.

3. A Pet Is For Life (Geneve Flynn): Featuring the kuchisake-onna (slit-mouthed woman) from Japanese urban legends, Flynn delivers a dark twist on predator and prey.

My thoughts: I freaking loved this story! Intensely visual and dark. I can absolutely see this as a horror movie.

4. Phoenix Claws (Lee Murray): Rooted in cultural bias and racism with a unique spin on the hungry ghost trope.

My thoughts: So twisted, and yet, despite the supernatural element, I can totally see the events of this story playing out as written.

5. Of Hunger and Fury (Grace Chan): Another spin on the hungry ghost myth, Chan creates a vibrant landscape filled with mystery and complex relationships.

My thoughts: A visceral entry that made me question reality. I'm still thinking about this one.

6. Skin Dowdy (Angela Yuriko Smith): One of the shortest stories in the anthology, this is a dark tale of technology, love, and revenge.

My thoughts: Although short, this is another story I can see making a great movie or a full-length novel. So many elements to explore and yet presented a complete, satisfying package.

7. Truth Is Order and Order Is Truth (Nadia Bulkin): A delightfully dark tale of Nyai Roro Kidul (Indonesian mermaid).

My thoughts: A little confusing at times, but overall, a dark twist on mermaids and the folklore that surrounds them in different cultures.

8. Rites of Passage (Gabriela Lee): A tale featuring the Philippine tiyanak (vampiric creature that takes on the form of an infant/toddler) and engkanto (mythic elemental forest spirits) that gives new life to the monstrous birth horror trope.

My thoughts: Dark, disturbing, and wildly imaginative. I loved this twisted-timeline story and again, would love to see it worked into a novel or even a movie.

9. The Ninth Tale (Rena Mason): Never try to outsmart a huli jing (Japanese fox spirit) or you just may end up reaping what you sow.

My thoughts: Another entry rooted in folklore and so beautifully written I was sad to see it end.

10. Vanilla Rice (Angela Yuriko Smith): Smith's second entry is no less powerful than her first. With a focus on identity and what makes us who we are, Vanilla Rice is a take of DNA manipulation gone awry.

My thoughts: We all have something we'd like to change about ourselves, but what if the choice of making that change was taken from us? Are we truly who we're meant to be? Short and though-provoking, and definitely one of my favorite.

11. Fury (Christina Sng): Set in the future on another planet, Fury is one of the longer stories and explores what it means to be human.

My thoughts: A solid science fiction story that has a few of my favorite elements: a strong female protagonist, a unique spin on zombies, and best of all, a cat!

12. The Mark (Grace Chan): Chan's second offering is no less disturbing than her first. A woman discovers a strange mark on her husband's torso and begins to question everything.

My thoughts: Vivid writing once again builds a complex relationship that will have you questioning if this is a tale of body snatchers or a woman mad with grief.

13. Frangipani Wishes (Lee Murray): Murray pulls off a rare second person point-of-view story about the lengths one will go to in order to better themselves with the flair of a classic Twilight Zone episode.

My thoughts: This started out a little confusing because of the second person POV, but I soon got into the meat of the story and was not expecting the twisted ending.

14. Little Worm (Geneve Flynn): Playing with the myth of the kwee kia, this story makes you wonder if the characters are actually faced with a "ghost child" or are they simply dealing with generational trauma.

My thoughts: Flynn's second story was my favorite of the anthology. I really wanted this to be longer because I didn't want it to end, and yet the ending was so perfect, I couldn't have asked for a better way to wrap up this wonderful anthology.

Overall, I loved Black Cranes and will definitely be seeking out more stories from these authors. They each have strong, powerfully unique voices that must be heard in all their glory, and this anthology is a fantastic way to discover them.



*For the record, I'm not Asian but have been close friends with women who are, including daughters of Asian immigrants--specifically, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines--for years and have witnessed their struggles. However, I do not make any claim to fully understand those struggles as I am, after all, only an outsider to their respective cultures and families despite years long friendships.

This was a delightfully creepy short story collection.
As with nearly every anthology, of course I didn’t like all the stories, but I did enjoy most of them and even the ones I did not like were well written.
Horror is a relatively new genre for me, but this was a great introduction.
I am fully aware that I will never completely understand what the authors wrote about and expressed through their stories, but all of them were written in a way that most people can understand them and feel for the characters.
I loved all the furious women in this story, especially the monstrous ones and will definitely be diving into the lore of many of these stories and check out other works by the authors.

All in all well worth reading, but be aware that these stories are dark and not light and fluffy. It is Horror, after all.

lma Katsu’s forward is a tribute to the power of Asian women in horror. Previewing the stories to be told, Katsu informs the reader they are about to experience tales of folklore, loss, and power by women who refuse to adhere to stereotypes. Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women proclaims these are the tales of unquiet women. Each is an author whose voice needs to be heard.

Stories of folklore and identity feature throughout. “Kapre: A Love Story” by Rin Chupeco introduces us to Kapre, a monster from Philippine mythology. Kapre finds his rage quieted by a young girl and proceeds to watch over her for years to come despite the pain of their different worlds tearing at his heart. While other monsters push Kapre to embrace his true nature, Chupeco finds the humanity in monsters to present a stirring and heartwarming story.

“A Pet is for Life” by Geneve Flynn brings us a young woman who works in an animal shelter and adores her rescue dog. Approached one day by the Kuchisake-Onna, the “Slit-Mouth Woman” with a wicked pair of scissors, our heroine reveals she’s more than meets the eye with how she deals with monsters. Flynn writes suspensefully and skillfully, but also with a startling amount of empathy and compassion.

Grace Chan’s “Of Hunger and Fury” explores integration and the sacrifices expected to achieve it. This is a story of culture, loss, and of hunger and rage. Chan also examines what this means when the memories are not joyous, all through the eyes of a hungry and wrathful ghost.

The premise of integration continues in Angela Yuriko Smith’s “Vanilla Rice,” which carries the resonating themes of mixed identity. A short but impactful story, Smith presents the challenges of attempting to fit in elsewhere and the impact it can have on a family.

“Fury,” by Christina Sng is a zombie tale where a young woman raised in the military tries to find a cure for her father. Sng gifts the reader with a bleak story but offers rays of hope and the courage of holding on to identity.

DNF'd halfway through the third story. I really liked the first story but could not get into the second and third story. This collection of short stories was just not for me.

Almond-eyed celestial, the filial daughter, the perfect wife. Quiet, submissive, demure. In Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Southeast Asian writers of horror both embrace and reject these traditional roles in a unique collection of stories which dissect their experiences of ‘otherness’, be it in the colour of their skin, the angle of their cheekbones, the things they dare to write, or the places they have made for themselves in the world.

Black Cranes is a dark and intimate exploration of what it is to be a perpetual outsider.

Featuring 14 stories by Nadia Bulkin, Grace Chan, Rin Chupeco, Elaine Cuyegkeng, Geneve Flynn, Gabriela Lee, Rena Mason, Lee Murray, Angela Yuriko Smith, and Christina Sng, and a foreword by Alma Katstu.

This is a beautiful re-release, by Raw Dog Screaming Press, of the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award-winning anthology ‘Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women,’ with a new afterword by Nancy Holder. It’s quite evident why it was critically acclaimed everywhere in 2020, upon first release: it’s a top-quality anthology, covering all the bases, from science fiction to fantasy, though, unfortunately, not as much horror as I would have liked. The fact that I enjoyed the book anyway, reveals how good it is! Dark, feminist fiction seems to flourish nowadays, and this anthology offers the best in the genre. There are cyberpunk societies, zombie apocalypses, family curses, all seen through Asian folklore. Particular standouts for me were ‘The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter’ by Elaine Cuyegkeng (minor complaint: perhaps it’s too good a story to be in the beginning of the anthology), ‘The Mark’ by Grace Chan (I felt really lost in this story, and even now I’m not sure what the point was, but I loved the writing!), and, well, of course, ‘A Pet is for Life’ by Feneve Flynn, which had a jaw-dropping twist. So, if you like speculative fiction, focusing on race, folklore, gender, and social criticism and/or allegories, this is the best volume around for you!

**Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

A great anthology that bookstores and libraries should absolutely purchase.

I picked Black Cranes up because it features a story by Alma Katsu. Her writing is fantastic! I enjoyed her story just about all the others in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital review copy.

Black Cranes is a collection of short stories about Southeast Asian women rejecting and breaking down traditional roles. I absolutely loved these stories. Almost every single one of them had me entranced – which I think is really rare in a collection like this one. I was completely hooked already by the first story and couldn’t book the book down until I’d finished it.

The stories generally were very well written with horror elements I enjoyed, and I’d recommend this to pretty much anyone who likes good stories. I hope you’ll check out this book and give it a read – I promise you won’t regret it!

Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women is a Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award winning anthology from 2020 featuring all Southeast Asian authors and editors. Now it has been republished by the wonderful Raw Dog Screaming Press.

Stories in this anthology take on topics such as the demands put on Southeast Asian women to be the perfect daughter, wife, and mother. Several of the stories weave a wonderful mix of horror and science fiction. Others include Asian mythology elements. All these stories show women who are strong and "unquiet" while still embracing their heritage.

I really enjoyed this collection and I would highly recommend giving it a read.

This is a great collection ex0loring Asian folklore and its intersection with the roles, struggles, and joys of womanhood in these cultures. Duty is a heavy load. While Westerners experience it differently, we can still recognize ourselves in these universal themes. I remember liking some stories so much that I went back to find the authors to look up other works. When I went back, I couldn't find or remember exactly what I was looking for, which had touched more than others. It was an odd sensation often described in the book. I can't wait to see more from each of them! Many seem early in their careers or focused on short works that often don't get their due in a market of novels.

There is about an even split between folklore infused fantasy, speculative / science fiction, and blending of the two. If you are only a fan of one or the other, keep that in mind and focus on your faves.

Black Cranes is a selection of short stories based on folklore from Asia and Oceania with creepy horror vibe. Some of the stories were modern and some were historical. They all featured women's issues of community, romance, childbirth, and identity, which I found really connected to my heart. I'm new to horror but I gravitate towards books written by Asian-Americans, especially with the interaction between cultures. My favorite story was Phoenix Claws by Lee Murray, which was about a women who takes her white partner to dimsum and he refuses to eat the chicken feet, which then haunt her. I thought it addressed themes of food, family and culture but in a funny, creepy way. Horror is not my genre of choice but I loved these stories. Highly recommend it to any fans of Rin Chupeco (who has a story included in this collection), R. F. Kuang, Sunyi Dean, Sumiko Saulson, and Maxine Hong Kingston.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Black Cranes is a short story anthology. All of the stories are Inspired by folklore and mythology from Asia and Australia.

As with any short story collection, some of the stories are better than others. If you are fan of horror, this is definitely a book to check out. So worth it.

This was a book I was dying to read and I gotta say I loved it. I took my time with it but it was something I really enjoyed and will spend money to buy.

Raw Dog Screaming Press has done the world a glorious favor in returning BLACK CRANES to print. This powerhouse collection of short horror stories by Southeast Asian writers features works from amazing fresh talent to watch and publishing legends alike, all operating at the top of their game. An eloquent, terrifying, moving, and thought-provoking group of works!

Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women is a haunting and terrifying anthology of stories that will certainly leave an impression. Like all anthologies, some of the stories are better than others. What that means for this collection is that some stories are great while others are merely very good. Yes, sarcasm has been detected because this is an amazing collection!

Inspired by folklore and mythology from Asia and Australia, this was a very enjoyable read. From ancient Japan to a futuristic settlement modeled after a region in Southeast Asia established on a far away planet, these stories cover a wide range of locations and many female-centric topics.

Recommended for: lovers of short stories and horror

Content warning: body horror; monsters/zombies/ghosts; blood & bloody scenes

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Zombies, monsters, ghost food, switched husbands, genetically-modified daughters, nine-tailed foxes, demons in love, furious women. Black Cranes is a collection of stories from Southeast Asian women exploring weirdness and otherness, borrowing from Asian mythology, imagining futures, and subverting stereotypes. This is dark fiction with depth, horror, and occasional humour.

Motherhood is a recurring theme; there are overbearing and demanding mothers, and mothers who sacrifice everything for their children. There are dutiful daughters, and daughters who’ve had enough. There’s lots of gore, and body horror, but it’s never gratuitous. The overarching theme is women (with non-binary representation): strong, wrong, complicated, twisted, divine, confused, young, old, in love and out of love, controlling, grieving, powerful, and powerless. But, above all, this collection succeeds on the level of story, with a wonderful array of imaginative writing.

Thank you to Raw Dog Screaming Press and to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Black Cranes
by Lee Murray, Geneve Flynn, Nadia Bulkin, Elaine Cuyegkeng, Rin Chupeco, Grace Chan, Angela Yuriko Smith, Gabriela Lee, Rena Mason, Christina Sng, Nancy Holder, Alma Katsu

ARC from NetGalley
Pub Day: 3/23/23

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love horror stories, but I have only been consuming them since I met my husband 12 years ago. A lot of those stories have been by writers, directors, and game designers who are all men and mostly white men. In 2020 I realized I had never read a horror novel by a woman and set out to fix that. A few months ago as I was browsing through NetGalley I saw Black Cranes with the tagline, “stories of unquiet women.” I requested it immediately. This is a horror story collection by Asian women and it was so fun to read.

Giving compiled short story collections a single star rating is tough and there are too many for me to rate them individually in an IG post, so I’ll just briefly run down why I gave the book, as a whole, 5 stars.

Every story was well written. While I might find some stories more compelling than others, none of the writing itself was subpar. Each tale had a unique voice and interesting characters. A few of the stories ended too soon in my opinion, but that just means I need to seek out those author’s other works.

It was well compiled. The editors that put this collection together made really good decisions on which stories to pick and how to order them in the book. I never got whiplash from the ending of one story and the beginning of another and that is really important when trying to string together a bunch of different stories, with different styles and different points of view. I think it was masterfully done.

Finally there are so many different types of stories. There are tales of folk monsters set in the past. Tales of folk monsters set in the present. There are sci-fi tales of transhumanism gone wrong. There is even a zombie story and an addition to the Lovecraft mythos. There is something for everyone. I highly recommend this collection.

#BookReview #BlackCranes #Bookstagram #NetGalley #UnquietRevolution #WomenInHorror

Rating: 3.5/5

As it always happens with collections of stories, there is a tendency for the reader to end up enjoying some more than others, and this book was no exception. Hence, it has not been totally perfect for me.
I generally take this opportunities to read a little from each genre, sometimes even combined. The experience in this case was surprisingly rewarding, because the stories have elements of horror, speculative fiction, and dystopian. Overall, I highly recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley, the authors and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

WOW! and SPEECHLESS are my immediate and continuing responses to this incredible Anthology containing 14 exceptional stories by 10 amazing Asian female horror authors! Beginning with a stunning introduction by Alma Katsu--an author I greatly admire-on through to the end, these authors peel back the veils solidified by millenia of ugly stereotyping and shortsighted bigotry, as well as Traditional Asian upbringing (which of course diverges according to individual nations and ethnicities) to reveal what is at the heart of the matter: Beneath the overlays, all are human. These authors are human, female, Asian, and they choose to express through far-ranging Speculative Fiction, including Horror and Futuristic Science Fiction. A reader will do poorly to miss out on this imagination-expanding, enlightening, Anthology.

As the world warms up, the daffodils bloom, and reading outside becomes comfortable again, it's time to open up a collection of stories in one of my favorite genres- horror written by women. Black Cranes is an award-winning collection of short stories by Asian writers that highlight "unquiet women," women who don't conform to the racist and sexist stereotypes of Asian women. From "The Genetic Alchemist's Daughter," a story about altering children to fit the expectations of their parents, to "A Pet is For Life," about a woman with a soft spot for the unwanted and the monstrous, these stories sing with fierce depth and a appreciation for the people who refuse to shrink themselves to fit a world too small for them. Creatures from Southeast Asian folktales abound, from fox spirits to mermaids, with zombies, vampires, and terrifying babies making appearances. "The Ninth Tale" follows a huli jing, a fox spirit, as she finds a life to absorb to grow her ninth tail, and is my favorite of the selection, though all are excellent.