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A review by nannahnannah
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
4.5
Oh, wow, I definitely didn't expect a paranormal afterlife adventure when I rented this! I was expecting more of a realistic historical romance or something? I'm so glad I was wrong, because this far exceeded any expectations I had (and I'm not that into paranormal books at the moment, either!).
Honestly, the book's tagline is the perfect introduction: "One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride...".
What's a ghost bride? In Malaya, even under British rule, the Chinese belief--or superstition--is that a ghost bride is a woman who marries a man already dead. She then becomes an immediate widow. As can be expected, it's a quite scandalous request to ask of someone.
The protagonist, a young woman named Li Lan, used to live comfortably before her mother died and her father squandered the family business. Now her arranged marriage to the heir of the rich Lim family is cut off, and the Lim family has a new offer for her: become the ghost bride of their dead son. She will become part of the Lim family, and well taken care of, but is it worth the price?
This starts her adventure into the afterlife, starting with the Lim family's son haunting her, her spirit's detachment from her body, and a dragon spirit guiding her through the Plains of the Dead to find out just what the Lim family may be hiding underneath that initial request.
The beginning is a tad slow only compared to the rest of the novel. It never failed to hold my interest, though. It's such a good and well-written book. It has a definite atmosphere and rich world building, and it's so easy to get lost within it. I think I stayed up till 4:00am reading this multiple nights, haha!
I think the only thing keeping me from giving this five full stars is the few mentions of fatphobia . . . even though later the protagonist does slightly scold some of the characters for treating one of the villains (yea . . . the villain is fat :/) badly when they were younger--and part of this was because he was fat. I'm not sure it's enough though to completely "fix" the beginning parts where she was just so repelled by him because of his "ugly looks" though.
Anyway, this book was so beautiful, and I'll probably buy it. :)
Honestly, the book's tagline is the perfect introduction: "One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride...".
What's a ghost bride? In Malaya, even under British rule, the Chinese belief--or superstition--is that a ghost bride is a woman who marries a man already dead. She then becomes an immediate widow. As can be expected, it's a quite scandalous request to ask of someone.
The protagonist, a young woman named Li Lan, used to live comfortably before her mother died and her father squandered the family business. Now her arranged marriage to the heir of the rich Lim family is cut off, and the Lim family has a new offer for her: become the ghost bride of their dead son. She will become part of the Lim family, and well taken care of, but is it worth the price?
This starts her adventure into the afterlife, starting with the Lim family's son haunting her, her spirit's detachment from her body, and a dragon spirit guiding her through the Plains of the Dead to find out just what the Lim family may be hiding underneath that initial request.
The beginning is a tad slow only compared to the rest of the novel. It never failed to hold my interest, though. It's such a good and well-written book. It has a definite atmosphere and rich world building, and it's so easy to get lost within it. I think I stayed up till 4:00am reading this multiple nights, haha!
I think the only thing keeping me from giving this five full stars is the few mentions of fatphobia . . . even though later the protagonist does slightly scold some of the characters for treating one of the villains (yea . . . the villain is fat :/) badly when they were younger--and part of this was because he was fat. I'm not sure it's enough though to completely "fix" the beginning parts where she was just so repelled by him because of his "ugly looks" though.
Anyway, this book was so beautiful, and I'll probably buy it. :)
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug abuse and Fatphobia