Cirrus@Austlit

'Come closer. Take off your mask. No, wait... leave it on. I'd like to see who you're pretending to be, or who you think you are. There'll be time enough to find out who you really are later... much later. Like when you've seduced me to your bed, or lured me to my death, or... but wait! You're not planning any of those things, are you? Why, you're just frightened; hiding behind that rubber skin for fear of being mocked or hassled; or to blend in. Well now, let's peek at who you really are, shall we? Oh... Oh, it's you?! But I thought-'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

"Almond-eyed celestial, the filial daughter, the perfect wife. Quiet, submissive, demure. In Black Cranes, Southeast Asian writers of horror both embrace and reject these traditional roles in a unique collection of stories which dissect their experiences of 'otherness, ' be it in the colour of their skin, the angle of their cheekbones, the things they dare to write, or the places they have made for themselves in the world. Black Cranes is a dark and intimate exploration of what it is to be a perpetual outsider."--Publisher's description.