Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Ghost Girl, Banana

Ghost Girl, Banana by Wiz Warton alternates between two perspectives. The first is Lily Miller, a young biracial woman living in London who feels adrift in the world after she survived a mental health crisis in university. When she receives notice that a recently-deceased Hong Kong financier has left her half a million pounds in his will, she travels to Hong Kong to collect the funds, discover why this stranger has left her this enormous sum, and learn more about her Chinese mother’s past. The second perspective follows Lily’s mother, Soon-Yin Chen, as she immigrates to England and marries a white Englishman and soon finds herself embroiled in family secrets and hardships that will have reverberations into her children’s lives.

Review:

I picked up Ghost Girl, Banana because I was intrigued by the title. I hoped that the book’s contents would reflect its title and be unique, bold, and daring. I was disappointed, therefore, when the book ended up being the opposite. For most of it, I had a strong sense of déjà vu because the storyline and characters felt like echoes of the many other literary fiction books I have read in the past. The prose, while serviceable, never stood out to me as beautiful or unique.

I struggled to maintain my interest in the story mostly because the characters all feel flat and underdeveloped. Thus, even when the plot was intriguing, I kept wishing that I could read about the events as a news article or blog post rather than a novel. The plot picked up considerable pace toward the end, reminiscent of a thriller or mystery, but it simultaneously became less coherent and more baffling. When I finally reached the end and read the acknowledgements, I noticed that the Wharton repeatedly states that she never meant this story to be a novel—she made it one at the encouragement of those around her. Unfortunately, I think that this shows in her writing and the story.

Despite my overall negative opinion of the book, I do think that it has some interesting plot points and commentary on biracial identity. Particularly clever is how Wharton incorporates the words in the title (“Ghost Girl” and “Banana”) in Lily’s story.

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Let me start by thanking Hodder for sending me a copy of this book to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ok let’s get ready for me to gush! What an absolute STUNNER of a debut novel by Wiz Wharton. It had everything I love in a book. Amazing characters who you fall in love with and want to pull right out of the book and give a hug to. The characters that you honestly want to reach into said book and slap. And honestly the storyline - ugh what can I say buy it honestly gave me all the feels.

Ghost Girl, Banana is a complex yet brilliantly written book about race, love, family and belonging. It’s about two women their strengths and their weaknesses and how they overcome this.

The book is duel point of view and spans over 30 years. We hear the voice of Sook-Yin who is sent to London by her family in the 1960s and her daughter Li-Li Chen or Lily who is in her late 20s in 1997.

It shows the strength of the women and what they have to go through, especially Sook-Yin. She has been sent to a brand new country where she isn’t fluent in the language and has so much pressure to do well and send home money to her family. There is so much that she goes through in such a short space of time but how Wiz Wharton did this was so well done. I felt such strong emotions for Sook-Yin and her life was not an easy one.

Lily - or Li-Li Chen has never fitted in. She was bullied as a child as she was different - from the way she looked to how she acted. She herself went through a trauma and is only now starting to get her bearings again.

The book from Sook-Yin’s point of view show is from the point she left her home to when she passes away. Lily we see going on a journey of self discovery and finding out more about her mother. There are secrets that are uncovered but also a sense of closure.

I honestly really enjoyed this book. I flew through it, not only was I gripped by the story needing to find out what happened to Sook-Yin but also by the way it was written.

Such a brilliant debut novel by Wiz Wharton and I hope to see more like it.

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