Ysabelle Cheung’s Debut Collection Explores Ghosts and Extraction

Ysabelle Cheung, a Hong Kong-based writer and gallerist, has published her debut short story collection, 'Patchwork Dolls', with Blair. The book gathers ten speculative stories that examine inherited ritual, ecological unease, the diasporic condition, and the unpredictability of the human body. Set in Hong Kong and North America, the narratives are bound by an atmosphere of dislocation and a present haunted by the past. Several stories use second-person address, including a choose-your-own-adventure tale where books vanish from a flat. Recurring motifs include Cantonese superstitions, familial duty, and migration. In 'Find Your Spirit', a woman tracks her dead twin sister's ghost via an app reminiscent of Apple's 'Find My Friends', after sending away a vial of blood. Food anchors themes to the body—characters grieve over instant ramen or celebrate by buying ingredients they once could not afford. The collection also imagines technologies enabling cannibalism, such as hyperrealistic humanoid robots whose personalities go unnoticed, and cosmetic surgeries that splice facial features sourced disproportionately from women of colour or lower economic status. The book is available in softcover for $18.95.