Urban Legends Inspire Terrifying Tales in This New Filipino Book

(SPOT.ph) We've all had brushes with urban legends and eerie anecdotes, whether as enthusiastic storytellers or eager listeners. Many of these were silly stories we made up, told, and even believed as children. But for some of us, these tales stay long enough to become fodder for creative work as adults.

Such was the case for Filipino author Anthony Shieh, who turned to childhood stories and urban legends as inspiration for his new book, Demonyito, Demonyita. With the spooky season not so far away, it’s never too early to stock your bookshelves with a new spine-tingling read.

Published by Indie Pop under Summit Books, Demonyito, Demonyita is one Filipino literary title to add to cart as it launches at the Manila International Book Fair 2026 this week.

Shieh’s Demonyito, Demonyita is centered on the story of Popoy, a street kid in Baseco whose life turned upside down when his younger brother, Peewee, was murdered.  Over the next decade, Popoy becomes consumed by the search for his brother’s killer, a journey that draws him into a dangerous world of monstrous entities as he seeks answers.

To build the world of Demonyito, Demonyita, Shieh added a metafictional flavor to the stories through recipes, movie screenplays, anthropological transcripts, and prescriptions for psychiatric drugs—one chapter even includes floor plans that unnervingly shift and morph as the story progresses. All that to say, you can't expect this book to follow the typical straight narrative structure.

"I think every one of us has heard scary stories from a friend of a friend of a friend, or from a classmate, from our lolo or lola. I wanted to tap my own stories to feel like they could have been passed down to us by someone we know,” Shieh explains.

This isn't the first time Shieh draws from folk tales and urban legends for his world-building; in fact, he's drawn on stories like this for his breakout horror novel Head by the Ceiling. This time he takes it a step further. In the episodic novel, Demonyito, Demonyita, he weaves a tapestry of interconnected stories spanning decades of murders, injustices, and strange creatures that dwell in darkness.

But more than just a collection of scary stories, Shieh’s new book is also anchored in his own dark experiences, which led him to fight his own demons. Growing up poor, queer, and half-Chinese formed the foundation of the emotional landscape he builds in his gripping fiction.

"I grew up in Sampaloc, Manila," he says in the press release. "I’ve experienced times when we had nothing to eat for days. And in our daily lives, we encounter our own demonyitos. I grew up with a deep sense of empathy for the suffering of others…and my suffering as well, because of the many injustices of the past that still exist today."

Writing these stories down, he says, is his way of confronting such dark realities and reminding readers not to let their own demonyitos and demonyitas define or defeat them.

Demonyito, Demonyita is launching at the Manila International Book Fair 2026. For more information, visit the Indie Pop/Summit Books website.

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