I have a bad habit: I forget the names of short story writers much more easily, and much faster, than I forget the names of novelists. I don't think it's because I value one more than the other, but perhaps reading things in anthologies I pay slightly less attention to the author's name.

Whatever the reason, I always forget that E. Lily Yu is a spectacular author whose work I love very, very much. Fortunately, this collection has reminded me of that fact with all the subtlety of a shovel to the face. Pretty much every story in this collection is wonderful and thought-provoking and I am beyond happy that I got to read it and see all of this wonderful work in one place.

A few highlights:
"The View from the Top of the Stair" - a woman (I think) whose great passion in life is staircases, who gets an inheritance that allows her to indulge her passion, and what life can be like when you get to be at least somewhat fulfilled. The passion is never mocked, it's not a tragic story of 'never what you wish for', and it's also not at all what you expect.
"The Time Invariance of Snow" - one of the stories I remembered that I had already read, as I was reading. A truly remarkable spin on the Snow Queen: it opens with the heading "The Devil and The Physicist", which gives a small indication of how Yu is approaching the ideas.
"Courtship Displays of the American Birder" - heartbreaking and beautiful and lyrical.
"The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight" - witches and knights and dragons, but not at all as you think you know them.
"Braid of Days and Wake of Nights" - after reading this one, I had to go stare at a wall for a while. Friendship and cancer and unicorns, going on when everything is awful and finding magic in the mundane.
"Ilse, who saw clearly" - is not the story I was expecting from the opening; stolen eyes and a girl who doesn't fit in, learning a craft and then still not fitting in... another one that left me unable to just blithely go on to the next story.
"The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees" - almost certainly my introduction to Yu's work. Wasps who are conquerors and map-makers, bees who get conquered and some of them become anarchists... it doesn't tell you everything about Yu's work but I suspect if this one doesn't work for you, then I suspect her work in general won't.

This collection is magnificent. "Jewel Box" is absolutely right.

An excellent collection of short stories that captivate you right from the start. Each story in the collection draws you in, and speaks to you as you travel through the different journeys. This book has a way of opening up your world as you enjoy reading about bees, angels and people in different stages of their life. A highly recommended read and worthy of five stars.

I loved this. I have read and loved some of the stories from this collection before, so I was very happy to get this as an ARC through NetGalley.
These stories are all very different. Most are strange and magical. I liked the ones that where the most like fairy tales best, like Ilse, Who Saw Clearly, and The Cat's Tale. My favorite was the last story, Small Monsters. It was brutal and strange, and also very heartwarming. The ending made me so happy!

Jewel Box: Stories by E. Lily Yu is a short story collection that is sci-fi based and is bittersweet. I've read some of Yu's stories in the past and I was enchanted by them. This book features a collection of different stories that will capture you from the beginning. The writing is distinguished and will really make you think about what you are reading. However, some stories are lackluster.

The reason I give this three stars is that I disliked some stories more than others. Yes, some of the stories were thought provoking and interesting, however some other stories were just mediocre. For example, I was really intrigued by the short story "The Lion and the Two Gates", and I consider it one of the best in the collection. But the first story, "The Pilgrim and the Angel", didn't capture my interest. It wasn't terrible just acceptable. I either really liked the stories or I thought they were just ok. And that goes for the entirety of the collection.

Overall, I liked reading this book. Some stories were better than others, but those stories were amazing. And the others were just ok.

Thank you to Net Galley for letting me review this book!

Jewel Box: Stories is a fabulous collection of short works by E. Lily Yu. Yu’s writing is tight and meaningful, and her stories bring the mythic past and frightening future into resonance with the present. I first encountered Yu’s work when my niece, a senior in high school, was assigned to read the short story “The Wretched And The Beautiful” (contained in this volume). Yu’s stories are exactly the kind I would teach to my own students as the prose can be mined for great depth in both message and style.

The collection opens with “The Pilgrim And The Angel”, which sends a coffee shop owner on a miraculous journey across the world. In other stories a city official serves as judge and jury for disputes among people, a man and woman court one another in a futuristic world filled with toxins, unicorns become metaphors for the mortal coil of life, and witches practice their craft in a time one hundred years after a star has fallen from the constellation Orion. “The Lamp At The Turning” breathes life into streetlamps who serve as “surrogate moons for an age when the moon itself was too distant and dim to guide travelers in the night” , and in “The Cartographer Wasp And The Anarchist Bees” wasp nests unfurl “into beautifully accurate maps of provinces near and far”. Characters in the collection own green glass from the moon and sell eyes of every color, aliens who arrive on the shores of earth represent the plight of immigrants, and enchanted flowers grow on the graves of grandmothers. In short, the collection is full of magic but also grounded in a real world of human pain, folly, joy, and sorrow.

The stories echo with a fairy tale feel and a couple in the collection (“The Time Invariance Of Snow” and “Three Variations On A Theme Of Imperial Attire”) directly pull from Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The stories are easy to digest but beg to be poured over, and I look forward to reading them all again. E. Lily Yu’s contribution to the short story genre is impressive, and I highly recommend her work. Each story in this volume is a jewel to be held to the light, and readers will gain much from contemplating the words and images of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Jewel Box: Stories
by E. Lily Yu
Description
Jewel Box: Stories, the first full short story collection by award-winning writer E. Lily Yu, reflects and refracts the sharp intimacies of our world through stories that are at once strange and humorous and full of power, burning brilliant against the dark.
Angels, monsters, and bees. Birdwatchers, emperors, and prison wardens. These and more populate the twenty-two new and old stories from award-winning author E. Lily Yu, collected for the first time here in her debut short story collection. From the early innovative work that won her the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, such as "The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees," to recent short fiction such as "Small Monsters," E. Lily Yu's writing has continued to garner award nominations and recognition from the literary community for its faceted beauty, cutting edge, and uplifting heart.

I very much enjoyed Jewel Box. E.Lily Yu has some profound, touching even fun. I was traveling the world with her words as putting me where I was supposed to be. Twenty-two stories, and loved them.