Vile Creatures

by Exie Abola

“There was a girl who had a kind heart and the desire to touch other souls but whose desire was thwarted.” Thus begins the prize-winning title story in this debut collection. Vile Creatures swings between visceral violence and tender sentiment, evoking a world that feels both strange and achingly familiar—a man struggles with the paradox of his desires and duty to protect, while an infatuated girl tries to understand the death of her neighbor, and a mother wrestles with the guilt of leaving her child under the care of a potentially sinister figure. Their stories linger, capturing the fear, delight, and raw hunger of getting caught in the numbing modernity of a Third World megacity.

183 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Ti · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this book, and loved learning more about them through the "about the stories" section at the end. the stories felt like sucker punches to the gut, and i loved how familiar and filipino they were, even if written in english.

my faves: disappearances, phallic symbols, and ardor.

abola's trafficking in nostalgia is is one of my favorite essay collections, and having read this, i'm sure he's one of my favorite authors. really looking forward to what he does next!

[Victorianshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 stars

A series of such interesting short stories. I love the first entry about the use of hyphen, em dash, and en dash. At first, you'll think you'll sit through a tireless english lesson about punctuation marks, but no! It was informative and also a little bit hard hitting. The Shakespeare Guy was also another surprise, who knew a story about Shakespeare fan boy turned out to be interesting and heartfelt?

Overall, a lot of well written short stories. On the other hand, I just felt like some of the ending for the stories were a little bit confusing for what was told throughout the narrative, or the story would come off strong and then the fell flat towards the end. I was left with wanting to read more than what was told, but enough of that, I loved most of the stories, I highly recommend this underrated gem!

[Adam A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterful writing!

[Lance Isaac Reamon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is lovely, and the highlight of the anthology has to be the title's namesake. The way some of the female characters were portrayed made me raise an eyebrow however. Nonetheless, I'd pick up a book again from Exie Abola.