This book stayed at precisely the same level of "mildly engaging'" from beginning to end. It was just-delightful enough for me to keep reading, and yet to wonder, as I read: 'why am I reading this?' and 'what the heck is the matter with me?' and: "Why can't I just enjoy this mildly engaging book instead of asking something more from it?

As far as I can tell, the story has no point. It entertained me. That should be enough, but it wasn't.

An insightful look at Chinese modern society through the lens of mystical beasts living in the fictional city of Yong'an. In the style of the Shan Hai Jing, each beast is introduced with a description of their appearance, their characters and favorite foods. Most of them are almost indistinguishable from the human residents of Yong'an but work in marginalized jobs and are close to extinction. The narrator, a writer and former zoologist, spends the days drinking and trying to meet her former professor who keeps eluding her. In her wanderings through the city, she comes in contact with these beasts, often ending in the tragic death of them. While the book can be read as a dream-like fantasy novel, it can equally be seen as a critique of Chinese society especially the treatment of ethic minorities.

4+ stars!!!

**Read for Invisible Cities Project: China**
**bought my own copy but then was also granted an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**
#StrangeBeastsofChina #NetGalley

Pros:
+ Chinese work in translation
+ melancholy magical realism/fable
+ each chapter focuses on a different mythical beast in Yong'an (a fictional Chinese city)
+ follows a female MC (zoologist turned writer) who ties the different chapters together (her life is the common thread)
+ all of the stories are thought-provoking where the beasts are portrayed one way BUT THEN there's a twist (and the twist is a metaphor/message)
+ themes are critical of modern China (environmental issues, segregation of minorities, abandoned massive constructions projects, alienation in cities)
+ hazy dream vibes
+ the beasts are just SO FREAKING COOL (Yan Ge's imagination is perfection)

Cons:
- the MC's professor acts as a deus ex machina for all situations for the first 2/3 of the book (knows what is happening to the MC at all times, calls at the perfect time every time, getting her out of bad situations, etc.)
- I am still a bit confused about the final family tree of the MC tbh

TW: murder, genetic experimentation, death in many forms, classism, minority oppression, mentally abusive parent figures

(I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

Strange Beasts of China is an odd book, and fascinating in that oddness. Each chapter opens with the "known" story of a different type of beast, and closes with a slightly different version of the story, altered by what the narrator learned over the course of the chapter. Throughout the book is the ongoing mystery of the narrator and her past, one that I'm not entirely sure gets resolved (although, does it matter?). This is definitely a book that would benefit from rereading.

I really liked the different stories of the beasts, and the narrator's encounters with them. They were fascinating, and often tragic, and made Yong'an a rich and frightening city. The beasts are human, and inhuman at the same time, and I could have read another hundred pages about the different types of beasts living in Yong'an. The story of the sacrificial beasts was one of my favorites, in that it was devastating on several levels.

The relationship between the narrator and her professor carries through the book- they haven't seen each other in years, they fought often, they cared about each other deeply, there's more to either of them than meets the eye. Unraveling that relationship as the narrator did was both confusing and rewarding. On the flip side was the narrator's relationship with Zhong Liang, which was delightful- I love an older woman and a well-meaning rich boy.

While the mystery mostly came together at the end, I'm not sure how well it did. It may be I simply haven't read enough Chinese literature, and am not used to the format. Based simply off this book, however, the resolution seemed...loose. Not unsolved enough for true ambiguity, but not resolved enough for satisfaction. Rereading the book would very likely alter my perceptions of the ending, but I am writing this review based on one read.

Altogether, though, this book packs a lot in to under 200 pages, and does most of it very well. I would definitely not mind more about the Strange Beasts of China.

I didn't get the sense that the protagonist of Strange Beasts of China was out to document each beast, but it definitely played out that for every beast she wrote about, she turned more and more about human nature. Human nature, it seems, is awfully beastlike. The tone was different, and while it had some shades of urban fantasy, it is still unique enough compared to most of the books I've read in recent memory. I got the impression that each beast and their qualities are an allegory for something in modern society, but part of the fun of that is for each reader to draw their own conclusions. I also wondered if the Dolphin Bar was perhaps a subtle nod to Haruki Murakami's Dolphin Hotel. We learn more about the protagonist with every beast chapter. They may not always be interlinked, but it definitely helped the world building of the story. (I received an ARC of Strange Beasts of China from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.)

An interconnected series of vignettes about different creatures inhabiting a strange city. I was initially put off by the idea of a fictional beastiary, but the beastiary aspects only serves as a vehicle for more personal, introspective discussion. It's well paced with writing that is somehow both elusive and straight forward.

I remember reading bestiaries as a child with stories centered around different mythological creatures. Each of those stories having Aesop's fable type lessons. This is that, but infinitely more complex and discussing things like identity, government control, gender, economic and social inequality, and the destruction of the environment. The combination of the whimsical beasts and the darker themes really pulled me in. And as this was originally produced in serial form for a Chinese journal aimed at student readership, each chapter is fairly self-contained making it the perfect type of book to dip into whenever you have free time.

Overall, this is definitely worth the reader for people looking to dig into some modern Chinese literature, but with fantastical elements. For those familiar with things going on in China they'll be able to see references to various things that have happened in recent history. And I think some readers will enjoy it if they're looking for whimsical urban fantasy, but without the social commentary I think it will fail to capture much interest or garner strong feelings. Too many will just look at this as a book full of hidden messages that they don't understand.

Thank you, NetGalley for an ARC of this book. I am sure that this book would appeal to a lot of people especially with the underlying theme of humans assuming certain traits and characteristics of people that differ from themselves, In Strange Beasts of China, the narrator is trying to hunt down and understand all the different strange beasts. In doing so they uncover that what little is written or know about these beasts tends to be wrong or speculative in some way. With close similarities to the underlying issues in our own state, this book would be a great way to start a discussion on the differences and similarities among us all. It would be a great book club read as the opportunities for discussion are endless. Unfortunately for me, I just could not really get invested in this novel and I feel that others may have a hard time as well.

So to start things off I thought this book was amazing.
I guess this book was published in 2005 but it is being released this summer in an English translation.
I would describe reading Strange Beasts as reading a collection of creepy fairytales. The book is split into multiple sections chronicling different strange beasts. The author is a writer who recounts her encounters with the beasts and the story progresses thus.
The book started off with the content right away and I was so into it, the writing of each section follows a kind of pattern which contributes to the fairytale type feel. With the way the story is written, the reader is given all these details which don't seem to fully come together until the end of each chapter and its so good. I was rereading passages and trying to work out in my head what was happening the whole time.
There is so much creativity put into describing each beast (eg. the sorrowful beast, the sacrificial beast etc)
I loved everything about this book I wanted to read it from start to finish as soon as I picked it up, the writing style and the content appealed to me so much.
The book definitely has a sort of cynicism about society. I wasn't completely engaging with the book on that level at all and just as a story I loved it,
Would absolutely recommend

Review posted at, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3846986551

Planning to repost review within 2 weeks of release

I find myself saying this a lot, but Strange Beasts of China was certainly an interesting book that explored some very cool concepts.

In this book, we follow a failed zoologist turned writer as she tells the story of the various mystical beasts that live in the fictional Chinese city of Yong'an. Though we follow roughly the same core cast of characters throughout, the way this book was structured with each chapter focusing on a specific type of beast made it read more like a collection of short stories to me.

What I enjoyed most about this book was its inventiveness. The premise of a world where humans live with other mystical creatures is far from original, but the way it was explored in this book was unlike anything I've seen before. I loved how societal issues were explored through the lens of the way these beasts are treated and how, as the book progresses, the line between human and beast becomes more and more blurred. I know for a fact that I did not pick up on all the complexities in the commentary this book made, but that did not make the reading experience any less enjoyable or engaging.

The main reason this book isn't getting a higher rating from me is that I really never got invested in the story. Because this book is mainly focused on the concepts that are at the core of the story, the characters kind of got put on the back burner and I struggled to be interested in them. Additionally, with the episodic nature of the book, there wasn't really an overarching plot that made me want to continue reading, and I found that I was perfectly happy to stop reading at the end of any given chapter. The writing and translation, though well done, were also a bit on the dry side and I found myself getting less interested as I continued reading rather than the other way around.

Despite my personal issues with this book, I think, objectively, it is quite good and if you go into it with the right expectations, that it is a collection of stories exploring societal themes using mystical beasts as a metaphor, you may really enjoy this book. Overall, this was a worthwhile read that I would highly recommend to fans of short stories or concept-driven books.

This was a truly fascinating and outstanding work. It provoked many different ideas and I often found myself having to pause send reflect on the message being presented. Imaginative, creative, and experimental. This book achieved everything it set out to do in a very unique way. I loved it!

This book was not my cup of tea. I found it repetitive and I was not able to sympathize with the narrator. It had a lot of surrealistic elements which reminded me somewhat of Murakami's writing but less compelling. I can see that it worked toward the narrator's understanding of herself but the ending was less satisfactory in that than I expected.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.

The premise of this book grabbed my attention from the get-go. Humans live alongside mystical beasts in the fictional Chinese town of Yong’an. The unnamed narrator is a writer working on a manuscript, a collection of stories about these beasts - most of them love stories. The book is not her manuscript, but the Writer's life as she writes about a beast and whatever meaning that has on her life at the moment.

This is one of the books where the premise is much better than the book, in my opinion. The grand reveal at the end was something I had been expecting for a while and I did not comprehend the Writer's relationships with anybody - Charley, Zhong Liang, the professor, etc. I felt the beasts were also not explored deeply enough. For the sacrificial beasts, it is said female can talk but the male ones cannot - yet there is a male sacrificial beast who can talk and this goes completely unmentioned.

I liked it, but I could not connect to the story nor care about the characters, so it's a 2.5 for me.

This review will post at Fanbase Press closer to the release date.

Yan Ge’s hauntingly surreal novel Strange Beast of China has been slotted under SF and Fantasy, but it’s a work that doesn’t fully fit into any single genre. The collection of interconnected stories centered on a failed cryptozoologist turned pulp journalist resonated as modern fairy tales, and I loved how each new section about a beast of Yong’an added to the author’s world building to reveal new facets about the nature of humanity.
If Melville House Publishing hadn’t sent me a notification about Strange Beasts of China through Netgalley I would never have heard of Yan Ge or her works (thirteen books including six novels) which is a pity since her straight forwardly magical storytelling soothed me while opening my mind to a different way of analyzing the world. The story structure wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from the cover copy but blending a fantastical world with life in modern China felt unique and new. I enjoyed the experience immensely.
Strange Beasts of China presents itself as a first person set of articles or pulp stories written by an unnamed female narrator who makes her living collecting stories of the beasts in her hometown of Yong’an. Her editor craves romantic, dramatic, and over the top expose type pieces, but the narrator holds genuine interest in the beasts, stemming from a failed attempt at getting a cryptozoology degree. Each section opens with generally held knowledge about the featured beast; the final paragraphs tend to reveal the truth about their traditions and personalities along with revelations about how prevalent they are in Yong’an.
While each section/story in Strange Beasts of China builds on the previous one the overall novel works better as a character/societal study than a plot driven piece. The unnamed protagonist’s added knowledge after each addition (or what she chooses to reveal to the reader) shaped my responses to the various cast members, and the myriad romances threaded through helped me see the beasts as whole beings, not just oddities.
As a white American reader, I haven’t read many novels like Strange Beasts of China, and I believe that Yan Ge’s experiences growing up Sichuan, China created a voice and perspective that blooms in her works. I don’t know if every reader will react so positively to her style, but I am infinitely charmed and will seek out her other English translated works (my two years of college Chinese were not enough to read anything!). In a world where people are feeling more divided than ever stretching ourselves to experience other perspectives is incredibly important, and Yan Ge’s Strange Beasts of China gave me that opportunity.
5 Visits to the Dolphin Bar out of 5

My first impression upon diving into this book is that I definitely had the wrong conception of it. I imagined a novel, perhaps fantasy-esque, about the main character having an adventure involving beasts. That is not what this book is. Rather, it is a series of short stories told from the perspective of a newspaper writer who previously studied beasts and now writes about them. Each story introduces a new kind of beast, and the writer's newspaper stories are interspersed with scenes from her own life, as the line between reality and fiction is blurred. Each story starts off like an informational text, and quickly dives into much more - emotionally charged mysteries, revelations about characters' pasts, and finally, the realization that what we thought we knew at the start was incomplete, or misleading.

I found that I had to read this in chunks instead of in a single sitting, because I was so drawn into the world that I needed time to clear my head after. The ending of the book was incredibly interesting, with twists that were unexpected but hinted at; I still am not sure I fully understand everything, but I really enjoyed the whole experience of reading it.

As a huge fan of inventive and weird sci-fi/fantasy, as well as a student of Chinese, this book really hit a sweet spot for me. As soon as I finished it, I sent off a text to a friend with similar tastes telling him he has to read it, and I'll be reminding him of it when the book is actually published.

I absolutely loved this book and would one hundred percent read more by the author.

Though... I'm pretty sure I missed a ton of what was going on in the novel since I don't have the cultural context for it all and I was enjoying it too much to slow down and examine the metaphors.

Read on a pure enjoyment level, this is a fascinating exploration of the "beasts" -- all of whom are difficult to distinguish from regular humans -- that inhabit the city. An ex-zoologist turned sensationalist author becomes the contact point for these beast species and learns their stories. We basically get one species a chapter and the earlier chapters all have a similar format: there's a vague, but informative description of the species, the author meets a member of that species, after the author gets to know them there's a big twist that changes our perspective on the species. As the chapter progress, however, a bigger story arc begins to emerge and we learn more about what makes the author tick. Both types of arc -- author and beast -- are intriguing.

In some ways the format reminds me of favorite classic horror anime series where each episode is ostensibly about the monster of the week (who may or may not be the true monster of the story -- humans can be terrible) but the observer in the series increasingly becomes a part of the story until they get their own big adventure or reveal.

At any rate, I imagine I'll have a very different experience if I go back to this (like I feel I should) and take longer than an afternoon to read and absorb this. There's enough richness to keep coming back to.

“In the end, who know who’s taming whom.”

There are definitely pros and cons to this novel. Let me start with the pros. The concept is engaging, and I enjoyed the wonderful descriptions of the various beasts which populate this novel. Each chapter is devoted to one type of beast, allowing the reader to judge how “other than this (difference) they are exactly like humans.”

Unfortunately, the prose varies greatly, from evocative and fable-like (“The joyous beast is an auspicious one. It takes the form of a phoenix, speaks human languages, and is loyal by nature. The joyous beast cannot survive long on its own, and spends most of its existence as a parasite in a human host. It loves to feed on children. When everything in the body has been eaten-the organs, the muscles, the brain, the blood-it leaves through the long left arm, transforming into an enormous bird, a creature of awesome beauty that can only live a single night. The joyous beast reproduces through death.”) to stilted (“Finally, I could lounge on my comfortable sofa. The first thing I did was get some ice cream from the freezer. Fortunately, it was still before the expiration date.”).

It appears that each beast type represents an aspect of Chinese culture, governmental administration, environmental concern and/or social inequality. A note section at the end of the novel would be helpful, as I’m sure I missed many of the cultural references. It’s fairly obvious what the narrator will discover as the novel closes, but again I’m not sure how it relates to current Chinese culture.

Worth reading, especially if you have the time to dig into Chinese history and current Chinese culture which I’m sure would enhance the experience.


Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to review the ARC via Netgalley.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Such a unique story! If you are wanting to read more books from Asian authors, then I highly recommend this.