The Singing Hills Cycle #1 & #2 by Nghi Vo and Sweet Bean Paste [Reviews]

• The Empress of Salt & Fortune is one I’ve been meaning to pick up for a couple years now. Ever since I read The Chosen & the Beautiful, I knew I would need to read the fantasy novellas for which Vo is most known.
• This story made for easy reading. I enjoyed how it describes an epic historical event through the eyes of the exiled Empress’s young attendant, and how Rabbit tells the story in a way that gradually reveals the grand scale of happened. Cleric Chih, the story collector, already knows the conclusion, but the reader does not. So the entire novella ends up being a great example of showing instead of telling. Rabbit describes to Chih her experiences from her time alongside the Empress, and by the end we understand the epic scale of what had occurred. (I feel like that is a poor way to describe what I’m tlrying to get at but oh well lol.)
• I’m curious to see how this story will fit alongside the others, as I understand each book in this cycle is meant to be a standalone. While reading Tiger, I felt like there were clues to grander worldbuilding but I couldn’t recall enough details from Empress to put two and two together. So what I think that means, is that the first two books definitely do work well as stand alones, haha.
• I think I enjoyed When the Tiger Came down the Mountain even more than The Empress of Salt & Fortune. When sets Tiger apart are the interruptions and revisions from the tigers to whom Chih is telling the story. Chih recounts a story of a tiger ‘courting’ a human. With Chih’s version of the story being one passed around by humans, the tigers have their own version to share.
• To be clear, both stories explore different aspects of storytelling, especially as passed down orally.
• 💭 The Bottom Line: If you’re a regular reader of my blog, there’s a good chance you’ve already picked these up! If not, I can easily recommend this series for fantasy readers and those who prefer their stories short and sweet.

**Spoilers ahead: Contains discussion of Tokue’s past**

• Tokue (“an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a trouble past”) has a dark secret. That secret was not at all what I expected! I somehow thought Sweet Bean Paste was going to be one of those light stories about a senior (whose dark secret is that they spent decades in prison, or something) getting into silly shenanigans.
• Japanese fiction which bluntly depicts the prejudice of Japanese society can be difficult to read. Yes, we have ableism in Canada too, but the history and context of Hansen’s disease in Japan doesn’t have any contemporary Canadian parallels of which I’m aware. (…hopefully I’m not betraying some grave ignorance here 😅)
• Any story about disability told from an abled person’s perspective raises a yellow flag for me – a flag that says “Caution! Is this story inspiration porn?” I don’t think it is. Tokue’s passion for making bean paste is what inspires protagonist Sentaro. Then he learns about her past and the prejudice she has experienced. Tokue also makes an incisive point recognizing her own value even though she wasn’t able to ‘contribute’ to society, a progressive point to make especially in the context of Japanese society.
• For a short novel, Sentaro undergoes a satisfying development arc. He learns to confront his prejudices while developing self-respect
  • He was about to go into the shop, a place where many of the people he would see might be former patients. Some of them might even be severely disfigured – was he prepared for that? Then again, the fact that ‘prepared’ even came to mind probably meant he was wrong about himself: it wasn’t his ability to control his reactions he was unsure of so much as his own deep-seated feelings. (pg 103)
• 💭 The Bottom Line: A far more thoughtful and moving story than I anticipated, Sweet Bean Paste is not one to miss for fans of Japanese fiction.