Khaw's evocative prose slams into your gut like a tsunami. Read it. Meet, ever so briefly, the Jade Emperor and his retinue of celestial gods. This short inspired me to read [b:Monkey: The Journey to the West|100237|Monkey The Journey to the West|Wu Cheng'en|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347431752s/100237.jpg|96649].

Merged review:

Insightful essay on vampire-like Filipino monsters, aswang and manananggal, as Filipina empowerment, "Blood of the Revolution: On Filipina Writers and Aswang".

Khaw's evocative prose slams into your gut like a tsunami. Read it, "Goddess, Worm". Meet, ever so briefly, the Jade Emperor and his retinue of celestial gods. This short inspired me to read [b:Monkey: The Journey to the West|100237|Monkey The Journey to the West|Wu Cheng'en|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347431752s/100237.jpg|96649]. ( )

This short story, The Unknown God by Ann Leckie, takes place in the same world as [b:The Nalendar|24431975|Uncanny Magazine Issue 2 January/February 2015|Lynne M. Thomas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1427776763s/24431975.jpg|50845207] and [b:Beloved of the Sun|22857545|Beloved of the Sun|Ann Leckie|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|42424069], and can be read online at this location. The Nalendar is mentioned a few times, being a very important god, having much influence; hence the link with the other two stories.

It's about gods taking on human form to walk among humans, to try to find out what it's like being human. Aworo, Lord of Horses, god of the Western plains, tries to look if there's something more, some sort of higher truth. Part of his quest involves spending some time with atheists.

While it was nicely written, I have to admit I had a hard time understanding the story. Some things just happened or were described, but I failed to grasp the meaning. But maybe that was the point, as Aworo himself doesn't really understand why humans do what they do, or even humans don't always know why they act the way they act. You could, like Marco wrote in his review, see this as a theological reflection on life.

I found the aforementioned stories better, though. ;-) ( )

Bodies Stacked Like Firewood by Sam J. Miller - friends of a visionary young trans man who's committed suicide hold a wake. Themes of time travel, grief and guilt, and human potential. This story hit me where it hurts in the best possible way.

Monster Girls Don't Cry by A. Merc Rustad - absolutely everything I love in a monster girl story, vicious and biting.

Goddess, Worm by Cassandra Khaw - a story about the silkworm-goddess, who was deified and boiled alive to give silk to the world, who chooses to be the goddess of people who have no one else to look out for them. Outstanding.

The Thule Stowaway by Maria Dahvana Headley - Edgar Allen Poe, his women (real and fictional), his stories (real and fictional), and the secret history behind his famous portrait. Constructed with that Gothic layering I love so much, and a wonderful recentering of women in classic horror.

To Budapest With Love by Theodora Goss - a story-essay on being an alien, in Hungary and America

Some Cupids Kill With Arrows by Tansy Rayner Roberts - a totally adorable modern deity romance

The Unknown God by Ann Leckie - a god becomes human, makes a mistake, goes looking for a higher power to obtain forgiveness; has to atone for his mistake the hard way, like the rest of us.

Essays: Inferior Beasts by Mark Oshiro, on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and how it failed at empathy at a critical moment; Why You Should Read Romance by Natalie Luhrs, not an outstanding essay (not bad, just not all that different from many I've seen on the topic) but with some good recs; I Have Never Not Been an Object by Deliah S. Dawson, on why she writes rape, violence, and broken people; Blood of the Revolution by Angel Cruz, on the meaning of Filipinas telling stories and writing about the aswang and the manananggal

Poems: In Lieu of the Stories My Santera Abuela Should Have Told Me Herself, This Poem by Carols Hernandez, second-hand grandmother stories; Jean-Luc, Future Ghost by Nin Harris, on children not born; Except Thou Bless Me by Nicasio Andres Reed, a poem about desire that didn't really work for me, but then, poems about desire rarely do.

And interviews with A. Merc Rustad and Maria Dahvana Headley. ( )