I wasn't expecting a horror story as part of this series... I'm not a fan of horror, and I also don't think the author's lyrical style is well-suited to the genre. So this fell flat for me.

First I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the chance to read this advanced reader's copy.

Now, I must complain about myself. Why is it that I can see a beautiful cover, interesting description, and great reviews and still run away when I see the word novella? When will I ever learn!? I tell myself that I'm too greedy for a good story to read novellas but think of all the gems I've missed out on because of this mindset.

Thankfully The Brides of High Hill will not be one of those lost gems. This author and her series have been on my radar for quite some time but I kept making excuses because of the aforementioned thinking. Not only was this entry into the series deliciously gothic but it also had a horrifying twist on the Bluebeard folktale. I'm very eager to include this in my gothic fiction unit, I am already writing up some, hopefully, fun lesson plans.

The last thing I can comment on without spoiling the fun is the writer's voice. Cleric Chih is the pinnacle of wit and I enjoyed them as a character, and their style is carried throughout the text. Ms. Vo's voice is highly enjoyable to read, I don't know exactly how to describe it but the flow of her storytelling just appeals to me on a personal level. I found the whole story engaging and I'm eager to see if the rest of the entries in this series have the same level of craft.

Now I'm off to the Amazon website to buy Books 1-4!

I loved the gothic horror vibes of the fifth installment in The Singing Hills Cycle. Chock-full of mystery, suspense, and revenge, readers are sure to get sucked in. Like the rest of the books in this series, I do wish it was a bit longer so that the narrative could be fully-fleshed out. There were moments where I felt we needed more time. The ending felt abrupt, and the grand reveal too rushed.

This was a great read. I absolutely love Nghi Vo's writing and worldbuilding style that is so heavily enriched with folklore and mythology. I was captivated from start to finish.

'The Brides of High Hill' is another fantastic edition to one of my favourite novella series. This novella took on an undercurrent of something darker, making your skin crawl, keeping you on the edge of your seat. And offering twists and turns that stare you in the face but you somehow don't see coming.

My favorite part of this series is how different each instalment is but how regardless, all weave together so perfectly, not as a continuing story but as if it were tales in a storybook collection. A patchwork collection of intricate worlds and characters and circumstances. Truly something magical.

I hope this series continues as long as possible.

This was the best book so far! Nghi Vo's ability to write these amazing stories in so few pages is astonishing. Highly recommend!

It is a little novella with a gothic horror vibe. When a young bride-to-be walks into her soon-to-be much older husband's estate, she is naturally a bit scared of what she walks into. One can have some expectations, but not THIS. What THIS is would be a spoiler so I will leave you all to go and find out yourself.
I like the story, the vibe, and the twist.
However, I found the bride a bit childish and somehow silly. Also, I haven´t read previous novellas in the series and that´s a minus because it does feel like there´s something important missing.

Thank you very much to TorDotCom, Tor Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. I greatly appreciate it.

Summary: This is the story about a Cleric accompanying a young bride to her wedding to a crumbling old man at an estranged estate.

This book is technically the fifth book in “The Singing Hills Cycle” series, but can be read as a stand-alone. I did not know it was a series when I requested it, and enjoyed it immensely even though I had not read the other stories from this series.

This book sells itself as a “gothic mystery” and it absolutely lived up to that. It reads like a grim fairytale, and the fact that it was a short 128 pages plays into that vibe. Novellas can be very hard to do right. Many times it leaves me wanting more from the stories or the characters, others it feels like too mundane of a story to even be justified telling. But, this was perfection. It gave just enough to be compelling, and interesting, but not so much that the mystery being unsolved kept you on the edge of your seat.

I am already downloading the other books in this series, and can not wait for this to release in May. I will absolutely be recommending it to all my gothic atmosphere friends who crave the comfort of a fairytale.

I don't think its possible not to love these novellas for me? Chih is such a sweet and kind character, I love following their adventures!
This story takes a dark tonal turn, and explores the gothic in a very good retelling of the tale of Blackbeard (atleast, that's what I think the author was going for!). It was dark, disturbing, but still held that comforting quality the other novellas in the series share. I think this really worked, so I'm excited to see what the author will explore in the next installments!! I'm glad to see the novellas still seem to be exploring different types of storytelling, and the way they can twist and change depending on who is telling it.

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group, Tordotcom for an eARC of The Brides of High Hill!

This was my first Nghi Vo novella and I am so impressed. Creepy and dark and absolutely thrilling. Everything I love about a gothic fantasy/horror. I can't wait to read the rest of the novellas.

Thank you to Tordotcom for the eARC via NetGalley!

I have been a huge fan of Nghi Vo's work for a long time, and The Brides of High Hill do not disappoint in the classic Singing Hills cycle of telling a story about storytelling. Although I cannot explain the exact frame presented in the piece (this is a spoiler), know that every inconsistency, every uncharacteristic action of the protagonist Chih, is actually well accounted for and will draw towards a surprising ending even to a keen-eyed and genre-savvy reader. Nghi Vo takes great care to give the reader a sense that something is wrong- especially in the mysterious and evident lack of Almost Brilliant, a staple of grounding wittiness in the series.

The Brides of High Hill takes a slightly different take on Singing Hills in that the ending displays clear, present dangers in a way that hasn't occurred before, where Chih must make their way to safety less through their memory or the power of storytelling but through action and quick wit, the sorts of actions that would create a story rather than something of a recorder of stories. I would say this is very much like if the Singing Hills wanted to take a gothic horror detour and lands in spectacular fashion.

In this story, Chih is accompanying the Phams who are traveling to marry their daughter, the beautiful Nhung, to a force of decadence and intimidation that is Lord Guo. Chih finds themselves helping out the hapless Nhung navigate the castle and uncovering terrible secrets about Lord Guo, his supposedly mad son, and the castle's origins itself... no one is as they seem. This is has great suspense and to say anything more than the premise is to give the game away. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. New readers may miss some inconsistencies Nghi Vo has purposefully placed in Chih and Almost Brilliant, but ultimately will not find themselves feeling lost or without enough context to enjoy.

Each installment keeps getting better and better. Creepy, horror, twisty madness in this tale that I didn't want to put down. Nghi Vo can do no wrong in this series!

Another fantastic book by Nghi Vo. Her writing is thrilling, ethereal, and dream-like. This is somehow both a novel and a poem, and I enjoyed this installment in the little universe Vo built.

This work is so beautiful that I'm struggling to find the words to do it justice. The Brides of High Hill was phenomenal, and I would expect nothing less from the Singing Hills series. Nghi Vo's writing has such a lyrical sense to the prose, and her plots are beautifully laid out. This installment felt more lived-in than the others to me, and I think that is because Chih is observing/is a part of the story rather than having it recounted to them. This story isn't told to Chih; they are living through it. I enjoyed seeing more of Chih's character in this one - their inner thoughts, routines, and deviations from cleric practices. I also appreciated how Chih is aging through the series - while I felt they were quite young in Empress of Salt and Fortune, how I picture them changes throughout the books. There are so many clever turns in this novella that begin to reveal the true story, and it is immersing to uncover the truth along with Chih. Again, I'm at a loss for words with this incredible series, and I will read as many as Vo is willing to put out!

I love Nghi Vo and all of her works. This is a wonderful next installment of the Singing Hills Cycle series, following Cleric Chih. The storytelling is phenomenal and readers will really enjoy the descriptions and mythological aspects. The books themselves do not need to be read in order.

i’ve been a huge fan of this series ever since i first read “the empress of salf and fortune”. i absolutely adore the main characters and i am always left amazed at how nicely crafted the atmosphere is in every novella. i think nghi vo is an undeniably talented author, as every single one of these short books felt like a hug in book format to me. i don’t know why i find the stories so comforting, but i do, so i will patiently wait for the next ones as well.

nghi vo’s writing style is absolutely phenomenal and i think it fits the novellas quite perfectly - just the right amount of action, dialogue and descriptive pharagraphs to create an amazing atmosphere. this book is set in a castle and, throughout the story, there’s a feeling that something is definitely wrong, and i think the author did such a good job at defining this eerie, creepy atmosphere. the story is well paced - the action isn’t too fast and everything is revealed at the right time to keep the story going without it feeling too rushed.

i ADORE chih and almost brilliant. i think both of them are brilliant ;) main characters - they’re witty and so human in all of the books. i really liked seeing the friendship between nhung and chih - well, most of it anyway. i think the author is amazing at writing relationships between characters, but friendships in particular shine in these stories. none of the characters are just bad or just pure, each of them have flaws and i really like how, especially in this story, we get to see why some of the characters act the way they do.

the worldbuilding is insane in this one as well, so that’s consistent with the previous novellas as well. granted, the setting in quite limited - the action is all confined to the lord’s castle, but it’s quite nicely crafted. we get to see a lot of the space even if the story is pretty short.

this novella was a bit different compared to the previous ones, but i think it’s a nice change of tone - we no longer get the “storyteller” aspect that was so prevalent in the other books. i did like how this one combined horror and fantasy elements and how we got to figure out what was happening alongside chih. the reveal was also quite interesting and not something i saw coming. up to that point, i didn’t imagine that’s the way the story would go, but i could tell something was definitely wrong.

overall, i’m absolutely in love with everything about this series and i wish it could continue on forever, but alas. highly recommend picking up this book, because it’s slightly different than the previous installments.

Matrimonial predators

We catch up with Chih, who is accompanying the Pham family -- Mr and Mrs Pham and their daughter Pham Nhung to the castle of Lord Guo. The Phams are a family of merchants down on their luck, and Nhung has been proposed in marriage to Lord Guo. She and Chih met cute, and she asked them to accompany her to Lord Guo's castle for the marriage negotiation. Chih appears to have a mini-crush on Nhung, which she appears to encourage. Chih desperately misses their neixin Almost Brilliant, who is mysteriously absent. Nhung is naturally worried about being married. Chih, who knows many stories, true and fictional, about husbands and wives, would like to reassure her, but cannot honestly do so.

Stuff happens. You will recognize the story pretty quickly. <spoiler>It's Bluebeard. You probably already figured that out -- the plural "Brides" in the title kind of gives it away.</spoiler> In this one Chih faces serious personal danger, more immediate than in any other Singing Hills book. Also, they get to be an action hero in this one. Unlike When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, when Chih and their companions were in real danger of being eaten by tigers, Chih can't get out of this one just by telling stories.

I enjoyed this a lot. It was simpler and more straightforward than the other Singing Hills stories. The Singing Hills stories are stories about story-telling -- very meta. While I appreciate that -- Nghi Vo is a master story-teller, and it is a delight that she teaches her craft. But in this installment we get something more like a simple (well, honestly, not THAT simple) story straightforwardly told.

Thanks to NetGalley and TorDotCom for an advance reader copy of The Brides of High Hill. This review expresses my honest opinion. Release date 7-May-2024.

This was a fantastic book. Consistent tonally with the rest of the series, but also, creepy and unsettling and gothic in a way that made it my new favourite. The narrative unfolded beautifully, information coming at exactly the pace it needed to. It also did not shy away from its darker elements. I also appreciated the way in which it let Cleric Chih be fallible - they are a fantastic character, and it was a new and brilliant facet to them. Absolutely excellent, what more can I say?

Y’all, I am not exaggerating when I say this might be one of my favorite series. This novella packed a serious punch and I LOVED it. This installment was dark and had me on the edge of my seat. It felt completely different to the others, but it was still very enjoyable. The writing continues to be gorgeous. Each book reads like a fairytale, with this one being creepy and dark. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I am now depressed that I have to wait for book six.

I didn't know what to expect with this one. It is short, but not too short and definitely not sweet. The author draws you in with a tale as old as time: young bride-to-be meeting her questionable husband for the first time before the wedding. The bride is a seemingly naive Nhung Pham on the road with her parents and cleric companion, Chih. Something feels off, but you can't figure out what it is. It is only when they reach their destination of Doi Cao that the story bursts into colour. When we meet Zhihao, the prince of the palace, you think you have it all figured out. Dear Reader: you do not!!

This is an atmospheric gothic horror, with some fantastical elements, that are not overdone or hyperbolic. The story felt drawn out in certain areas but this feels intentional rather than accidental. I'll be honest, the beautiful prose made the reveal all the more shocking. It was genius how beauty and innocence masked such horror. The relationship between Nhung and Chih was endearing enough to believe they were lifelong friends.

Spellbinding and compelling, with charming characters... and Almost Brilliant!