Spirits Abroad

By: Zen Cho

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Nineteen sparkling stories that weave between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. Spirits Abroad is an expanded edition of Zen Cho’s Crawford Award winning debut collection with nine added stories including Hugo Award winner “If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again”. A Datin recalls her romance with an orang bunian. A teenage pontianak struggles to balance homework, bossy aunties, first love, and eating people. An earth spirit gets entangled in protracted negotiations with an annoying landlord, and Chang E spins off into outer space, the ultimate metaphor for the Chinese diaspora.

©2021 Zen Cho (P)2021 Recorded Books

An Array of Magic

Zen Cho’s writing is electric. Her cast of many characters and their varying journeys are thoroughly developed and rich with humanity and magic. Many of the short stories are wonderful stand alone, but there are also a few which are written in two parts - these were my favorite as you got to delve further into the characters’s perspectives, desires, and motives. I enjoyed this so intently that it’s hard for me to write a review that doesn’t sound like a Shakespearean teen swooning over a pretty face.

One thing I was thrilled by was all of the Malay and other Asian specific magic, spirits, and language. I love getting to immerse myself in a culture and be able to enjoy it just as it is, without the comparisons to mainstream/White cultural norms. House of Gold by C.T. Rwizi is another great example of this. Of course, I’m not calling for an erasure of White people, but stories that allow POCs to exist in their own stories without having to weigh themselves against anyone else’s background is really cool. Also who doesn’t want to learn about another culture’s magic, if magic and fantasy is your thing?

Anyway, this was a fantastic read/listen. I love the sound of Emily Woo Zeller’s voice. It was so natural and she managed to vary her voice enough to portray distinguishable characters without overdoing it - male, female, and non-binary. Her males voices did start to sound the same at times, but, to my knowledge, she doesn’t often voice males characters so I can’t really fault her for that.

At the end of the day this is a gold winner, and I highly recommend it to others.

Narrator brings great text to life!

I loved most stories, the narrator could bring each character to life in a different way, the accents, the flow made the reading/listening experience feel comfortable, the stories touching. Such a great blend of folklore and modern storytelling.