Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

Before reading this Chinese horror short story anthology, most of what I knew from Chinese horror came from horror movies, podcasts about the mythology and urban legends and finally online creepy pastas and so I was incredibly intrigued by this anthology to see what else was out there. Starting out I was immediately further intrigued and encouraged by the editor’s introduction where she talks about how it was initially hard to find Chinese horror she wanted to include in her anthology, especially while avoiding violent misogyny. This made me very excited to read the short stories as it can be incredibly tiring to read an anthology and read story after story by cishet male authors with misogynistic characters. It definitely made me hopeful that I would encounter something new and interesting and get to read stories with interesting characters. I also appreciated that trigger warnings are given in the front of the book, but that the page also includes a spoiler warning if you're the type of person who'd rather skip them. One thing I also found incredibly interesting is that after each short story we are given a short editor's note providing cultural knowledge as well as a biography of the author and sometimes thoughts by the editor, which made the stories even more interesting to me.
The short stories themselves encompass a wide variety from horrors born from our modern times to traditional ghost stories to futuristic technological terrors and include ghosts, futuristic technology, monsters, serial killers and more and travel across the vast expanse of China to include local folklore from various corners of the country. The stories take place in small isolated mountain villages, in vast expanses of forest, but also in small inner city apartments or at university. The stories also often explore societal ails from the downsides of technology to small mountain village medicine, misogyny or the troubles of finding an affordable home near Beijing. While not all short stories where to my exact liking, there were others I really enjoyed. As each short story was written by a different author, but translated by the same translator, I found the writing style to flow well together, without the stories becoming repetitive or boring.
All in all, this is a really interesting short story collection and one I can absolutely recommend if you enjoy or are simply interested in reading more Chinese horror. As the horror is not too extreme, I think this can also be interesting for people who can’t handle more brutal horror or those who enjoy the psychological build-up of dread (but there is also more than enough blood and gorey deaths for those horror fans who do enjoy a gruesome murder :D). I really enjoyed how many different horror aspects are covered by this anthology and was never bored (because again, even if one of the short stories wasn’t to my liking, I knew there’d be another one I’d surely love!)! And there are quite a few short stories I loved in here, my favorite being: The Waking Dream by Fan Zhao, Immortal Beauty by Chu Xidao, Those Who Walk at Night, Walk With Ghosts by She Cong Ge, Have you Heard of Ancient Glory by Zhou Dedong and Ti’Naang by Su Min.
All in all, I am deeply thankful I received an ARC of this book and very happy that I got to gain this amazing view into Chinese horror and can only recommend it to anybody who enjoys horror!

The Girl in the Rain by Hong Niangzi: A short story following a triad of university students, two girls and one boy, who encounter terrifying urban legends on their way back to their dorms from university. At times the horror felt a bit contrived, particularly after the second twist in the end, but I liked the urban legends horror in the beginning a lot as well as the first twist. Definitely an interesting beginning to this anthology. tw: cheating, murder, suicide, childhood trauma, coercion

*FAV* The Waking Dream by Fan Zhou: A futuristic horror about the future of work, where thanks to new technology workers can go to the office in their dreams. This seems to be fine for most people, but for one worker who has always had problems with nightmares, it becomes an incredible burden. Very interesting and incredibly haunting this showcases the dangers of capitalism and technology encroaching on the private home and inner lives of people, I quite enjoyed it! I also wonder if the translation choices of “men” vs “females” and “the healthy” vs “disableds” was intentional, because if so. Very interesting in showing the different treatment of marginalized groups of people. tw: suicide, murder, spiders, body horror, coercion, drugs, depiction of mental illness, needles, imprisonment

*FAV* Immortal Beauty by Chu Xidao: A more traditional ghost story about love and betrayal and vengeful wives, this story follows the wife of a powerful man, who replaces her with the younger model all too soon. Gruesome violence and incredible rage flows through this story and I adored it! Angry ghosts vs misogynistic society is always a fun story! Tw: misogyny, murder, domestic violence, abuse, graphic violence, imprisonment, sexual abuse, torture

*FAV* Those Who Walk At Night, Walk With Ghosts by She Cong Ge: A rather long ghost story set in a small mountain town where a young doctor insists on leaving to bring an old man to the hospital despite the warnings of everybody else in the village. Felt more like a traditional Chinese horror story, but manages to become interesting both with the way superstitions and folk medicine meet modern medicine, all while history is much more alive than anybody thinks, very well written and builds dread incredibly well. Also historically very interesting. Tw: graphic injury, death, alcohol, needles, torture.

The Yin Yang Pot by Chuan Ge: A young man looking for a place to eat meets and old flame and decides to share the same Yuanyang pot with her as they did before they lost touch, only this time she is weirdly insistent he not eat from the white side of the dish. But can he handle the heat to keep his promise? An interesting ghost story with a fascinating twist at the end. Tw: car accident, suicide mention, imprisonment

The Shaxiao by Goodnight Xiaoqing: A warrior dreaming of fighting monsters and rescuing maidens finds his dreams shattered when he finally encounters his first real monster and finds himself defenseless. Interesting and I enjoyed how common fantasy tropes were turned on their heads here. Tw: death, animal death, domestic abuse, imprisonment, torture, implied sexual assault

*FAV* Have you Heard of Ancient Glory by Zhou Dedong: A young couple finally finds an apartment they can afford, but something incredibly weird is going on as they notice that none of their neighbors ever turn on the lights. Very scary and with an interesting twist on the haunted house trope. I really enjoyed it! Tw: death, suicide, mental illness, ptsd, trauma, alcohol, imprisonment

Records of Xiangxi by Nanpai Sanshu: The longest short story in the collection by far (it alone takes up 50 pages of the collection) tells of a grandchild piecing together a story from folklore that their grandfather used to tell them before he died, engaging in research and travels, connecting a few pieces of folklore from a specific region to gain a full picture of the folklore from there. The longest part of the short story is taken up by a retelling of a group of military men being tasked to carry a child sacrifice up the mountain to protect the town. It is an interesting story, but really very long. If you are interested in folklore and military horror this might interest you more than it did me. I found the horror very well done though and found myself filled with dread at times, but was not particularly interested in the characters, which is a personal issue of mine and will certainly not apply to every reader. Tw: child death, death, gore, body horror, corpses, alcohol, graphic violence, insects, racial/religious slurs, torture

*FAV* The Ghost Wedding by Yimei Tangguo: A horrifying story about a small town kidnapping a woman to find a suitable bride for one of their town’s young men. Very violent and gruesome and with a focus on the all too human monsters among us this story is sickening and great. I loved it, but you need to have a strong stomach for it! tw: abduction, human trafficking, rape, suicide, very violent domestic abuse, animal abuse, child abuse, childhood trauma, threats of graphic violent punishment, unsanitary, dehumanization, self-harm, strangulation, torture

Night Climb by Chi Hui: During a hike up the mountain at night to arrive on top in time to see the sunrise a climber encounters a group of very strange beings also travelling towards the top of the mountain, very short, but interesting and I enjoyed reading about a fat character in here as well!

Forbidden Rooms by Zhou Haohui: A saw-like trap is set for a neighbor who heard a little child cry in her apartment and did nothing until it was too late. She wakes up in a locked room with the child’s father, who had abandoned the boy with his father and receives phone calls that might lead her to freedom. Very intense and quite interesting. tw: child death, child neglect, murder, violence, starvation, voyeurs, strangulation, suicide, torture

*FAV* Ti’Naang by Su Min: A young woman returns to her hometown to introduce her fiancé to her family, but soon the town’s secret and the father’s temper start to cause issues. Really interesting story, heartbreaking as well and I loved the dread it built a lot. Tw: domestic abuse, child abuse, childhood trauma, gaslighting, racial/religious slurs

Huangcun by Cai Jun: An author is approached by a person from a small town that featured in his latest book during a book signing. The only problem is that he made the town up. Intrigued by this coincidence, he accompanies the reader to her hometown and discovers that something incredibly strange is going on in Huangcun. Really great story with many references to western horror stories as well, which I found interesting. Tw: suicide, childhood trauma, domestic abuse, graphic violence, racial/religious slurs, self-harm

The Death of Nala by Gu Shi: A mother who is terribly afraid of her son, a young boy who seems to take pleasure in cruelty, reaches her breaking point when she adopts a little kitten only to find it dead in her son’s hands. Interesting look at mental health issues, but I do wish the child had been given a bit more depth instead of simply being a “natural born killer”. tw: animal death, child death, murder, cruelty, graphic violence, imprisonment, mental illness, strangulation, ptsd