Review: a Mouthful of Dust

I thought the last book was terrifying, but this one is way, way worse. Although both books involve both mankind making bad choices as well as supernatural forces, this one is one that is more likely to happen in real life. Because it is mentioned in the first paragraph or two, I do not feel like it is a spoiler to say that this book involves Cleric Chih going to gather stories from a town that suffered from an incredible famine some 11 years prior.

With a skill that Vo is incredibly good at in this series, the stories are not all gruesome. In fact, they portray an empathy with those suffering from starvation. We are not here to poo-poo the choices others made, we are shown how things eventually devolve into an untenable state. This causes the contrast to be so much more vivid for those who make either the saintly or demonic choices.

I understand why we have content warnings and why, for some people, it’s not about staying away from uncomfortable topics, but instead to stay away from re-traumatizing yourself. In this world where there are quite a few countries where famine is not something from history or books, I could see some people who could not stand to read this book. If that’s you - definitely stay away. If not, I think Vo really does some incredible work here.

• Books

• Nghi-Vo
• Singing-Hills