I'm a "How High We Go In the Dark" stan through and through but this was...pretty mid, as the kids say.

The author is a great writer capable of producing beautiful and direct prose that ranges from funny to emotionally devastating. This collection did not however live up to my expectations, which were based on the later novel. I was hoping for more ethical and moral dilemmas, heartbreak, political commentary... But alas.

Thematically, these stories explore some fun perspectives on and retellings of Japanese legends and pop culture (Yokai and Kaiju galore). But alas, they're largely forgettable. Several of them read like polished writing exercises (perhaps from the author's MFA) - not bad, but not extraordinary. The bar was high and this book just didn't reach it for me.

That said, there were some good bits - I liked the experimental blurbs before each story. I really liked the "types of ghosts" afterlife guide. The titular story is about a dancing contagion, which is always fun. Child and parent loss were peppered in a few stories, which is a theme I found well developed here but better developed in the author's subsequent work. C'est la vie.

Recommended if you enjoy modern retellings of Japanese lore ans enjoy "fragment" style short stories. But please, don't use this as a benchmark when deciding whether to read the author's subsequent masterpiece.