Vo's writing is both lyrical and evocative, painting vivid pictures of the Riverlands' stunning landscapes and the fantastical creatures that inhabit them. It's always good to be back with these characters.

nto The Riverlands by @nghivowriting! Not only was it short but it really was taking me on a full blown adventure! And the Audiobook narrated by Cindy Kay really brought the characters to life! I used it to read along with the Physical😍
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Thanks to @b2weird and @torbooks for my copies of the entire series, they are so beautiful!
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Now, I chose 5 songs that really captured the sense of adventure for me as I was reading, because this story played out like an epic tv drama in my brain! Go to the next slides to see the titles🥰

✨️ The Riverlands by Family Jules: this one just captired the vibe of the entire story for me!
✨️Hollow Hand: I Know Your Secrets by Tommee Profitty
. These are so mysterious and I really loved hearing about the legend behind it.
✨️Khahn/Lao Bingyi/Wei Jingtai @ Betany Docks : Never Back Down by Two Steps From Hell. They just gave me all the we can't be beat energy.
✨️Wei Jintai: Breathe of the Wild Violin Cover by Viodance. She is my favorite along with her sworn sister Sang, their ying yang opposites and just Wei's battle prowess and elegance oof!
✨️Chih: Spirit of the Wild by Brunuhville. They are me, pensive, listening to others, and definitely not understanding how to get involved in things going on around him but somehow still contributing something vitally important to the whole.
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Besides the characters, the author really wrapped up the book beautifully in the acknowledgements, because this story at its core really just shows you how much we dont know about people. How much we still have to learn and how much we will never know.

I think in my life this has played out with my parents. Our parents show up to us how they want us to see them, but do we know our parents? Who they were as children, their suffering or joy before us? What their life was like?

We can only listen and gather what they tell us and what the people around them tell us. But will we truly ever now? Chih asks themselves the same question about society and its lores, peoples and legends and only ever can gather bits and pieces volunteered by others.

Into the Riverlands is book three in Nghi Vo's The Singing Hills Cycle. Chih is a wandering cleric from the Singing Hills monastery, and they wander the surrounding lands seeking stories and histories to catalog. They are accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a creature known as a neixin in the shape of a bird with near-perfect recall. Together they gather stories on their travels, and eventually they will take them back to the monastery.

On this leg of their pilgrimage, Chih and Almost Brilliant are making their way through an read known as the riverlands on their way to Betony Docks. While ordering lunch at a local inn, Chih encounters a group of extraordinary people with obvious strength and martial prowess. They all agree to take the foot path through the riverlands together for safety and frugality. On their journey, each member of the group tells Chih stories.

One story is about a fearsome group of necromancers known as the Hollow Hand that used to terrorize travelers along the riverlands path, murdering the travelers only to bring them back to life to join the Hollow Hand. Another story is about the Shaking Earth Master that finally put a stop to the Hollow Hand, and yet another story is told about Wild Pig Yi, Beautiful Nie, and Gravewraith Chen - three warriors who fought one another only to swear themselves to each other in loyalty and friendship.

But, when the group stops for the night at a way station, only to find a body hanging from the rafters with a white hand painted on its chest, Cheh begins to wonder just how much of those stories is truth and how much is fiction.

Even with the more violent parts of this story I still found it to be a very relaxing and quick read. It's only 100 pages, so it's easily read in a single sitting. There is something about how calmly Cheh takes in everything that makes this an almost cozy story despite parts of it being about battles. Don’t get me wrong, Cheh definitely has emotions and freaks out about more than one thing, but the tone of the story was still very relaxing to read.

I loved all the characters and the subtle winks at myths come to life as well. The hints just made me want to read more about these legends. I'm sure they're based on real mythology, and I'd be interested to learn more about it after reading this story. I will also be reading the rest of the series at some point. One good thing about the Singing Hills Cycle is they don’t have to be read in any certain order. Each story is an episode in Cheh's pilgrimage. All the books in the series are novellas, though, so they make nice reads in between longer books.

I gave Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo five out of five stars. This is an addictive read easily completed in one sitting, and I loved all the mythological elements and how intrinsic they are to the world in the book. The hint of magic in a real world was just the right amount to be believable, even with a talking bird involved. Anyone in a reading slump or just needing a quick read without needing to commit to an entire series should give this book (or the others novellas) a try!

I had a harder time getting into this book compared to the other books in this series however I think Nghi Vo's writing style is so appealing that it really saved it for me.

I love these characters and their little adventures. The author's writing always pulls me into each story and I can feel the atmosphere through the page.

Brilliant. Brilliant brilliant brilliant. Wonderful and raw and did I mention brilliant? I will say I think I preferred When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain to this iteration, but still absolutely loving these novellas.

Been meaning to read this series because the covers are so BEAUTIFUL. Some are hits, some are misses, and some are meh. I'd have to say this one was a miss for me. I liked how it started and the ideas behind the stories for this book, but it just didn't hold my attention as well as some of the previous stories. I'm curious what stories will be told in the next novella

I may not be the right reader for this series (though I LOVED Siren Queen). Perhaps I need to read them back to back, rather than allowing time between them?

This is the third novella in the Singing Hills Cycle, which is one of my favourite series. I have loved all three books that I read so far, though I have to say that this one was my least favourite. Which doesn’t mean much as you can see by my rating.

The writing style in these novellas is gorgeous. It pulls you in immediately and captures your attention throughout the story. The stories that cleric Chih listens to and records feel like fairy tales and folk tales. There is something so magical about these novellas. I love learning about the world this series takes place in. The reason that this one is my least favourite so far is due to the fact that I didn’t connect to the characters as much as I did in the first two stories. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked them and I wanted to know what was going to happen to them. I just didn’t connect to them fully, which lowered my enjoyment slightly. As you can see by my 4.5 star rating I loved this novella as well.

I would highly recommend this novella series to everyone. They are beautiful and magical stories. I can’t wait to pick up the next instalment in this series!

Gorgeous and strange, this was another delightful addition to the Singing Hills Cycle. I had missed Almost Brilliant, and it was great to see them return with Chih, This series is incredible & I can’t get enough - nor can I stop recommending these books to others!

I adore this series so much. I like the significance of storytelling, handing down of folktales and significant occasions from one person to another in order to preserve their accomplishments and heritage. Furthermore, the reader is given an excellent grasp of how an individual's perception—or desired perception—determines the stories that will stick in their memory in this part. It's impossible to truly tell what someone knows or has experienced in the past when you just look at them. You can never know everything about someone, and discovering a secret about them is a surprise and a gift. This is laid out here in such a beautiful and effortless way that it instantly captured my attention. Truly fabulous! Can’t wait to read the next book!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themselves far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be.

Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story—beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel—bears more than one face.

I didn't know what to expect from this book and I definitely am glad I went in not knowing. I loved it and wish I had read it sooner. I will be reading the other books in the series next!

Nghi Vo returns in this Singing Hills installment with rent to pay and a statement to make, though subtle but echoing clearly throughout the whole Into the Riverlands with lushfulness and wit filled proses.

And Chih, this time, despite being obstructed from hearing the whole story, doesn't come back empty handed but rather has a taste of the myths themselves along with random people (or are they) doing side quests as they walks along the vietnam/china inspired riverlands.

Personally even when I have yet to be mindblown by any Nghi Vo works, my appreciation for her writing only grows with time, and she has never failed to be a powerhouse of queer asian fantasy, so what's not to love?

I just love this series and Nghi Vo's writing. I will read a million of these novellas, This one in particular started off with quite a bang! Every book is as good as the last and I can't wait to see where else we follow these characters!

I was hoping to love this novella series more than I did. I love fantasy stories influenced by cultures outside of my own, but unfortunately that is my favorite part of this. I wish they were a bit longer so I could get more attached to the characters, or to just understand who they are and what their intentions are. I will continue this series with hope that I'll eventually rate them over a 3 star.

I didn't love Into the Riverlands as much as I loved the second book of this series, but it was very enjoyable all the same. (Though I always want more of the neixin, Almost Brilliant, who travels with Chih and records what they do. Sure, Almost Brilliant is there to record what happens, but there's a personality there too, and I enjoy that aspect of their interactions.)

This one is full of little details that slowly build up, and you have to keep your eyes open to collect the stories and put them together -- just as Chih does. I found that process really enjoyable -- though I wish, like Chih, that they'd been able to collect the story in the subject's own words...

I also enjoy that though Chih is kind and wishes people well, they're not particularly brave or practical. They sort of comfortably go along expecting that, as a cleric, others will look after them. Which doesn't sound like something to like, but it is actually enjoyable to follow a character who is flawed like this, but still overall a good person. Lots of us are good more in intent than execution, after all.

Nghi Vo does it again. The third installment in The Singing Hills Cycle follows Chi in another bout of storytelling. I love how this series follows small glimpses of life but also how they intertwine with the magical parts of the world. I love listening to these stories as they tell Chi, creating the atmosphere that captured my attention initially in this series. In this narrative, we start to see more of Chi, which is new in comparison to the other books. I love the small nuances that show Chi's growth while each being a standalone.

Although I still love the immersive world-building and elegant prose that Nghi Vo brings to the table, "Into the Riverlands" felt like the least engaging installment in the Singing Hills Cycle so far. While the story introduces some interesting new characters and settings, the plot itself lacked the same level of intrigue and tension that I found in the previous novellas. That being said, Vo's talent for crafting vivid descriptions and imbuing her characters with depth and emotion still shines through. If you're a fan of the Singing Hills Cycle, this book is worth reading to continue exploring the rich world that Vo has created. However, if you're looking for a standalone story that packs a punch, this might not be the novella for you.

This was my favorite of The Singing Hills Cycle so far! For such a quick read, it was action packed! We witness the region’s Southern Monkey Style of fighting, hear about the intimidating Hollow Hand gang, and fight our way through these bandits with Wild Pig Yi, Gravewraith Chen, and Beautiful Nie. The embedded narrative trope is just so enchanting in this series and this book, in particular. I also loved the new characters and how they all had their own abilities and skills despite appearances and the way Nghi Vo explores the idea that some things always get changed in the telling of stories. The revelation at the end of Into the Riverlands is quite satisfying and I’m very eager for the next book!