THE SECRET LIVES OF OFWs has an irresistible premise. What if the Filipino migrant worker is actually a mythological creature, with enough supernatural power to take revenge against abusive foreigners? Events creative (and former OFW) Jet Tagasa’s first book is a collection of eight horror stories, each featuring a kababayan who happens to be more… Read More The Secret Lives of OFWs: Here Be Monsters
“Delightful” is perhaps a weird adjective to use when describing a collection of horror stories, but Kenneth Yu’s book is truly a joy to read, in a genre-expanding work redefining the possibilities of this reader’s Halloween treat. Mouths to Speak, Voices to Sing is a collection of fourteen short stories and a one-act play, and… Read More Mouths to Speak, Voices to Sing: ‘Horror’ that Delights
Podium Mall’s usually quiet hallways echoed with screams of tired trick-or-treating children that Saturday (be honest; if we were dolled up as zombies, painted head to toe in corpse-white make-up to boot, and compelled to traipse up and down five floors asking store owners for candy, we’d probably be whining our heads off as well).… Read More Haunted Reads: Filipino Horror Writers Speak About Facing Our Fears
“A god lives in this house.” ASCENSION is a novel with such a strong sense of time, people, and place, it feels almost real. A word of caution: Drinking your pumpkin spice latte while reading Eliza Victoria’s latest novel might not be the best idea. You might end up spilling it out of sheer fright,… Read More Ascension: When A God Haunts A House
To read the English translation of filmmaker and Ateneo college professor Alvin Yapan’s book Worship the Body (Sambahin Ang Katawan) is to be awash in a sea of images. Of clothing revealing nakedness (between man and wife, and man and fellow man). Of sea and sky, lands urban and rural. While acclaim and praise follow… Read More Worship The Body: What Price Love?
If author Ronaldo S. Vivo Jr.’s aim is to leave readers devastated, if the intention is to give us no respite from cruelty or from descriptions of material and moral filth, if the purpose is to shove this country’s reality in our faces when we would prefer to look away, then The Power Above Us… Read More The Power Above Us All: Today’s Trauma in Translation
Douglas Candano’s collection of eight stories are all set in one universe that feels so much like ours, but defy Newtonian physics in its population that includes amalgamations of aswang and the Chinese jiangshi, as well as museums that house experiences rather than relics, and historical events with a few monsters thrown in the mix.… Read More Infinite Lives, Infinite Deaths: Chillingly Cold Prose Delivers 8 Doses of Fil-Chi Horror
My second book by Catherine Dellosa had me sobbing uncontrollably in the last couple of chapters, making my Sunday morning coffee a bit more salty than usual. It also has one of the most striking opening paragraphs I’ve ever come across: “Fate is fixed, love is a thunderstorm, and Cheetos are mankind’s greatest invention since… Read More The Summer of Letting Go: Catherine Dellosa Guides Us How to Deal with Loss and Love
“Even God can be felt in the heat of the sun or the bliss of the ocean. But what happens to your crypto when the circuits or blockchains are broken? What happens when the power goes out?” Sci-fi books are scarily prophetic. From the modern physics-defying vehicles and gadgets we take for granted, to the… Read More “God’s Ashes” is Sci-Fi with a Call to Action
Don’t you sometimes worry about what passes for YA nowadays? From toxic relationships to obscene violence (yes I’m glaring at you, ACOTAR, and let’s not even touch the steamy scenes), to books embracing woke-ness and every rage-filled controversy for the sake of being “edgy,” one can understand the controversy when discussing healthy book diets for… Read More For The Win is a rare drop of a YA book both computer gamers and their parents will love
Ex Libris Philippines 