Queering Malaysian folklore in a fantastical modern day romp. As the youngest, and first non-Singaporean winner of the annual Epigram Books Fiction Prize, Malaysian writer Joshua Kam has a lot of expectations placed upon his debut novel. But as it turns out, How The Man In Green Saved Pahang, And Possibly The World, meets those expectations as one of the most wildly original and entertaining regional works … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Book Review: How the Man in Green Saved Pahang, and Possibly the World by Joshua Kam

Writers from around the world come together to showcase the diversity of the lived Muslim experience.  Scoured from just about every corner of the world over a period of over four years, The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human is a richly diverse collection of short non-fiction that illustrates what it means to be a modern Muslim. With most stories lasting no longer than 10 pages, each … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Book Review: The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human – Tales from Many Muslim Worlds

A freak incident blows open old wounds and dark secrets in this novel about the destruction wreaked by fear and racism. Throughout American history, Asians have always taken the backseat when it comes to discussions of race, with the Black or Latinx community always the minorities featured at the forefront, and their issues prioritised due to their urgency. As the ‘model minority’, Asians still bear … Continue reading ★★★★☆ Book Review: Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

The ghosts and legends of Southeast Asia come to life when a group of boys share campfire tales.  While we may not have grown up in an environment where campfire ghost stories were the norm, Malaysian author Julya Oui certainly takes us right to that setting with her short story collection Taiping Tales of Terror.  Rather ironically, ‘Taiping’ literally translates to ‘peaceful’, while the stories contained … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Book Review: Taiping Tales of Terror by Julya Oui

Seeing conscription through the lens of a world at war with monsters. In the increasingly bleak world we live in, the most terrifying thing is that a dystopia is far closer to reality than it is fiction. Yet somehow, the YA dystopia novel has become one of the most popular genres to emerge in recent years, with some of the most well-known series including The … Continue reading ★★★☆☆ Book Review: 18 Walls by Teo Xue Shen