Book Review: Black Cranes

What the book is:

Black Cranes is an anthology of horror and speculative fiction, told by eleven different authors (all Asian women).  The number of contributors gives it one type of breadth but there are other elements of breadth as well: cultural breadth and storytelling breadth. 

In describing the cultural breadth of the stories in the forward, Alma Katsu writes “we have stories from the Philippines and Malaysia, Singapore and Australia and New Zealand, China and Indonesia.”  The storytelling breadth is to me even wider, with styles including folktale charm (The Ninth Tale, Kapre: A Love story, Little Worm), Tales of the Crypt-style horror (Phoenix Claws, The Mark), Futuristic science fiction (The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter, Skin Dowdy) zombie horror (Fury) cosmic horror (Truth is Order and Order is Truth) and others that transcend easy description.

What I liked the most:

In an exchange with editor Lee Murray, she mentioned ‘this is likely quieter horror than you’ve been reviewing’.   ‘Quieter horror’ happens to be my favorite type, so I found a lot of worthwhile stuff here!  

The overall level of storytelling is high – there are no clunkers in the collection.  My favorites were The Genetic Alchemist’s Daughter and its cautionary tale of gene manipulation and Fury, a frenetic and fun take on the zombie genre with an interesting twist at the end. 

Those favorites are hard-chosen, for there are many strong contributions to the anthology – I bet ten people could read this and no people’s two favorite stories would be the same.  Phoenix Claws is a fun old-school TV serial-style story; Truth is Order and Order is Truth gets really enjoyable when the cosmic horror elements unfurl at the halfway point; and Little Worm and its mother-daughter complexities serve up an excellent finisher.  Many of the tales have interesting (and well-concealed) moral offerings, weaving another pattern into the book’s larger tapestry of culture and identity. 

What I liked the least:

While the pros of this anthology far outweigh the cons, a few stories had drawbacks for me.  I had a hard time getting into Frangipani Wishes, despite the craft that went into it – the prose reads as dreamlike and ethereal and I found grounding difficult (the use of second-person point of view and inserted chunks of poetry verse also confused me).  The Mark feels more like a prelude to a larger story than a story in itself, and while I found the premise and plot of Kapre: A Love Story interesting, there were spots where I couldn’t tell the difference between purposeful ambiguity and accidental vagueness.  Similarly, twist-guessing is something we all do, but I felt like the twist of A Pet is For Life was easy to see coming. 

Is it Worth it?

Completely.  Black Cranes is chock full of good storytelling and horror that builds, upping the dosage until all you can do is shudder.  The roster of authors and unifying themes the anthology breath fresh life into the genre, and the book delivers from cover to cover. 

I considered not even mentioning that all the stories are written by Asian women because they’re strong on its own merit – I commend the editors for finding such interesting tales to include here.   Every voice here is fresh and each story is worthwhile. 

I own some anthologies and expect this to be one I recall and even re-read from time to time over the coming years.  A recommended purchase.

Want a copy? Find it here:

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Cranes-Tales-Unquiet-Women-ebook/dp/B08GF8K6CQ/