Dark Portraits: Short Stories

Do you believe in ghosts? Or do you think they are metaphors for human emotions like grief, guilt, shame, and others that we refuse to name? Some of these ten stories summon the familiar creatures of Malaysian folklore and ask what they reveal about the people who fear them, invoke them, or live alongside them. Others retell folktales and legends, finding in their old bones new ways to speak about desire, violence, and the burdens women carry.

These are stories about family secrets and the weight of the unspoken, about what we inherit and what we refuse. The supernatural here is rarely the most frightening thing in the room.