My Dear You - Rachel Khong - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Rachel Khong

GENRE: Speculative Story Collection

PUBLICATION DATE: April 7, 2026

RATING: 3.45 stars.

In a Nutshell: A collection of (mostly) speculative fiction stories. Excellent in creativity. Diverse in humans yet unified in emotions. Good writing and pacing. A bit too much of back-and-forth in a few stories. Recommended to SFF lovers.

This collection contains ten stories, mostly from the speculative fiction genre. There is no introductory note or foreword, but the publisher’s note called this a set of stories "about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it's so easy to be someone else." It sounds almost abstract, but oddly, it fits the stories well.

The stories cover a wide range of emotions and timelines. Each story feels innovative, with no repetition of themes. The blurb says that they are stories about love, and it is right. But they aren’t about romance, which makes all the difference.

The writing and the character development are mostly on point. The author has a wildly vivid imagination, and this shows well in most of the tales. Not all of the stories are speculative, but a majority are. The author is stronger in her speculative writing, but her other stories also have great plotlines and good pacing. The words used might be simply but they make a tremendous impact.

Several stories come to us from the POV of Asian (Chinese) woman characters. As such, these stories often touch upon the social pressures that woman undergo in relatively conservative/traditional societies. They also challenge several stereotypes about the Asian identity. Some characters left me quite frustrated, though; I would never make the choices they did, so it was tougher to root for them.

The endings of a majority of the stories are highly satisfying. A few left me confused and/or wanting more.

One reason why some stories didn’t work better for me is that I am not that fond of abstract fiction. So some of the narratives had tremendous potential, and I can even see other readers enjoying them, but they weren’t my cup of tea. A more important reason for my lower satisfaction is that some stories shuffled too much between the present and past timelines. In a short story, so much jumping around doesn’t allow me to settle into a narrative.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Of the ten stories, half the set reached my top favourites list with 4+ stars. These were the best ones for me:

🤩 My Dear You: What a banger of a beginning! With this title, I knew it would be some sort of a love story. But no way did I predict the exact kind of love story it contained. I just love it when stories surprise me in a good way. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🤩 The Freshening: Honestly, I absolutely hate the incomplete ending of this story. But the rest of it is so brilliant and thought-provoking that I can't help but give it more stars. This tale offers much to ponder about human nature, and because it's realistic, it's also depressing. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🤩 The Family O: I'm not sure whether I liked what happened in the story. But I know for sure that it's also a story that speaks about human nature. It would have ranked even higher for me had it offered a few more details about the past. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🤩 Serene: Never thought I'd love a story about a sex doll so much, but this has gotta be the best metaphorical tale of what modern society has done to women in terms of anatomical standards. Had the ending contained just a few more details, this would have been a five star for me. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

🤩 D Day: Not in my wildest imaginations did I imagine what day “D Day” would be! A very creative story that offers many opportunities to pause and ponder upon our life choices. Had it not shuffled so much in time, it would have been a five star read for me. - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall, this is quite an imaginative collection that ought to be an interesting option for speculative fiction lovers. The range of circumstances and characters and the sheer creativity ought to make this a good reading choice. Had I enjoyed abstract stories more, my average rating would have been higher.

Recommended to readers who enjoy OwnVoices speculative fiction.

3.45 stars, based on the average of my rating for each story.

My thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing the DRC of “My Dear You” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.