Review: the Brides of High Hill

This story starts quite abruptly, a change from the usual Singing Hills novellas. I noticed, but figured it was Vo wanting to try something different fore the 5th entry. I should have paid a bit more attention. This story seemed to me to be a mix of a European folktale and asian mythology, but there are also a lot of themes that seem to be universal among humans. For example, I just learned today of a historical myth around one of the big samurai families that involves a swordsman meeting a monk at a bridge and engaging in battle that is reminiscent of Robin Hood. As usual, it’s hard to talk too much about the story or themes of these novellas without ruining the twist (they almost all have a parallel story structure to a mystery story). I would say that another clue things are off within this narrative is that Chih doesn’t quite ever get the stories she seeks.Full post