Small Shen by Kylie Chan and illustrated by Queenie Chan

Small Shen is a short graphically-enhanced novel written by Kylie Chan and illustrated by Queenie Chan. The text is interspersed with graphic novel-style illustrations, particularly in the scenes flashing back to Gold's earlier days (hundreds of years earlier), whereas the main story takes place in the 1990s Hong Kong. Blurb from Goodreads although it bears no resemblance to the blurb on my paperback copy.

Shown through Queenie Chan′s stunning illustrations and comics, the story follows the stone spirit Gold′s entertaining adventures throughout history. His escapades include seducing a dragon princess, attempting to steal one of the Tiger′s wives, making bets with demons, and working for the Blue Dragon of the East.

Eventually, as a result of his crimes against Heaven and his constant philandering, Gold is ordered to join the household of Xuan Wu, the Dark Lord of the Northern Heavens. Xuan Wu is also known as John Chen, a Hong Kong businessman.

The story then follows Gold and Jade -- the dragon princess - in contemporary Hong Kong. The two small shen must help guard John Chen′s beloved human wife and baby daughter from demon attack. John Chen is vulnerable to attack while living on Earth, but his family are in the most danger of all...

Small Shen follows Gold, a minor deity who featured in Kylie Chan's Dark Heavens and Journey to Wudang trilgies. I've read the Dark Heavens trilogy and the first book of Journey to Wudang and I have to admit I never paid a huge amount of attention to Gold. But Small Shen endeared him to me significantly. He's a bisexual, gender-swapping rock in human form. What's not to like?

There are two story threads in Small Shen: flashbacks to Gold's earlier days starting back in the 1700s and the story of Gold's service to Xuan Wu and John Chen and his wife in the 1990s. The flashbacks are mostly about Gold committing mischief and getting into trouble but also sketch out the series of events that led to him and Jade (a dragon) being in Xuan Wu's employ. The 1990s storyline tells the story of Xuan Wu/John Chen and his life with his wife Michelle from Gold's point of view. Anyone who's read White Tiger (Dark Heavens book 1) knows how that story must end (big spoiler for Small Shen).

What I found sort of interesting is how unlikeable Michelle was. She spent a lot of time complaining about Xuan Wu's godly responsibilities (he's the second most powerful god after the Jade Emperor) and how hideous his True Form (and basically anything other than human form) is. While I sort of already knew about that it was kind of horrifying seeing it on the page. Like why did they stay together/bother getting married? It does not strike me as a very healthy relationship at all. And that's without the more benign diva qualities Michelle brings in. I have to say, she wasn't supposed to be a likeable character (I'm pretty sure) and that bothered me a bit on principle (only partly because it made their marriage a bit baffling).

I particularly liked the way in which the story was broken up with illustrated flashback vignettes which mixed things up a bit. One aspect which was nice was the way in which Gold's historical shenanigans touched on Chinese history in a real-world sense, rather than just a mythological sense.

Small Shen was a fun read and I highly recommend it to all Kylie Chan fans and to anyone wanting to get a taste of her longer series. Although the trilogies are pure prose, the story in Small Shen — especially the 1990s story — gives a good idea of the sort of thing you can expect in the Dark Heavens trilogy (not to mention all the foreshadowing). Fans of Queenie Chan who aren't familiar with Kylie Chan's writing will, I'm sure, find more to like than just the illustrations.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2012, Harper Voyager AU Series: Same universe as most of Kylie Chen's books. Prequel to White Tiger.
Format read: Paper.
Source: Purchased from an Australian bookshop several months ago
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge

The Dreaming (Volumes 2 and 3) by Queenie Chan

The Dreaming (Volume 2) by Queenie Chan is the second part of the three-volume story begun in (gasp!) Volume 1. My review of Volume 1 is here. Because they really are part of the same story, this review will also include Volume 3 below. Also note that the blurb and the review contain spoilers for Volume 1.

Greenwich Private College grinds to a complete halt after the discovery of Millie's body. As gloom and despair sets in, most of the students leave the school. But Jeanie's curiosity keeps her on campus, and when she's led down the path of the Greenwich's dark history, has she awakened a ghostly curse?

In Volume 2 the story picks up right where Volume 1 left off. Somewhat unsurprisingly, it mostly serves as a chance for Jeanie to learn more about the history of the school — y'know, the history no one wanted to talk about in the first Volume before everything went wrong. And on top of that, there aren't many students left at the school, to make the building extra creepy.

We are also treated to a build up of creepiness which is obviously setting up the story for the concluding volume. What will happen next? Who will survive? Will anyone get out of the school alive, or will it just merge into the surrounding bushlands, never to be seen again? And what's with the Victorian dresses?

To answer these questions, (and more!) I read on to the last volume...

4 / 5 stars

~

Finally, The Dreaming Volume 3 concludes the story.

Where did the ghostly girls come from? And what do they want? Before the students know it, the missing girls enter the school, where Amber spots Millie, who speaks to her almost as if to warn her of something. Is there more to this supernatural mystery than just the school itself? The answers to why these girls have come back and what caused their death are revealed in this haunting series finale.

This final instalment mostly focusses on Jeanie and Ms Anu gradually unravelling the mysteries of the school. And a side note I didn't really think about until this Volume, it's nice to see a story where the main characters are Asian and Indigenous rather than defaulting to Anglo.

Of course it turns out there's more to the weird goings on at the school than there initially seemed and — no spoilers — there was a twist I didn't see coming. Oh and there was more creepiness, building on what was already established in the earlier two volumes.

Overall I quite enjoyed reading this manga. It's quite different, especially in form, to anything else I've read and I'll definitely be seeking out other work by Chan in the future. (Perhaps starting with Small Shen in collaboration with Kylie Chan, or maybe her Legend of Zelda fancomic.) I highly recommend The Dreaming to fans of horror/dark fantasy, including those who might not usually read manga.

I'm also interested in checking out a few other manga authors if anyone has any suggestions as to where to go from here. (Though I won't be switching over from predominantly text-based reading any time soon.)

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2006 and 2007, respectively; Tokyopop
Series: The Dreaming Volumes 2 and 3 of 3
Format read: ebook (e-manga?)
Source: Purchased from ComiXology amid much angst and shouting at the iPad
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge, Aussie Horror Reading Challenge

The Dreaming (Volume 1) by Queenie Chan

The Dreaming by Queenie Chan is almost the first manga I've read. I say almost because I did read Red String online a few years ago (and then bought a couple of paper volumes) but I never got to the end because I lost track of it once I was up to date with the online pages. Anyway, The Dreaming is quite different, being both horror and Australian.

When twin sisters Amber and Jeanie are accepted into an exclusive Australian boarding school, their future looks bright. But the school's halls harbor a terrible secret: students have been known to wander into the surrounding bushlands and vanish...without a trace! No one knows where they went--or why. But as Amber and Jeanie are about to learn, the key to the school's dark past may lie in the world of their dreams...

I am by no means an expert on art but, to me, the art style was nice and added to the story. (People wanting to judge for themselves can see examples on Chan's website and this Asia Education Foundation page.) Especially some of the creepier images (pages? scenes?) definitely added to the vibe of the story. Especially the ones that sort of jumped out at me.

As for the story, this is Volume 1 of 3 so it was only the first part of the story, the set up for the overall story arc. The story is narrated from Jeanie's point of view and begins with the girls arriving at their new school, very isolated in the Middle of Nowhere, NSW. It's a co-ed school, which I thought was odd, especially since there's only one boy who appears briefly in this volume. (But presumably he or some other boy will be back at some point in Volumes 2 or 3, otherwise I don't see why it wouldn't just be a girls' school. This was the only thing that bothered me.)

The horror set-up in this volume includes a terrifying vice principal with a strong aversion to twins — to the extent that the girls have to pretend to be ordinary siblings born a year apart — a mysterious room, girls historically disappearing in the bush, and strange dreams. And, as I began to suspect once I was about half-way through, it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. I suspect reading the omnibus version of this would be better, but Volume 1 was all that the bookshop had. I've discovered that the paper versions are non-trivial to get a hold of outside of the US (shipping costs more than the book/s), but I will be buying the remaining volumes on the iPad via Comixology, so stay tuned!

Not strictly part of the story, but the "Introducing Australia" page at the end was comedy gold.

I enjoyed this start to a horror story. I am definitely going to read the remaining two parts, because, as I've said, the story is just not complete. I highly recommend it to fans of horror and manga, especially readers interesting in either in an Australian setting. I'm not usually much of a fan of comics (longer than webcomics, anyway) or graphic novels because I prefer words to pictures and experience existential angst over which I should be paying attention to, but this worked for me. I would urge others who don't usually read manga to give it a shot (and it's not as though it's a long read).

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2005, TokyoPop
Series: The Dreaming Volume 1 of 3 (one continuous story)
Format read: Paper!
Source: Robinsons Bookshop (bricks and mortar, well... wood and... glass?)
Challenges: Aussie Horror Reading Challenge, Australian Women Writers Challenge