Sinophagia is a well curated celebration of Chinese Horror. While not every story landed for me, the project as a whole is intriguing, and Xueting Christine Ni put some absolutely fantastic work into the editing of this collection.

Ni's editor introduction really sets the tone for how she approached collecting submissions for this, and talks a little bit about the state of Horror as a genre in Chinese literary circles at this moment. It was interesting backstory that I loved learning about - which is part of the reason we pick up anthologies like this, right? To expose ourselves to other cultures and trends we normally don't read. Ni also does her best to include a list of content warnings for each story, AND she has a brief write up reflecting on each story after you've read it. The editorial care in this collection is just fantastic.

What about the stories themselves? Well, like with any short story anthology or collection out there, some stories are going to work for you, and some are not. Sinophagia is no exception there. Some of the stories were duds, some were great, and many were simply okay. I wish I had liked more stories more enthusiastically, but I have to remember that I'm reading these through two filters: these are all translated, and I'm not personally familiar with the cultural factors that inform this type of horror (despite Ni's great introduction).

Sinophagia is still a great short story collection to get your hands on if you want to expand and explore in your horror reading.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion for the eARC to review. Sinophagia will be released on September 24th - just in time for spooky season!

good anthology! much enjoyed. glad to have the notes after too.