Has anyone read Little Mushroom 《小蘑菇》?

[elenothar]

Brief interlude of me asking whether anyone has read Little Mushroom 《小蘑菇》, in particular the Peach Flower House English translation. I'm considering splurging on volume 1 as I've heard interesting things about it, but if someone has read it (in either Chinese or English) and is willing to give me a slightly more in-depth view on it so I can better predict whether it'll actually be my thing, I'd be grateful.

Comments

[presumenothing]

I haven't, but among my mutuals I've seen hunxi-after-hours posting about it and their takes are always interesting, and tofufei (fei on the Guardian server) has also finished it iirc. Probably neither one in translation though?

[elenothar]

Hunxi's posts were what put me onto it, actually (predictably enough XD). I'm just not mutuals with them so I didn't want to go poke for answers. And it wouldn be helpful to know if the translation is anywhere near good.

I'll go check out the other tumblr, thank you for the rec!

[presumenothing]

(predictably enough XD)

XD firmly in the category of "too-cool mutual acquired by means unclear"

[elenothar]

XD

(I'm mostly amused because to me you are in the category of "too-cool mutual acquired by means unclear of shen shen appreciation")

[presumenothing]

…given that I literally just finished throwing a whole bunch of shenshen content at Hunxi, I think it's safe to say he's mutual-making material?? XD

[elenothar]

*badly singing, to the tune of 'The Power of Love': the power of shensheeeen*

... I really need a Zhou Shen icon, it occurs to me.

[momijizukamori]

I read the Peach Flower House TL! I did a little review here: https://momijizukamori.dreamwidth.org/464284.html - largely spoiler-free but feel free to ask questions if you want more info? Though I have deliberately avoided most spoilers for the second half (which is not out in English yet)

[elenothar]

Oh, thank you for pointing me towards your post - it definitely answers the questions I had about the English translation. It's also pushing me towards an overall 'no', alas, because while the concept of the mushroom fascinates me I'm not really into dystopia/post-apocalyptic anything (nor, uh, dark narratives, with a few exceptions), and it does sound like that's very much the focus of the novel.

[momijizukamori]

Yeah, I've been told it's happy ending overall, but if you don't want some real dark fucked up shit on the way there... this is probably not the novel for you.

[elenothar]

👍 thank you! That's really helpful to know.