Zhiguai translated by Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum

Discover the China that before now was only whispered about in the dark.

In this collection, award-winning writers and translators Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum share paranormal and glitch in the matrix tales from across present-day China. Confided by eyewitnesses, these true stories uncannily echo Western encounters with chilling dimensions of reality and supernatural entities. At the same time, they thrillingly immerse the reader in everyday Chinese life and occult beliefs.

Zhiguai: Chinese True Tales of the Paranormal and Glitches in the Matrix includes such accounts as:

*The reincarnation of a teenager whose fate eerily mimics his predecessor's

*A girl who dies in the womb but nevertheless continues to communicate with her twin

*Terrifying shifts into demonic parallel universes

*Walls desperately painted with blood to save a family from tragedy

*Huge populations that disappear into thin air

*The revenge-seeking ghosts of murdered cats

*Weird temporal shifts

*Occult murders

From the terrifying to the uncanny, this collection will not only change your understanding of China but of reality itself.  

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We all have that one inexplicable story, right? Maybe it didn't happen to you, maybe it's a family legend, but we all know one. Mine is the time – well, I won't go into it now, but trust me, it's strange, alarming and we've never come up with a logical explanation for it.

In the West, we call these stories 'a glitch in the Matrix' after the film, but the stories are not confined to us;  everyone, everywhere in the world, experiences these strange events, puzzles and time skips. This collection comes from China and features stories from both the busy, populated cities and the quiet, remote rural areas – proving that these tales are not confined to one type of place or the other.

There's a great mix of stories too; some of them are ghost stories, some are time slips, some are plain old horror, and a few just can't be categorized. I think the one that will stick with me is about the boy who went to an apartment that wasn't quite his uncle's, although the most horrifying by far is the one about the baby girl. You'll know it when you come to it.

If you have a taste for the unexplained, for things that will make you look around suspiciously, for stories that will linger after you've read them...this is your book. Enjoy. I definitely did.

(Quick note on the translation; absolutely perfect, no stiffness or formality and concepts we might not be familiar with are explained without breaking the flow of the stories. Lovely.)

Zhiguai publishes on the 5th July, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.