In the fictional Chinese city of Yong'an, humans and beasts live side by side. The beasts mostly look like humans, but each has something that sets them apart – perhaps a serrated earlobe or a strange birthmark. The narrator went to college to study these strange beasts before dropping out to become a writer. Now, she writes stories about these strange beasts. Each chapter of this book features a different type of beast and her interactions with one or more of them, as well as with her former professor and his assistant.

This was a very unique and fascinating story! The tone of the story seemed kind of morose or existential, especially as the book went on. I would definitely recommend this book those who like quirky or different stories.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book.

Like all other mythology, Chinese mythic stories are parables about aspects and characteristics of human behavior. Yan Ge offers a similar set of fairy tales all set in a fictional Chinese town where humans live, love, and occasionally despise spirits and monsters. Each chapter offers a new story about a particular type of creatures like Sorrowful Creatures, who will die if they smile, or Sacrificial Beasts who can't stop dying. The tales are quite interesting and the story overall offers both insight into Chinese archetypes and human behavior.

[as published on goodreads.com]

I’m not sure how I feel about this book. Parts of this magical tale were indeed, magic and otherworldly. Others became a bit monotonous and repetitive. Perhaps because, in part, this story was written like a scientific paper or bestiary. It is rare for me to want to put a book down, especially one as creative and as different as Strange Beasts of China, and I almost did. Almost, but I stuck it out and was rewarded. The story built upon itself and transformed into quite an enchanting story. I did wonder if some of what made this a difficult read for me arose from cultural differences either on my part for not understanding the humor or just a gag reaction to all the puking or near-puking that the narrator did.

Each chapter spotlights a different type of beast and each chapter starts out like a zoology text identifying the characteristics of the beast by means of observation just as the narrator mixes her zoological background with her current occupation as a novelist, and now reporter.

The narrator is a former zoology-student-turned-novelist, who has been hired by the local newspaper to provide stories about the various, strange beasts. The book is part detective story, part bestiary, and is an exploration of the people who make up the inhabitants of the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an. The narrator exhibits a certain playfulness in her approach to life with a simple naivité that, like life itself, often reveals the dark underbelly of what being human really means.

I don't think that this is quite a 4/5 but it is close.

Thank you #NetGalley and #DreamscapeMedia for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. #StrangeBeastsofChina

While the world of the beasts was interesting the relationships between the characters were not relatable. They felt forced and unnecessarily hostile at every turn. This may be a cultural thing that isn’t translating for me as an American. Also, the actual translation was often awkward.

PS I’ve never read a book that has so many instances of vomiting. I didn’t enjoy that either.

This book is for fans of Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent series. The plot revolves around one woman’s studies of the strange beasts that live in her province in China. There isn’t a lot of action but there is a lot of world-building and detail. It’s definitely a slow burn.

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (translation by Jeremy Tiang)
Publishing date: August 1, 2006 (China), July 13, 2021 (US)

Date read: August 19, 2021



In the fictional Chinese town of Yong’an, humans live alongside various races of beasts, many of which look almost identical to humans. Our narrator, an author and former cryptozoology student, tells us the history of these beasts as she researches them for her stories. Each short story follows the following narrative: a brief history of the beast and any common knowledge about their race, a personal story of the authors interaction with someone of that race, a recap of the race in general, with new information or clearing up any false information from the original summary.

Story list: Sorrowful Beasts; Joyous Beasts; Sacrificial Beasts; Impasse Beasts; Flourishing Beasts; Thousand League Beasts; Heartsick Beasts; Prime Beasts; Returning Beasts.

Note: this book was originally published In Chinese in 2006, but is only now being published in the United States.

Okay, this is a difficult book to review. But I’m going to do my best.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the narrative style at first, with the stories being told as though the author was writing a nonfiction text, but it didn’t take me long to get the feel of it. And I found the wrap-up at the end of each story very useful on some of the more confusing tales.

There is a little bit lost in translation, I’m sure, but I found that most of the text translated well. The only thing that I think an American audience might find off-putting is some of the interpersonal relationships in the book, especially the narrator and her professor. I don’t know how university labs work in China, but to this American, his treatment of her was rather cruel and it was hard to understand her reverence at times. I didn’t take this as poor writing, though, just a difference in culture.

As for the stories about the beasts themselves, most of them I found really cool. Especially at the beginning of the book, the stories were stand alone and wrapped up pretty well. (My favorite story was “Sacrificial Beasts”. Around “Thousand League Beasts”, the underlying thread began to get more complicated and, frankly, pretty confusing. But this isn’t a deterrent - just a warning. It’s worth the read, and most confusion is cleared up by the end. There were still a few parts that I found confusing, but I still felt pretty satisfied by the end.

I do recommend this book, but go into it with an open mind. It’s unlike anything I’ve read before and is definitely book that will be running through my brain for a while.

Rating: 4/5

Trigger Warnings: euthanization (off page)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

This book is incredibly strange and interesting. The storytelling is bold and uncomfortable, but also beautiful and engaging. Told as a sort of anthology of tales about different "beasts", the story is held together by the thread of the main character's life. Certain other characters in her life come and go through different chapters, but she remains to hold the story threads together.

The audio narrator does a very good job conveying the feelings of each unique story and they way that those stories effect the main character. The stories have a sort of horror edge to them and twists endings that you rarely see coming, even after having read 5 similar twists already.

There is definitely a social commentary about people being made through these individual stories and each one made me happy, and sad, and horrified, and contemplative. I very much recommend this book to others, but think that you really need to be in the right mood for it's wierdness.

So so interesting. I loved the way this book was laid out, each type of "beast" was a different chapter with a different story associated. It felt to me like kind of like a TV show as a book. I would recommend this to a friend.

Emily Woo Zeller really brings alive the intoxicating and ineffable magic of Strange Beasts of China. I could not have imagined a better reader for this wonderful book; see my original review for SBoC below but add in Zeller's fantastic narration:

Part modern-day bestiary, part mystery novel, part short story collection, part morality play; this matter-of-fact modern fantasy didn't really click until I read that this novel was a collection of short stories written by Yan Ge and published in student magazines over years. Even now, it is a hard book to recommend as its perfunctory and matter-of-fact style will not gel with every person. I consider it a tragic, poetic paean to different and coexistence and the inability for us to accept or explore cultural clashes because of our own racism and the meddling of war-hungry, money obsessed isolationist corporations and governments.

Strange Beasts of China takes place in the fictional city of Yong’an where Beasts live alongside humans: a variety of creatures who possess certain instinctual, aesthetic, ethical, and/or magical powers different from humans. Centring the story is the nameless protagonist, a former zoology student, now living the life of a bohemian degenerate author, writing quick romances for the city's newspaper publisher.

My favourite of these stories are late into the book: Heartsick Beasts and Prime Beasts. Heartsick Beasts are synthetic beasts, costing 88000 yuan that you can make look like anyone by feeding them very specific diets in their early weeks; great for socializing your child and helping them become successful in academic and social spheres; after five years, they are repossessed and disposed of. In this, the protagonist is faced with the way the government and corporations are able to start war and induce fear in its citizenry of an Enemy; and it bookends a set of stories that show the overreach of mobs to force the genocide of other species of Beasts.

Prime Beasts, on the other hand, deals with a much more personal phenomena: race mixing and the fear and reprisal of community. I enjoyed this a lot more because, whether intended or not, there is a parallel in this story to American and Canadians who are lied to and told about some far flung Native ancestry and the rightful shame and danger that puts them and Native communities in to revel in these lies, and the isolation and stereotypes it perpetuates.

All the stories deal with some kind of social or economic disparity, one tangentially touches slightly on China's one-child-policy. As I do not know more about Chinese politics (a product of American/Canadian propaganda and the limits of publishing history and sociology from modern China in English), many of the stories' depth were a bit lost on me, and I was forced to enjoy just a nice, twisty story on its own. Which wasn't the end of the world, because the beasts are creative and disparate and beautiful.

In the end, I enjoyed my time with Strange Beasts of China, and I will be seeking more work from Yan Ge, as her writing style meshed with my interests once I understood the more holistic circumstances of her writing. Do I recommend it? Hard to say. Melville House has a sample of the first chapter on their website, and while I normally do not find samples enlightening, in this case, I really do recommend it if you are interested in the bizarre half-fantasy magical realist mode and don't mind feeling a little bit ephemeral.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for a honest review.

tbh I enjoyed most of the world-building parts but this book has some serious sexists undertones and that bothered me quite a lot.

Thank you netgalley and Dreamscape Media for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

"There is a city in the south that is full of beasts. Beasts who rage and love, gather and leave. Just as humans do."

This story follows a zoologist-turned-author as she learns and shares the stories of the "beasts" in her fictional city. Each chapter focuses on a different type of beast. Some of the stories of the beasts are heartbreaking. Some are beautiful. The author forces us to examine our role as humans as we learn more about the beasts and the ways they are treated. Beasts that look just like us, but are still other.

The narrator is wonderful. This was just a joy to listen to on my daily commute. it really helped to unwind at the end of a stressful day. Sometimes a book is just worth it for that alone.

This was a weird listen for me, I dont know if it is because I don't know a lot about chinese mythos or if the book just did not explain a lot but I was pretty confused.

I was very excited about this story so it saddens me to say that I don’t seem to be the right reader for it. I expected something beautiful and meaningful and, while I’ve witnessed hints of meaningfulness, I haven’t felt it encapsulates beauty. The repetitiveness, which I know may be a flaw of the translation and not the original work, is especially ruining the story for me, but the pacing isn’t helping matters either.

Because of this, I am choosing to abandon the book without finishing. I’m truly grateful to Dreamscape Media for my audio review copy and wish this listening experience could have had a better outcome.

Eerie, weird, melancholic, with a strong side of ‘what did I just read??’, it’s surprisingly difficult to put my thoughts into words. I can confidently say Strange Beasts of China is like no other book I’ve ever read. Written in a short story-like format, with each chapter centering around a different kind of “beast’ residing in Yong An city, readers are brought through a surreal tale that asks, ‘what makes humanity, humanity?’

Strange Beasts of China is set in an alt-modern day China, in the city of Yong An. Mankind and ‘beasts’ (humanoid looing beings with distinct non-human features) have co-habited this world for all of history, living together, working side-by-side, and even the cross-species marriage. Yet, it’s clear from the get go that it’s humankind who are the dominant species, and these various species of beasts live at humanities graces. Our main character, a young female novelist, regularly writes fiction centering these beasts, and each chapter explores her encounters with a different type of species.

While at first the encounters are viewed through the observations as a third party: an acquaintance has fallen in love with a beast, a niece likes seeing a certain type of beast in the zoo, our MC quickly finds herself more and more intertwined with these different beings. It’s clear there’s hidden history, that there’s deepset traumas our MC has no inclination to explore until forcibly confronted. And confronted with these traumas she is. I joke that the summary of this book be “everyone around MC fucks monsters while MC gets depression”, but it’s a surprisingly apt summary.

Of course, the further the story progresses and the more the MC’s beast-y interactions become intertwined with her own life’s story, shit gets weird. This is really where those horror atmosphere/surreal elements come in. Between the Yong An’s government’s cheerful willingness to take very extreme actions and MC’s own inward spiral of mental stability, I found myself questioning the very words I’d just listened to, trying in vain to piece together details the logical ways. The twists and turns in this are truely dellightful.

I listed to this over audiobook and I have to commend the narrator with a fantastic delivery. Our MC, who remains nameless, acts almost as a vehicle for the reader through this strange, bizzare tale and the narrator does an excellent job feeding into the feelings of glee, hurt, confusion, and desperation. Between Ge’s plain yet emotionally impactful writing style and the excellent emotional delivery, I was simply hooked.

Overall, I rate this book a 4.5/5. Such surreal, melancholic story telling with an atmospheric horror element. In just 10 hours, Ge manages to construct a beautifully interconnected city of humans, beasts, and the relationships that form between.

I enjoyed listening to the different stories about the beasts of China. The story flowed very well and the stories were interesting but I felt lost listening to them. There is probably a history and story linked to them that I didn't know but felt would have made this easier to understand. Still, I got lost in their stories, which despite being separate, distinct stories all wove right into each other. The narrator did a wonderful job - her voice was so soothing, even when the subject matter got a little disturbing.

Strange Beasts of China is a collection of stories about the fabled beasts of China. Some are popular beasts, known throughout the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an, while others are mere rumor, with very little known except their name. Throughout the stories, our narrator reaches out to her former cryptozoologist professor for guidance. He, in turn, sends his assistant to help her document certain beasts for her publisher - and her paycheck. During this investigation into the mysteries of the beasts living among them, the narrator learns more about her own identity, her professor, her parentage, and humanity itself.

The audiobook, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller, is beautifully done.

There may be some profound meaning to these connected short stories, but it went completely over my head. Maybe it’s necessary to be familiar with Chinese myths or its traditional treatment of magic. The book had a tone that was both whimsical and melancholy. Although I found the book puzzling, I didn’t hate it. The unnamed protagonist is a writer who studied science with a professor with whom she still has a complicated relationship. She now writes fiction based on the various beasts who live in China. Each chapter introduces a different beast, first by describing their mythical and strange characteristics, and then stating that “other than that, they were just like human beings”. The story proceeds to describe some human/beast interaction, which usually ends sadly. The story concludes with a summation of the more realistic traits of the beasts. I would probably read more by this author and the narration by Emily Woo Zeller of the audiobook was very good. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher.

A strange and often unsettling read, but felt so different to anything else I've read lately. I liked how the chapters were broken up to represent each beast - it made the stories more accessible/understandable, and also felt like a science textbook with the short wrap-up of the "strange beast" at the end of the chapter. While each chapter focused on one specific beast, they all ties together chronologically sharing the story about the main character.

The writing itself sometimes felt a little choppy, though I believe this title was translated which would account for some of the elementary dialogue. Rounding up to a 4 because it was so bizarre and worth reflecting on!

In the fictional city of Yong'an, a nameless narrator delivers vignettes of the variety of beasts that exist in the city. Each segment of the story focuses on one type of beast and each chapter has an almost formulaic layout which starts with a description of the species, then introduces the narrator (who is an author of a newspaper column about the beasts) to a beast of that species, then ends with some kind of reveal which makes the reader think deeper about the beasts and humanity as a whole. As the book progresses, we learn more and more about the author as well.

As a whole, I found this book to be both lyrical and whimsical while also being melancholy, cynical, and thought-provoking. There was symbolism and metaphor and allegory in abundance which combined with the narrative structure and the cultural connotations/translation, I'm positive a lot of it went over my head. That being said, I thought the experience was so much fun - knowing that I wasn't "getting" it all didn't hinder the experience and am looking forward to rereading when I get my own copy!

I had a hard time finding time to stop playing the audiobook, I found myself making excuses to clean or bake so I could listen. This story was the perfect combination of beautiful writing and strange story line. I felt this was a fresh read/listen from the books I normally find myself reading.