Mouths to Speak, Voices to Sing” (Penguin Books, 2024, 174 pages) is the first collection of stories by Kenneth Yu. A prolific fictionist and mentor to younger writers since the 2010s, Yu has authored tales that have been featured by the likes of well-known actor-podcaster LeVar Burton and lauded by fiction master Neil Gaiman. This wealth of experience is evident in the elegant clarity of Yu’s storytelling and the ease in which he dives into fantasy, science fiction, horror, and the supernatural. The diversity and consistent quality is what will earn this anthology a place on discerning readers’ shelves.
Coming from a Filipino Chinese background, Yu has a special ability to take a place familiar to us and make it feel different but recognizable. The kiddie pool at a country club, the Fil-Chi Catholic school, the office-cum-warehouse of electronics wholesalers—they all become touched by the fantastical or supernatural but still feel like our world. Yu uses this skill to spin highly readable tales that make us suspect there’s more mystery in our everyday lives than we realize.
Immersive characterization
Yu’s other gift is immersive characterization: He seems fascinated by the characters he describes, and this fascination is contagious. Like movies that start with an action sequence, he introduces his characters in the middle of the plot then gradually lets you in on the backstory with nary a change of pace.
Whether it’s a couple living in an AI-controlled home, a Fil-Chi family who meets a talking cricket, or the human raised to control hyperspace, Yu’s gripping characters all sound like someone you know, except something fantastical happens to them.
Take “Cherry Clubbing,” a prize winner in a contest sponsored by Gaiman and Fully Booked: It’s a one-sided conversation between two deviants who capture supernatural beings, but it still sounds like two ordinary guys in a bar. Familiarity breeds believability.
Yu favors first-person narratives and uses it quite effectively in many of the anthology’s 15 well-written stories. The reader’s trip is less smooth only when Yu tells the story from several perspectives; one gets lost when there are not enough narrative signposts. And when Yu turns poetic in lieu of straightforward prose, the imagination still shines but we view it from afar instead of immersing in it.
“Mouths to Sing, Voices to Speak” shows why reading Filipino fiction is a particular pleasure: Without using overtly Filipino names or locations, we know that Yu is telling our stories. (If you’re of Chinese descent, you’ll be especially delighted.) We recognize the world we live in right now and what it could be in a slightly off-tangent dimension. This is speculative fiction that has us at its heart. —CONTRIBUTED INQ
Available at National Book Store and Fully Booked.