Subscribe to Read | $0.00
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Read Anywhere and on Any Device!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
- i loved most of the stories in this book!! ill definitely be returning to them - there are two stories in which the author catalogs creatures (kaiju in "return to monsterland" and ghosts in "inn of the dead") and i quite enjoyed the interplay of facts and story! it's very well done- some other stories that i really liked: "peach boy" (classic, short, fairytale-esque), "where do we go when all we were is gone" (person dances and dances to avoid passing on to their next life, rumination on memor...
This is a great collection of stories soaked in Japanese folklore and magic realism. The best stories here, most notably "Return to Monsterland," "Girl Zero," "Rokurokurobi," and "Headwater, LLC" bring creatures from Japanese mythology into the modern world, using fantasy as a way to explore grief and the loss of innocence. Unlike a lot of their slipstream brethren, the stories here rarely feel contrived, and the overall effect is hypnotic. I put this on my to-read list after seeing a blurb abou...
[3.5]Reading this collection of short stories rich with magical realism was such a delight while I was in Japan and afterward. For months beforehand, I had been watching a lot of Japaneses TV and listening to a lot of Japanese podcasts to work on listening comprehension. One of the things I watched was a kids shows that told simplified, cartoonized Japanese folktales. So as I read this book, there were a lot of moments where I already knew the story it was based on and I feel like I got more out...
Really interesting book, nice blend of speculative and literary fiction. The underlying themes are really dark -- and I don't mean the spooky creatures sometimes represented. Lost children, and the effect their loss has on the lonely families left, for example, is a primary theme -- and into this fissure of loss the living legends of Japan are turned to an answer -- always partial, always to varying degrees of balance a monkey's paw -- to the tragedy. The title is spot-on.I did find both the cha...
Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone is a brilliant and beautiful poetic consmatteration of Japanese mythology of every stripe that brings us back to question ourselves.I fell in love with the first story, wishing that it wouldn't end. The mashup of Godzilla as pop culture and myth and a touching family story works seamlessly and sets the tone for the rest of the book. Even when I found myself unsettled by a story, Nagamatsu weaves the fantastic in such a way to make that discomfort seem normal,...
This collection of short stories based on Japanese Folklore is eloquent, poetic, and beautifully dark, touching on topics of grief and loss in an imaginative and sometimes disturbing format. I have a feeling these stories will stick with me for some time, as I’m already finding myself thinking about them in my day-to-day activities. My favorites were:(1) Girl Zero(2) The Rokurokubi(3) The self-titled story(4) Return to MonsterlandAlready looking forward to re-reading this book in the future, as
My favorite stories in this magical collection are Rokurokubi, Girl Zero, The Passage of Time in the Abyss, and the title story. Highly recommend.
Nagamatsu's contemporary weaving of Japanese folklore & culture through film is something to be admired as much as felt. Deeply. My strongest recommendation here.
This was one fantastic, bizarre, whimsical and completely wonderful short story collection. The stories are heavily influenced by Japanese myth and folklore, and I found that to be completely fascinating and really unique. The way the stories have been crafted is incredibly interesting as well. The underlying theme of this collection is a confluence of death and the afterlife, reincarnation, monsters, mythical creatures and a nod to Japanese pop culture & anime. While the theme of death, monster...
**Received this book via a Goodreads Giveaway**Wow! I am now a fan of Sequoia Nagamatsu!Each story in this collection is beautiful. Every story dealt with loss in one way or another but somehow still made me laugh-out-loud with The Return to Monsterland's baby Godzilla: Field Notes: runs circles around father. shrinks in size and plays in small cave. tumble rolls. waves arm at me. hello? twirls. tiny roar. endearing roar. throws coconut at father. *sigh* Baby Godzilla, you so make
Juvenile and weird but still entertaining, especially if you have any knowledge of the culture of Japan's folklore and fairy/demon tales. The first story was my favorite as it chronicled the existence and inhabitants of Monsterland. I know... a return to when I was 10 or 12 but Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, etc. brought many hours of enjoyment to a child who needed some cultural heroes. The second story was just a bit bizarre and after that, a trip through the world of the Yokai and other famous Japa...
Clever, genre-bending, and heartfelt. It draws on a deep well of Japanese pop culture and folklore without ever feeling gimmicky. A strong collection overall, with my favorite stories being "The Return to Monsterland" (a surprisingly resonant and bittersweet story about Godzilla), "Rokurokubi" (about a man who can stretch his neck and his failing marriage), "Girl Zero" (about the resurrection of a dead girl through sketchy supernatural means), and "The Inn of the Dead's Orientation for Being a J...
Lovely, lonely, strange: the eloquent shared cry of a room of breaking hearts, blended up with kaiju, lost children, and Japanese ghosts. Plus recipes for placenta cocktails! Too hurried now to explain how thoroughly wonderful Nagamatsu's story collection is--will return for full review later; in the meantime, BUY THIS BOOK. You'll thank yourself for it.
