The Greatest Fight of Sunny Granada: Speculatively Hopeful Filipino Fiction

Sunlight and dust motes flooded the air as I cracked open the pages of Kenneth Yu’s sophomore short story collection. His earlier book featured a lot of stories that would comfortably be classified as horror. As a result, this reviewer purposefully read this second collection of stories during the day, expecting that it would have… Read More The Greatest Fight of Sunny Granada: Speculatively Hopeful Filipino Fiction

May 26, 2025May 26, 2025 ex.libris.philippinesLeave a comment

Insect Hag: Creepy Crawlies and Cultural Preservation

If you’re lucky, you get treated to a tarot reading when you have your book signed by Yvette Tan, whom fans are calling “The Queen of Philippine Horror.” Tan then explained what the three cards meant, then inscribed the book with the message of the fates, accompanied by her red stamp. (In this reader’s case,… Read More Insect Hag: Creepy Crawlies and Cultural Preservation

May 17, 2025May 17, 2025 ex.libris.philippinesLeave a comment

Manila, My Manila: Glories of the Past Resurrected

A son of Manila, my late father owned an imposing hardcover brown volume which he treasured and encouraged his teenaged children to read. We used the busyness of youth as an excuse not to when really, we were intimidated by its thickness. The book has mysteriously vanished, to our belated sorrow. So it was with… Read More Manila, My Manila: Glories of the Past Resurrected

May 12, 2025 ex.libris.philippines2 Comments

The First Impulse: Immortalizing Lives and Loves

Author Laurel Flores Fantauzzo describes this book as the product of a haunting. The 2009 murders of film journalists Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc moved her so deeply that she spent the next six years (eight with revisions) writing about the couple. What was originally meant as an academic thesis became a finalist in the… Read More The First Impulse: Immortalizing Lives and Loves

May 4, 2025May 4, 2025 ex.libris.philippinesLeave a comment