奇幻基地 | January 2019 | 320 pgs
Source: Library
This is book 8 of the second urban legend series by Ling Jing (笭菁). All her books read as stand-alones and her stories are based on various urban legends added with some imaginations and other elements of her own.
Note: The main characters in this series are different from the first series as the author felt a change for new blood is necessary to offer a new and different perspective.
Urban Legend origin: This is a well-known Taiwanese urban legend happened in 1995. A group of five men was grilling a fish they caught and before consuming it, they heard a voice asking them, "Is the fish meat tasty?" To their horror, they realised the voice came from the fish and what most terrifying was, they could see the shape of an old woman's face on its body.
Summary: After the horror of the urban legend episode, the Taiwanese were wary of consuming fishes for a while but there are still some people, especially tourists, who are fascinated by the tale and are keen to visit the place where the event happened. When a group of visitors finally witnessed the devil fish, this sparks the curiosity of the citizens if there's a hidden message behind this strange occurrence, especially if it doesn't come in one but tonnes and tonnes of them could be seen swimming near the shore; some even bearing the faces of their deceased loved ones. Out of reminiscence, some families began to keep those who remind them of their late family members as pets, but little do they know that they've unleashed an unthinkable nightmare upon themselves.
My thoughts: After reading this book, I did a little Googling and found a few videos which show the said devil fish. I've to admit it did look a little like there was a human face on its body. Onto the book, aside from all the horrors, it also states a bit about the environmental issues and how pollutions are threatening the lives of the sea living animals. I think this is one of the important subjects we've to look into and reflect upon alongside with the global warming issue. Overall, I thought this was actually quite a sad story, whatwith the environmental issues and the characters who are reminded of their deceased loved ones.
Note: This is a scheduled post as I'm currently taking a short break off of blogging. Comments and blog-hopping will resume once I'm back from my break. Have fun and happy reading! 📚
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That is one creepy yet fascinating cover! :)
The cover is pretty sinister looking! An urban myth and ecological issues make it sound interesting.
Lark - I love the covers of these series. Always so fun to see how they'll convey the story. :)
Jenclair - The cover arts for this series are pretty fascinating. They are one reason why I'm drawn to the series aside from the stories.
this one is creepy. also they make film based on this too .
I didn't know they've made a film based on this story. Thanks for telling!