Isabel Yap’s fiction: ‘like ordering a tasting menu’

(Photo/Tor.com)

When you’re looking for a new book to read, it’s always a good idea to read the reviews. And the reviews of Isabel Yap’s new short story collection, “Never Have I Ever,” are impressive.

“Yap’s impressive debut collection of 13 fabulist, sci-fi, and horror shorts explores themes ranging from monstrousness, shared trauma, and systemic violence to friendship and the ambiguity of love,” wrote Publishers Weekly .” “Yap is at home with whatever topic she puts her hand to, easily immersing readers in the perspectives of high schoolers, ancient goddesses, androids, and witches.”

Yap, born and raised in the Philippines, Yap lives in the United States and holds degrees from Santa Clara University and the Harvard Business School. Her day job is in the tech industry.

Her stories, many of which were first published outside the U.S., are the kind of fiction that a reviewer for Lightspeed magazine described as “like ordering the tasting menu at a fine restaurant. After you finish that first story, you will sit in silence, letting it sink in, completely taken by the lingering effects. And when that hunger to read more tugs at you.”

“These are the kind of stories that you shore up and savour over time, because there’s only so many of them,” wrote a reviewer for the Ancillary Review of Books . “They teach you to hope, in a world that seems hell-bent on crushing us, and that is never a bad thing.”

Yet another reviewer for Tor.com wrote, “This is a truly powerful, propulsive collection, exploring the makings and reshapings of myth, and the myriad ways we might save each other. ”

If any of that intrigues you, then you might be interested in a Zoom event that will feature Yap talking about her collection. The virtual event will take place at 7 p.m. tonight and will be moderated by students at Eastern Washington University’s MFA writing program.