Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The fifth installment in Nghi Vo’s incredible series of fantasy novellas does not disappoint! I love following Cleric Chih’s adventures as they gather stories and encounter various strange and interesting phenomena. This was definitely the spookiest in the series thus far, and I enjoyed the gothic vibes. I loved the mystery and intrigue, and did not see the twists coming. I love that each story in this series is unique and takes Chih in a different turn in their winding path. I can't wait to see where the series will take them next!

I have loved every installment of the Singing Hills Cycle, and this was no different, though I found it confusing at first and had to go back and reread the first third or so. I eventually decided it was confusing on purpose and things would sort themselves out in the end (which they did, in a completely unexpected way.) I loved the twist on the Bluebeard story. I was left with so many questions that the dreamy, nightmarish quality of the story didn't really answer. But in the end I was ok with that.

The audiobook was well done and captured the haunting, nightmarish quality well while balancing it with a very matter-of-fact telling style to keep it grounded.

I look forward to more of Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant's adventures. I love how they're all self-contained, but also hint at a larger story. Each new tale uncovers a different aspect of Chih's personality and past which makes it feel a little like a puzzle.

*Thanks to NetGalley and tordotcom for providing an early copy for review.

Like every other book in this series, this was a nice fast read for inbetween. I enjoy all of these little gems of stories.
Being 5lingual, it was kind of hard to not get my reading/comprehension disrupted by the names of the characters, unfortunately.

To be fair science fiction is not my preferred genre, but I do dip my toes in. Unfortunately, this one was not one that I was able to read and enjoy. I do think it was well written, and I can see where others who love Sci-fiction would enjoy it, for that reason, I am going to absolutely give it 3 stars.

This series remains one of my favorites and I will read anything in this series. I do wish this had returned to the format of someone telling Chih a story, but I also can't complain because I liked the curveballs thrown in here. Nghi Vo continues to deliver beautiful writing. Thank you Netgalley for the eARC of this book!

The Brides of High Hill is the fifth installment in Nghi Vo's Singing Hills cycle - of which we here at Nerds have reviewed books one, two and four - that follows Cleric Chih in their wanderings, collecting stories for the Singing Hills Abbey and discovering strange things, and stranger people in the process.

Each of the previous novels has had something of a twist to it, structurally speaking. The Empress of Salt and Fortune, for instance, tells its tale through objects being discovered in an old house, and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain through a story within a story, drawn from two traditions of the same narrative. One of the delights of continuing to read the series is the anticipation, the wait to find out what the gimmick (in the entirely complimentary use of the word) is going to be this time. Mammoths at the Gates, the fourth volume, kept the reader waiting a fair way into the book to find that out, and against the backdrop of an abbey at siege in all but the most scrupulous definitions, this gave a pleasing sense of tension. The Brides of High Hill likewise lets the wonderment linger on, pushing it even further than its predecessor. But is it too long of a wait this time? Perhaps.

On the one hand, it still does the job. The bit, the device, the gimmick, whatever you want to call it, still leaves the reader with a little something more than just a typical narrative would. It's still a good story well told, with the same vivid description, the same loving lingering over food, the same palpable atmosphere of all of Nghi's work. But when I come to talk about this series as a series, the selling point is always the device. It's what distinguishes this from other works. If I didn't have the rest of the series to contextualise this entry, however, I might not be inclined to think of it that way at all - instead, I might describe it as a twist ending, which is something else entirely.

Or... well, is it? At what point does something shift from a device, an interesting upending of the usual narrative, and become a twist ending? Where's the line? Wherever it is, The Brides of High Hill feels like it is actively flirting with it. And that leaves me with two parallel experiences of it as a story.

Purely on its own merits, with nothing to compare it to, I really enjoyed it. Vo is great at pared down worldbuilding, giving us in novella space all we need to thoroughly envision the world of her books, because she knows exactly what to focus on, which bits matter to make the reading experience a rich one, without compromising on atmosphere or flavour. There's nothing beyond what is needed, but absolutely everything you need, and that balance is exquisitely handled, here just as much as her other stories. I have a very clear visual impression of several rooms and scenes in the story, a tactile memory of the mouldy library and the book the cleric finds there, moments of light and sound and colour when the story zooms in on critical scenes. It is by no means sparse - those scenes are fully built up, especially with clothing and with food, which is always a strong part of Vo's storytelling for me - but every single piece feels critical and purposeful, and so the story fits and flows in its small space.

The growing strangeness of Chih's situation is also well handled, intruding at first only subtly round the edges, never going in feet first. You feel embedded in their view of the situation, and so you get to follow them through their own experiences and realisations, and I at least had the wonderfully joyous experience of discovering the twist along with them (which is a rare delight for a chronic predictor of endings to mysteries). It's a good twist, too. It does exactly what you want out of one - forcing you to look back at the whole of the rest of the story before it and exclaim "ohhhHHHHhhhhh" as you realise just how much it was built in all along, if only you had noticed.

And Chih just remains a lovely character to spend time with. Their gentle pragmatism about their vegetarianism, their enjoyment of the world, their willingness to just let fortune steer them and see what comes, all make them a pleasant narrative perspective. I keep coming back to food here, as I have in previous reviews of the Singing Hills books, but it is one of the series' great strengths - Chih enjoys food, and describes it so vividly, it's very easy and comforting to enjoy it along with them. I love books that bed the reader into the sensory experience of the world, and food is such an emotive part of the sensory experience that when it's done right, it latches right onto my soul and has me hooked.

If it has a weakness, it's that the secondary characters are less compelling than they could be. The creepy son is indeed creepy, and the weirdly upbeat young bride is indeed slightly weird and upbeat... but neither of them latched onto my heart the way it felt like they might have, or could have. There was just something a little flat about them. But truly, and especially in such a short novella, this is not the greatest crime in the world.

And so on the whole, purely as itself, it was a good, well-written story with a mystery and a twist, all of which I enjoyed reading and simply could not put down.

And then... you compare it to the rest of the series. And that's where it gets sticky. Because instead of something throughout the story, you have a twist ending. But where those structural devices in the other stories were something of a USP, well, everyone's done a twist ending. It's just fundamentally less exciting. But maybe the twist forcing you to reassess the story that comes before it count as being pervasive through the whole narrative? Or does leaving you in suspense waiting for the device change the experience of the book as a whole? Is this actually a long con on Nghi Vo's part, toying with our expectations now that the rest of the series has set a pattern? I honestly don't know.

If it is though, it didn't entirely work for me. There's a lot of foreshadowing for the twist ending that does mean you recontextualise a lot of story once you have that knowledge. And that certainly makes it a good twist. But I yearn for the extra tasty structure of the previous stories, the way Vo plays with craft, with form, and I do think this one is weaker for the contrast with its forebears. I cannot turn off the part of my mind that brings with it the expectations Vo has set for us, I just can't. And if those expectations are being played with, alas, I am not so subtle nor so smart a reader as to have fully got that, so it exists in an awkward limbo of shoulda woulda coulda for me. If it is something smarter, then I think I needed that to be made more plain on the page for me to spot. And if it's not... then it falls a little flat when compared to its rather more fancily dressed older siblings.

It's still a good story, even despite this. It's still a 7/10, still enjoyable, readable and utterly devourable. I still love Cleric Chih. I still love the world. I still love Vo's lingering descriptions of place and food and texture and architecture. I still love the way the stories turn out, never quite how I expect them to. But this one is missing that little bit of something that truly makes the Singing Hills cycle magical, and I hope, if we continue to get more in this series, the magic is returned.

I've honestly been loving this series of novellas. Each entry has its own charm. Some of them are more distinct than others, and this fifth installment brought the gothic vibes in a way that I wasn't expecting. It's creepy and unsettling, and I had a really fun time with it.

The cleric Chih is accompanying a beautiful merchant's daughter to the rich compound on the top of a hill where her betrothed awaits. This man has had other wives, but they have all left or disappeared; if it weren't for the strange pronouncements of his possibly-mad eldest son, one could assume they had never existed. Chih is uneasy about everything, especially the fate of her charming new friend.

Vo's Singing Hills novellas always play with genre. Brides of High Hill is obviously invoking the gothic novel, nurse with too much laudanum and all. But there's another genre of creepy stories at play. One hint that something weird is going on is that Chih, who usually collects everyone's stories, can't get any of the servants to talk to them--they don't even seem to know any of the hangers-on in the merchants' revenue. It's easy to overlook these worries, when the mundane implications of the looming marriage are so terrifying; it would be fascinating to re-read this novella, assuming it never was a gothic novel.

I received an e-galley of The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo from Tor Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Brides of High Hill is the fifth book in the Singing Hills Cycle series by Nghi Vo, one of my favourite ongoing fantasy series. And just like all the other books, it now joins the list of favourite reads. In this story, we start with Cleric Chih waking up as they are traveling with a young bride to her wedding. Almost Brilliant is missing from the journey but we don't really find out why Almost Brilliant is back at the Singing Hills without Chih. As Chih spends more time in the isolated home and estate of the aging lord, they begin to suspect that there may something deadly happening behind the many closed doors of the estate.

The amount of intrigue, mystery, and twists in this story was absolutely fantastic. Nghi Vo is such a talented writer that keeps readers on their toes, never knowing what to expect next, but being surprised in ways that are absolutely brilliant. It's never until the end that everything ties together in ways that make perfect sense that you wonder how you ever missed all the clues. As always, this is a series that I highly recommend to anyone looking for fantastic writing and storytelling.

I have missed this world and these characters. It's always a great time reading wise and story wise. And sometimes short stories can seem abrupt, Nghi Go really knows who to create interesting characters and an intriguing premise.

Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo is an amazing tale with a fantastic surprise twist at the end. I am a sucker for stories based on folklore, myths, and legends, and this story did not disappoint. It is the story of a bride and the cleric keeper of stories that accompanies her to her new home. It is a tale of curiosity and discovery, of tradition and attraction and just a touch of fear, and one of reclaiming home, complete with a cast of monsters to keep things interesting. I highly recommend anyone who loves folklore retellings read this book.

I've enjoyed all the books in the Singing Hills Cycle but I think this one is my favorite! Full of intricate twists, a great edge of mythology and body horror, and the always-steady voice of Cleric Chih, The Brides of High Hill packs a punch as a novella. I loved the way this story unfolded and Cleric Chih's perspective through the story as they explore the mysterious grounds of Doi Cao. It's an intriguing mystery and the perfect spooky vibes for a good story. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend!

Happy belated pub day to THE BRIDES OF HIGH HILL by @nghivowriting ! This title is the 5th installment of the Singing Hills Cycle series and I just freaking can't get enough of this series!! The series revolves around Cleric Chih as they travel around the Singing Hills with their trusty neixin (highly intelligent hoopoe birds) Almost Famous while gathering stories from the different peoples and cultures of the area.

In this chapter, Chih finds themselves traveling with Pham Nhung and her parents as their entourage heads toward the decrepit estate of Nhung's elderly, soon-to-be husband. While Chih is eager to assist this young bride to be, things are fuzzy as to how they ended up in this place which leads Chih to unravel the mystery of this intended marriage. And with the son of the groom-to-be warning of malice in the kingdom, Chih must hurry before time runs out.

This book started out a bit confusing and slow but I soon caught on to why and ended up loving this installment as much as the previous ones. Vo weaves folklore, feminism and dark creatures into all these stories with incredible grace for such small tomes and I can't get enough of them! This book in particular features one of the more famous folkloric creatures of the Asian diaspora and I was delighted when I realized the author had placed a foreshadowing Easter egg in the first few pages. 😎

If you haven't started reading this series yet and you love folklore, fantasy, storytelling and mystery, WHAT ARE UOU WAITING FOR?!?

Thank you yonthe author, @netgalley and the publisher, @tordotcompub for the e-ARC

❓If you could be an animal for a day, what would you want to be and why?

Um, for me it is easy - a well-loved house cat whose only responsibilities are sleeping and lounging and having sporadic bursts of zoomies at inconvenient times sounds like the perfect job for me. 🤣

💚SMASHBOT💚

Another stunner out of the Singing Hills Cycle! And I think this might be my favorite one of all?? Gorgeously written, with so much creeping dread, and I LOVED the setting so much ("a dream of the Ku Dynasty"...how evocative is that?). And I really, really loved the twist. Such a great turn to the story.

Also really loved how Vo played readers who are going through this series as it's released with Almost Brilliant's absence! Because I definitely thought she was still back at Singing Hills with her baby. Well done, seriously.

I could have done with a smidge more lore though: why did the smell like moldy papers keep the fox-creatures out? ...And how do you get foxes out of slithering beasts?? So, yeah, a shade more detail could have been added there, but beyond that? You seriously cannot go wrong with this book, or with this series.

This was an engaging and quick novella in this series of standalones. I found the prose to be gorgeous and vivid. This novella flies by, but if you're looking for something low stakes and really well written, I'd definitely pick this up!

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for an ARC!

Cleric Chih is accompanying a young woman and her parents to her new home. The bride, Nhung Pham, is a cheerful girl who enjoys eating and pretty things. Her parents, once wealthy, are now trading their daughter’s beauty for a good husband. Chih finds themself torn between two feelings: the first, an attraction for the lively Nhung; the second, a confused and unsettling loneliness because Almost Brilliant, their neixin, isn’t with them.

The neixin are memory spirits in the form of birds who accompany the clerics of the Singing Hills Abbey, but without their companion, Chih will have to rely on their human memory — albeit one neixin trained — to memorize the events so that they may be written in the abbey library. And what a story this one will be! A beautiful bride engaged to a much older groom; a handsome young man who will become her son, lost to madness; a house of secrets and guards and strange beast carvings hidden in small alcoves; and a warning given by Zhihao, the poor mad son: Where are the other wives?

This adventure is book five in the Singing Hills Cycle series, though they don’t need to be read in order. It is a wonderful little ghost story told with exquisite skill. The tension is almost palpable as Chih wanders the strange household laid out in a twisting spiral, caught in a dreamlike state, always looking for something that isn’t there. The descriptions of the bridal feast are gory and glorious, the food described with lavish attention — and the same attention given to the gruesome events that happen.

This is a very quick read with the author’s lyrical prose and sharp sense of humor, and I loved it. If you enjoy short stories, mysteries, mythology, and beautiful writing, you will enjoy this book. Personally, I have loved everything Nghi Vo has written, and really hope you give this one a try. It would make a wonderful spooky, seasonal read.

I was very excited about this new novel in the The Singing Hills Cycle since I discovered that it would have gothic horror elements. And although I enjoyed it and was surprised by the turn the story ends up taking, I must admit that I missed my favorite aspect of this series: Cleric Chih collecting different stories. This is something that was barely present in Mammoths at the Gates and in this book the author decided to put Chih at the center of the plot instead of focusing on story-within-a-story element.

The premise is that Chih decides to accompany a young bride to meet her future husband and assist her in wedding negotiations. But when they arrive at the estate, they begin to realize that something strange is happening there: the behavior of the lord's supposedly mad son, mysterious figurines scattered around the estate or how the servants seem to be frightened.

Overall, The Brides of High Hill is an entertaining gothic fantasy novella with a touch of mystery that is different from previous installments. As always, the author’s prose is a delight to the eye, something accentuated by Cindy Kay’s wonderful narration of the audiobook (I’ll not tire of recommend physically reading these novellas and listening to the audiobooks at the same time). And I’m looking forward to discovering what new stories the author will surprise us with in the following installments.

How the everloving heck does Nghi Vo keep outdoing herself with this series!? Straight up every single book has, thus far, been fire, and this one was no different! Our now-beloved cleric Chih finds themself on a new adventure- this time, accompanying a bridal party to meet/marry the groom. And the story is gold as always, right? But then! Nghi Vo goes from telling a great story to telling a great story and blowing my mind. Well played, ma'am. Well played indeed. Giddy excited for the next installment!

Bottom Line: 🤯

While I still haven’t circled back to When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, I’ve read and enjoyed everything else in The Singing Hills Cycle—starting with the exceptional, Hugo-winning The Empress of Salt and Fortune—and it’s turned into a series where every entry is immediately starting high on my TBR. So when I had the opportunity to get an advance copy of The Brides of High Hill, I jumped on the opportunity. 

The series follows a traveling cleric/storyteller/story-collector named Chih, often joined by their companion Almost Brilliant, a magical bird with an infallible memory. Often, the novellas center stories that Chih tells or collects rather than stories in which they actively participate, but the fourth and fifth entries both find Chih in the middle of the action. The Brides of High Hill makes minimal reference to prior adventures and can be read in isolation, finding Chih escorting a merchant’s daughter to what her family hopes will be a betrothal to a rich and powerful man. But no sooner have they arrived than they hear dire warnings about the fate of his past wives, and Chih must get to the truth before their new companion meets the same fate. 

The Brides of High Hill leans heavily into the Gothic atmosphere, with a rich man hiding dark secrets, a compound full of crumbling rooms with the scent of decay, and an allegedly insane relative who might know more about what’s happening than anyone else is willing to admit. In fact, there are times that it feels like an outright Bluebeard retelling in an East Asian setting, though I’d characterize it as more of an inspiration than a retelling, as there are enough twists and turns to keep the novella feeling distinct. 

Vo is a talented storyteller, so it should come as no surprise that The Brides of High Hill successfully evokes the unsettling atmosphere of foreboding in place of crumbling beauty. But I found myself not immersing quite as easily as in past books, with a couple more “wait, who is talking again” moments than usual. It’s quite possible that some level of disorientation is intentional, as Chih finds themselves traveling without Almost Brilliant and struggling to trust their own memory without their neixin companion, but the narrative didn't flow together quite as smoothly as in some of the past entries. 

Make no mistake, every Singing Hills book I’ve read has been very good. But I see a pretty clear demarcation between those that are merely very good and those that hit another level of excellence, and that comes in the quality of narrative layering. I haven’t read a one that isn’t trying to do more than one thing, but sometimes the pieces come together so perfectly that they elevate the level of the whole, and other times they remain quality pieces with flashes of brilliance but without that grand moment of everything clicking into place. And I would put The Brides of High Hill in the latter category. The atmosphere and attempts to uncover the truth are plenty entertaining, the plot offers enough surprises to keep from dullness, and Chih has an additional challenge working without Almost Brilliant, but it doesn’t have the thematic depth of Mammoths at the Gates, and there's no grand moment of convergence on the level of The Empress of Salt and Fortune or Into the Riverlands. 

Overall, The Brides of High Hill is a treat for continuing series fans and for those who particularly enjoy Gothic vibes, but for those new to The Singing Hills Cycle, I’d start with one of the first three books. 

Recommended if you like: The Singing Hills Cycle, Gothic settings, Bluebeard inspiration. 

Overall rating: 16 of Tar Vol’s 20. Four stars on Goodreads.

The Brides of High Hill, the fifth book in the Singing Hills Cycle series, does not disappoint. It is a great addition to the previous four, another fantastic tale woven with myth and lore of Southeast Asia. As an expat who lives in China, I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing elements of local belief and whispered Pu Songling-esque tales twisted into something unique with the wordsmithing of Nghi Vo. I recommend this series frequently and definitely look forward to what is to come with this series.