Book Review #28: Of Crimson Threads and Saffron Leaves by Maya Walker

Hello Dear Reader!

Welcome to another book review, which is my first book review on a collection of short stories! Of Crimson Threads and Saffron Leaves is Maya Walker’s debut novella, and I really had a good time reading it! If you want to check this indie author out, you can find her @mayahelen2. Her feed is beautiful, and she has some really good content!

Anyway, this book is a collection of short stories revolving around mythology and folklore from different cultures, such as your classic Greek mythology and folklore from different Asian countries such as Japan and Taiwan. While touching on the past, Walker also has a couple stories set in the very distant future, like androids exists distant future. Before I get into these stories, though, here is the back-cover summary (from Goodreads):

Myths are the stories we tell in the darkest parts of our minds, whether it be through tales of victory and loss or of the worlds we wish we could see. We use these tales to re-imagine our own worlds, our own stories, our own lives. What starts off as a simple tale of a violet necklace and its silver chain can turn into an epic tale spanning over thousands of years of united stories, despite the different eras, languages and cultures keeping them apart. Whether it be through the touch of two pinky fingers or the separation of friends through space itself, Of Crimson Threads and Saffron Leaves is the collective story of one person’s vision of the world through mythology in the form of 19 short retellings – and the threads that bind them together.

That’s the synopsis, now time for the review!

Of Crimson Threads and Saffron Leaves doesn’t have a main character, and there are many types of main characters in each of these short stories. They’ve ranged from Hades and Persephone to a lonely little android in a potential technological future to a young Japanese girl experiencing New York for the first time in our current time. Though, I will say characters of Greek mythology made the most appearances throughout the entire novella.

Reading this novella, I could tell there was a lot of care and attention put into each and every short story. Each one was beautifully written, and because they were relatively short, it made the book easier to read because none of these stories felt like they were dragging on. I also enjoyed reading these stories in the different perspectives of their main characters. Each character was distinct, and I really enjoyed getting to know them through their respective short stories. I also loved how these short stories were a good mix of wholesome and sad, so I wasn’t just feeling one kind of emotion throughout the entire novella.

I loved a lot of things about this book; however, there were a few things that stood out to me while reading it. The further I went, the more typos I encountered. Also, there was a lot of telling going on rather than showing. Finally, I just didn’t really prefer the last chapter. It served to tie all the nineteen stories together, and while there was some connection between a few stories that I did notice, I did feel like it left quite a few of the other stories left hanging. Despite these things, it truly is a beautiful set of stories that will evoke some thought or emotion from whoever is reading it.   

So, Of Crimson Threads and Saffron Leaves rating:

8/10 and looking forward to another collection of short stories from Maya Walker! Even though the last chapter wrapping everything us didn’t do it for me, that doesn’t change the fact that the short stories were beautifully written. As someone who doesn’t read short story collections, this was also really refreshing, and I’m more opening to reading short story collections now! If you like new unique twists on mythology, this novella is for you!

That’s all for this review, dear reader! I hope you enjoyed, and I’ll see you in the next one!

Thanks for reading!