ISBN: 9813056126

Genre: horror/short stories.

The following review was contributed by John Walsh & CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's Reviews

Singapore, the Lion City, is in many ways a microcosm of all that is best and most interesting in the world. Multicultural, curious, diverse, ambitious, discursive and relentlessly modern, Singapore is by any measure one of the great cities of the world. Its literature is not so well-known in the international sphere but some works are beginning to emerge. One genre which has always been popular among the Chinese, Malays and Indians who make up the majority of Singapore’s citizens is that of the ghost story. All three ethnic groups have a long and extensive tradition of the ghost story or the horrifying anecdote that chills the blood and, at the same time, warns the reader against going too far in the pursuit of worldly success.

It is from these traditions that Damien Sin has drawn the ten stories in this, the second collection of horror stories in the Singaporean style. Here we find the ruthlessly ambitious women ready to pay any price for success, the vapid intellectuals biting off more than they can chew, the drop-out rebel biker gangs whose nihilism leads to total lack of respect for the law and the sad losers who have missed out on material success and who search for solace wherever they can find it. The majority of the ten stories follow a similar pattern in that the protagonist or protagonists are tempted into going too far to satisfy a personal desire and are then required to pay a very heavy price for their transgression. This analysis is a little schematic but it does highlight the obvious connections between methods of formal and informal social control in the island city state and its expression in popular culture. In other words, work hard and aim high – but not too high.

Each of these stories is short and packs a sweetly unpleasant punch. Sin’s style varies little in the different collections that he has authored but since none of the pieces does not overstay its welcome, then this is not a major problem. Readers who enjoy tales of evil priapic idols with influence in the human world, fierce demons in the form of a foetus, the revenge of the wrongly killed and the madness of those who commit the ultimate crimes will find much that is entertaining here.

John Walsh, Shinawatra International University, June 2005