The Cleric Chih accompanies a beautiful young bride to her wedding to the aging ruler of a crumbling estate situated at the crossroads of dead empires. The bride’s party is welcomed with elaborate courtesies and extravagant banquets, but between the frightened servants and the cryptic warnings of the lord’s mad son, they quickly realize that something is haunting the shadowed halls.

As Chih and the bride-to-be explore empty rooms and desolate courtyards, they are drawn into the mystery of what became of Lord Guo’s previous wives and the dark history of Do Cao itself. But as the wedding night draws to its close, Chih will learn at their peril that not all monsters are to be found in the shadows; some monsters hide in plain sight.

Though all the novellas are standalone, I would recommend reading at least one or two earlier ones to get a feel for the world and more information on the background of Chih and Almost Brilliant.

Dear Nghi Vo,

A new Singing Hills novella with Cleric Chih! This time it’s got some weird goings on, a strange family, a mystery. But where is Almost Brilliant?

Cleric Chih, a story gatherer from the Singing Hills Monastery, is on the road, traveling with a young bride and her parents on her way to meet a man her parents want her to marry. Pham Nhung is very young, sweetly charming, and acts and is treated as if she’s more fragile than fine porcelain. When the retinue reaches the compound, Nhung takes Chih with her ahead of the rest and surveys the strong walls that surround it, wondering aloud if she will find her future here.

The events get weirder after that when a bizarre young man warns Chih to have Nhung ask the lord what happened to his other brides. Wandering around the grounds that night, Chih and Nhung enter several buildings with Nhung coyly asking Chih to go in first and check for monsters. The mystery of the place deepens when the lord’s son, the young man from earlier, warns Chih and reveals something awful about his situation there and old family secrets. But the monsters Chih is expecting aren’t the ones they find.

“The world starts with a story. So do dynasties and eras and wars. So does love, and so does revenge. Everything starts with a story.”

Once again, a perfectly paced story unfolds in novella format. Some novellas end up too rushed or too thinly written with not enough to keep me interested. With the Singing Hills stories, I know that this won’t be the case. Words are carefully used to create and shade in the background worldbuilding which is filled with characters given nutshell sketches that tell us all we need to know about who they are without wasting pages on unneeded information.

The terrible situation is slowly built up, little by little with an aftertaste of unease, like a fire started and then allowed to heat up before bursting out in raging flames. There are subtle clues but they are softly dropped into the story and the reader is allowed to notice them and ponder what they mean before all the plot points are tied together and everything is let loose.

What didn’t work quite as well for me is

~Jayne

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Some would call River Rydell a “chosen one”: born with the ability to see monsters and travel to a terrifying world called The Otherwoods, they have all the makings of a hero. But River just calls themself unlucky. It’s not like anyone actually believes River can do these things, so the way River sees it, it’s best to just ignore anything Otherwoods-related.

But The Otherwoods won’t be ignored any longer.

When River’s only friend (and crush) Avery is dragged into The Otherwoods, River has no choice but to confront the world they’ve seen only in their nightmares—but reality is more horrifying than they could have ever imagined. With only their cat for protection and a teen spirit as their guide, River must face The Otherwoods and their own fears to become the hero they were (unfortunately) destined to be.

TW – MC is publicly deadnamed at school by a teacher
 

Dear Justine Pucella Winans, 

It was the cover with the cat on it that made me do it. But honestly the blurb lured me in almost as much. But I’m thinking that perhaps I need to be more thoughtful about reading middle grade fantasy books just because there’s a cat on the cover. I liked the beginning, felt the middle was good, but it jumps the rails by the end. 

River Rydell is a Chosen One. They’ve known since a young age that what they can see is different from most people. At first their response to the monsters they see is “NO, NOPE, ABSOLUTELY NOT.” But the monsters and spirits continue to haunt and torment them. Their parents don’t know what to make of their child, numerous counselors and psychiatrists (or is it psychologists) are baffled, and River finally stops telling anyone anything and hugs it all close inside. They did have the courage to come out to their parents as non-binary and change their name but can’t find the courage to stand up to an evil witch teacher who belittles and deadnames them.

But the monsters are getting more prolific, the portals to The Otherwoods are showing up more frequently, and when River finally yields to the temptation of a possible friendship, the monsters strike. River will have to pack a backpack, find their courage, and head into the place they’ve never wanted to go to. Luckily they have Mr. Fluffy Pancakes aka “Pancakes” to help them. 

Well as I said this is a Chosen One / Portal middle grade fantasy. It also takes “the monster under the bed” or “in the closet” to a higher level. River actually has these. But yay that Pancakes is actually a bit more integral to the story than just being on the cover. Pancakes impresses even the spirits and monsters.            

River wondered if they should practice talking more on Pancakes, and then immediately wished they hadn’t had a thought as sad as that one.

I was getting the feeling that River being surrounded by monsters all their life, afraid, and just wanting to stay out of people’s attention was an allegory for growing up queer before  this is flat out confirmed. There are lots of instances of gently hinting at things only to later have these hammered home. Perhaps this is necessary for the grade level at which the book is aimed but it sort of ended up ruining the earlier efforts. 

For most of the book it was hitting all the emotional and plot beats I was expecting. I liked that many people told River that they were brave. I liked that River’s parents – while at times publicly embarrassing River as only a tween-teen can feel – love their child and accept them. River gaining a friend is sweet. Pancakes standing by his person and going along to – in a few cases – save the day was fantastic.   

The Otherwoods however, didn’t wow me. A spirit guide appears right when River arrives. There’s some hand waving about The Otherwoods vs The Elsewhere and which spirit goes where and why. Mysterious messages left for River about their fear being good for the monsters while the monster’s magic is good for River. River can’t understand the message. Okay, they’re twelve but still … There are also moments when River can’t seem to grasp that people will lie to you. Repeat after me, River is twelve, River is twelve and cynical Jayne is much older …   

Then something Really Creepy is revealed and River learns the true reason why The Otherwoods has been after them all their life. Cue much villain monologuing and exposition. After this, all hell breaks loose followed by a deus ex machina before River finally finds their inner magic and saves the day. The Ending is all happy and it appears that River has found inner strength to stand up to bullies, be a friend, and continue to appreciate Pancakes. I wish I had been more overwhelmed by the sum total. It was an average “okay” but yay for the queer and diverse rep plus a great cat. Pancakes bumps it up to a C+

~Jayne 

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There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

CW – it is mentioned that one character in the story tortured others, including animals. Nothing specific is described. 

Dear Ms. Kingfisher, 

Oh, what a lovely story. I can easily see how this flowed (pun intended) into being. The heroine is delightful and just the kind of self-effacing person who I enjoy watching save the day. And Toadling saves so many, most of whom have/had no idea of what she did. 

What if a fairy tale has a different way of happening? What if everything gets flipped? Meet Toadling who the fairies stole from her cradle and exchanged for a changeling. Then Toadling was tossed away to the greenteeth, the slimey swamp dwelling spirits, who raised her because fairies don’t care, they just want to do mischief. Then after Toadling was older and happy, other fairies took her away to try to fix what was wrong. And Toadling tried. She really did but despite all the training, they forgot to train her for the one thing that tripped her up. 

Now Toadling stands guard. She was supposed to keep others from harm but she didn’t. So she sentences herself to stay and watch life go on and silently pray for the Keep to be left alone. For what she watches to be left alone. Then one day another knight appears, a different kind of knight. One who swears to her that he’ll help. But can they overcome something so evil? 

Yay for a plain heroine who stays that way! Yay for a hero who replies that he’s not much to look at either and far down the line of succession but he listens. And he tells Toadling “I believe you,” he said again, and the words filled up the hollow space under her breastbone the way that few other words ever had.

Toadling does her best. She does her best in the face of people who treat her with affectionate contempt. She does her best around people who should have loved her but who didn’t have the strength to do what needed to be done. She does her best although she’s been taken away from those who, however frightening they may appear to humans, do love her. She does her best and tries. She does her best in the face of a goddess who tells her “Did you expect a goddess to be kind?” She feels a little rage at that. She has the heart to ask the hero “Can you do this?” and worries about what she’s asking of him, the man whose mother has taught him manners and to apologize. Halim is a darling, too. 

I wasn’t quite sure how things would end up. I pondered this as I read to the end and realized that I would have been happy either way Toadling decided to do things. But I think she made the right choice. This is the sort of story I want to flip back to the beginning and start reading again the minute I finish it. And I agree. It is sweet, dammit. A 

~Jayne

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