I really enjoyed this selection of short stories, it’s a massively eclectic range of themes from the natural to the supernatural, but they still all feel from the same world. There are 19 stories abd I would rate the majority as 5 star reads, the rest were definitely 4 stars full of humour, tension, emotion, I would love some of these to be expanded on, so many would be great novels.

Some of my favourite stories were The First Witch of Damansara, The House of Aunts, Balik Kampung, One Day Travel Card For Fairyland, If at First You Don’t Succeed and The Earth Spirit’s Favourite Anecdote. These are just some of my absolute favourites but they were all so entertaining and great reads, full of humour, subtlety, complexity, horror, tension, drama and all completely absorbing. A thoroughly recommended collection.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book was amazing. There are no words to describe the utter delight, wonder, and love I felt when reading these stories. Zen Cho is truly an inspiration

One of the most fascinating things about stories is how they always are talking to us about being human now. That can be even if you’re battling the undead, exploring the far reaches of space or even in a world of magic and wonder. Stories reflect us and can also show us sides to people we’d never expect. I am very delight at the range, quality and power of the stories in Zen Cho’s brilliant short story collection Spirits Abroad. Which play with the worlds of our own and magic to achieve a wonderful and often funny and humane set of tales (often all at the same time).

Cho delights in this collection mixing and sometimes clashing worlds. This can be magic and human; Malaysian and British or often older and younger generations. As a brilliant example of this the starting tale The First Witch of Damansara shows exactly what Cho can do using all three. Vivian returns to her family home in Malaysia as her grandmother the fierce and independent Nai Nai passes away. Vivian now lives abroad has her fiancé and is dreaming of the big white wedding dress but is then getting startled with apparently Nai Nai is becoming a ghost and restless spirit. This tale on a sixpence turns from family drama and conflict especially with Vivian’s angry younger sister. Funny as Nai Nai actually has her own agenda and then just when you think the story is simply for laughs, we get some honest discussion about family dynamics and people talking to one another and how they’re feeling. It’s a wonderful story to read. Another such example is ‘First national Forum on the Position of Minorities in Malaysia’ the title reflects the setting of a small citizen’s assembly, and we have the initial comedy of lots of people from various groups all not quite listening to one another and our young organisers finding out a magical being has arrived. Again, while the humour is funny then we get to the heart of the story as a love story between a human woman and a mysterious spirit is a tale of decades, missed chances and the politics of how women were treated. It ends on a beautiful note of hope for the future.

Another favourite is ‘The House of Aunts’ a tale of a house of vampires and the youngest Ah lee who is still attending school and finds her first crush. This story captures that annoying feeling when your family knows you’re in love. The off-beat humour of a household where human organs are always in the kitchen and then moves into horror as Ah lee’s not yet a boyfriend rejects her and finds himself in danger from elderly women who can eat flesh. Then like a storytelling virtuoso the tale subtly shifts into the tale of Ah Lee’s creation of a vampire and the tonal shifts to this story are powerful and delivered with a quiet narration that brings everything we’ve seen so far together.

The fantastical ‘One-day Travelcard for Fairyland’ tells of Malaysian students in an English school now faced with a fairy attack. Thes are not nice fairies they’re vicious. Cho throws in finding friends; the weirdness of posh schools and an interesting approach on fairies that means the story fizzles with energy and speed, and you want to see how they can survive the day. A very impressive story is ‘Rising Lion – The Lion Bows’. A Chinese dancing lion troupe is hired to a new English hotel. But this group has a secret reputation they’re effectively exorcists using the Lion dance to banish spirits. This tale deals with the humour of seeing how western hotels use eastern culture’s history and décor in mystifying ways. The contrast between our group of young students being ghostbusters and then brilliantly with the reveal that the ghost was a former young slave who had to live in this house the tale talks of Britain’s colonial past and shame. The solution is beautifully heat-warming too.

Some stories are shorter but no less powerful with ‘The Guest’ telling us about a young witch Yiling with magical powers slowly developing a relationship with er cat who may not be human. The bond they share is lovely and is a contrast to the tale of unrequited love that Yiling must unentangle. Our dancing lion troupe appears again in ‘Seven Star Drum’ with the haunting tale of a young boy who sees ghosts and more alarmingly they see him. How he got into the group and the finale all neatly wrap this tale up.

‘Prudence and the Dragon’ deals with a young woman finding herself the attention of an immortal and powerful dragon spirit and she doesn’t realise this is a romance in the making for quite a while. It’s a tale of relationships; friendships rising and falling and coming back together and accepting people on their own terms. Funny, human and heartwarming all at the same time. Then one of the key characters gets explored in ‘The Perseverance of Angela’s Past Life’ as a young woman finds the ghost of her younger self trying to get her attention. This tale deals with loss of self and realising that her sexuality has been hidden far too long. A beautiful ending to this duo of tales

While others are much darker as in ‘The Fish Bowl’ which deals with teenage pressures and self-harm as Su Yin a student dealing with lots of exam and family pressure; decides to make deals with an apparent benign magical fish in a pond. But blood is the price, and the tale carries a haunting cost that lingers in the memory. More horror but of the quiet powerful kind is ‘Odette’ where a woman finds herself living after her parent’s death with her miserable and controlling Uncle Andrew. He’s a fantastic monster of a human being – cruel and wants everything his way so much so we don’t mind when Odette decides enough is enough, but this tale of revenge has a very sad ghostly reveal to come that suggests nothing will ever change.

‘Balik Kampung’ deals with a recurring theme in the collection of ghosts and Hell in this case the brilliant idea of a time when all ghosts can leave to visit the mortal world and we see the resultant magical traffic jam it creates in hell. Our main character Lydia wants to get away from it all but her personal (and really not that frightening) demon wants food but also think Lydia should pay more attention to how they died. It’s another tale balancing the humour of mediums, a demon who really wants good food and the secret that led to Lydia’s death all cleverly coming together and making you re-appraise the characters relationships. We return to Hell for ‘The Terra-Cotta Bride’ where Siew Tsin is a young woman who has died passing the time before her reincarnation is due and ends up married to a much older man and residing in hell. But she is but one of three wives. The eldest who often dismisses her and a new walking terracotta one who never ages and knows everything. A really powerful story that deals with generational issues; loss of control and adds in hidden love affairs and ultimately is about learning to let go and be ready to start your own life.

As you’ll probably guess I love this collection. Stories that can be magical, funny, dark and explore humanity all at once are the best kind of stories for me to read and reminds me why I often think Zen Cho is perfect for fans of Terry Pratchett as they share the same excellent ability to tell stories that make a reader laugh and also think at the same time. Run and get this – you will not be disappointed. This is strongly recommended!

Happy Release Day to Spirits Abroad! I have been planning to read more short story collections so was very happy to get a Netgalley eARC of Spirits Abroad. Thanks @panmacmillan!

Spirits Abroad was originally published before Zen Cho's other books and now is being republished. It was interesting reading it after 3 of her other books as while the books I read were all very different, this collection feels thematically linked to all of them. You can see seeds of a lot of the ideas that went on to create full books.

It's split into 3 sections: Here (set in Malaysia), There (mainly set in the UK) and Elsewhere (heavily featuring spirits or mythology). I enjoyed all of them but naturally had some favourites which I'll highlight here.

"Rising Lion - The Lion Bows"
A lion dance troupe that doubles as a ghost extermination service. It was funny and sweet and I loved how the story played out.

"Prudence and the Dragon"
This gave me Sorcerer to the Crown vibes with the dragons and magic. I enjoyed the take of kidnapping maidens isn't okay anymore so he has to convince her to go with him instead. This makes me feel like I should finally read The True Queen!

"If at first you don't succeed, try try again"
This was probably my favourite from the collection. An imugi spirit tries to become a dragon but it keeps going wrong. This was such a beautiful story and I can't explain why without spoilers so you'll just have to believe me!

Overall I really enjoyed reading the collection - especially the parts that blended different mythologies and explored how different cultures interact. A lot of the characters will stick with me despite the short amount of page time! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I’m not actually a fan of short story collections, but this was one of the best I’ve read. I loved Zen Cho’s modern interpretation of Malaysian mythology and spirit world. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Sadly, this wasn't my cup of tea.

I love hyphenated-Asian lit, especially if there’s folklore mixed into the story, but short stories never really work for me. I’m also the type of reader that’s very character-oriented and likes to not waste time (in other words, if you’re writing sentences just to add sentences, I don’t want to read them). Zen Cho is super well-loved and it’s my second time trying her, but her writing has so much filler or stuff that makes me think ‘why is this even here?’ Like, as a silly example, one of the stories that I have actually enjoyed(ish) had the characters ask for a pen four times. Why? Was this necessary for anything other than to fill the page a little bit more?

Like, I don’t want to be mean because everyone loves Cho, and her stories aren’t bad at all, but I just keep thinking ‘is this bit necessary?’ time after time after time.

So, anyways, stories that I give 2.5-3 stars are: The Fish Bowl, The House of Aunts, and One-Day Travelcard for Fairlyland. The end. I have skimmed the last eight stories because I honestly will give this one star if I make myself read them.

Spirit's Abroad was one of Zen Cho's works that I hadn't yet had the chance to devour so I was delighted to have the opportunity to read and review this updated edition which (among other things) now contains the Hugo Award Winning 'If at First, You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again.'
There are oodles of amazing stories in this book drawing on Zen Cho's Malaysian heritage and exploring themes of tradition, identity, life and death, and a myriad more.
I had personal favourites of course - I personally really enjoyed the stories that explored Lion Dance including 'Rising Lion - The Lion Bows' which was truly wonderful. The Hugo Award winner made me cry quite a bit as well.
The book is structured in three parts: Here, There, and Everywhere. I thought this was a fantastic way 0f splitting the stories and gave the collection a sense of structure and cohesion that is often missing in short story compilations.
Overall I would definitely recommend this to both fans of short stories and Zen Cho's other works - it was definitely interesting seeing ideas that clearly influenced later works. If you're not a fan of open-ended short stories this might work less well for you as a lot of these are left on something of an open chord but if you are used to that style of storytelling you should have no problems.
I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley - all opinions are my own.

Incredibly excited to have this collection finally available in the UK! Zen Cho is one of my very favourite writers, producing thoughtful, magical and very human writing, and this collection is no exception. Highly reccomended, as always.

This is a really beautiful short story collection, which takes inspiration for Malaysian culture and folklore which I thought was brilliantly crafted. It had the feel of modernised fairytales, which I love in short stories.

My one small gripe was the speech being written in the accent, I'm not a bit fan of this because it brings me out of the story a little but only a little.

A wondrous and quirky collection of Malaysian inspired stories combining mystical elements and real, human struggles. Each story draws you in with characters that are full and interesting, each intimate tale exploring topics such as family, desire, love & loss and featuring spirits, dragons, ghosts & other supernatural beings.

Many of the stories left me wanting more, pondering the fate of their protagonists. Pacing, length and theme all vary within each, but all are equally well written with colloquial mannerisms and speech that create an immersive reading experience. Overall a lovely collection of enjoyable, magical stories.

Where to start with this beautiful book, ambiance 100 points. I literally felt like in the places the stories took you to. The fantasy elements in the short stories was just “chef kiss” recently I am adoring every book that storytell us the myths and cultures that we never knew in fantasies or YA or Adult fiction. The book is delicious (well not the graphic dead or organs ingestion ) but is such a well written and a book I definitely recommend everyone to read. Is a book I will post a review on my social media and a book I gonna speak of often in the next months. Please preorder it and buy it if you got the chance I gonna do the same on all editions I can find (that’s how much I like it )

I love this short story collection best of all Zen Cho I’ve read, which is not a light statement, as I’ve read all of her back catalogue and kept up with new releases since, and love Black Water Sister and Order of Pure Moon quite a bit. It’s just so good! Even more so if you consider these were some of the earlier writings. They are such a lovely, vibrant, polyphonic amalgamation of Malaysian and British, and the stories such a great combo of traditional mythology and modern perspective. I would be hard pressed to pick a favourite short story, and i say with awe and humility that I learnt so much from them about a culture that’s not my own, and enjoyed myself tremendously on each re-read. An easy and sincere recommendation from me on this one, and I’m so glad this collection is now getting a mainstream release in the UK (I say, as I clutch my well-loved US copy to my heart 🥹), so thank you to Tor/Pan MacMillan for that, and #Netgalley for an early look at #SpiritsAbroad as well.

I did not realise this was a short story collection – I just saw Zen Cho and hit request. However this was a colourful parade through Malaysian folklore and while not every story landed for me, this was still a very enjoyable collection. Not many authors can blend warm, funny, dark and poignant and have it come off like Cho has.