Reviews

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Only show reviews with written explanations

youngthespian42's review against another edition

4.0

This was my introduction to Ken Liu and I really enjoyed the time I spent with his work. As a person interested in where our wave of tech development is going these stories felt timely, insightful, horror inducing, and sometimes hopeful. There was a limited amount of fantasy offerings in this collection as well and those did not nearly connect with me as well, but I did appreciate the change to connect to that area of his work before engaging with his fantasy series. Some black mirror elements to some of this writing but overall the social critique is deeper and some of these stories provide a roadmap away from the worst aspects of these innovations.

maridudek's review against another edition

Go to review page

i’ve been trying to read this for 9 months I GIVE UP

books_and_keys's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

jalexpulliamkepler's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This really made me want to read Liu’s epic fantasy series!

Content Warnings

shermansays's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

galexywitch's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

manofsize's review against another edition

Go to review page

Stories were too relentlessly downbeat.

melodys_library's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

Ken Liu is so talented, he can make a reader feel connected to a character in so few pages. There were a lot of stories in this collection that centered on the Singularity and uploading human consciousness. I think it was just a lot of the same for me at some point.

Standout stories:
-Maxwell’s Demon
-Reborn
-Byzantine Empathy
-Memories of my Mother
-Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard
-The Message

vickywong710's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

I really wanted to enjoy this collection having bawled my eyes out at one of Ken Liu’s short stories from the Paper Menagerie. It was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

I think this NPR review (https://www.npr.org/2020/02/27/809212959/the-hidden-girl-is-smart-but-not-entirely-human) best sums up some of the problems I had with the collection, which was yes there were lots of intriguing thought experiments in the book, but overall it doesn’t feel like a cohesive set of stories.

There were some shorts stories that really stood out, I think the ones that centre on a parent-child bond tend to be the strongest. “Thoughts and Prayers” is a haunting story about grief and trolling in the modern age, “the Message” about a father who reconnects with his estranged daughter was also very moving, and “Maxwell’s Demon” about a Japanese-American woman sent to Japan during World War Two to spy for the Americans was also a haunting stand out.

One problem I had with the collection was that all the stories take place in disparate places and and universes with different rules, and once you finish one story after a couple of pages, you’re immediately thrown into a different world and have to quickly learn a new set of rules and how to read that story. And this re-learning of the rules just repeats itself over and over again and I personally found the experience a bit frustrating.

There’s one story arc split into three short stories, and while that is one of the more intriguing in the collection, but I did find myself having to go back to go back and forth to remind myself what happened just because the stories in between were so dense with detail.

This was a slog for me and I think part of that could be a me problem, I was reading this collection in short bursts and on my commute and i did a lot of working from home the last few weeks so it took a bit longer than normal to finish the book. I’m willing to give this collection a second reading and take my time with it, but for now it’s a 2.5/5 stars for me until I revisit it.

ftyler's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

More...