A review by kaiyakaiyo
Ghost Music by An Yu

emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I’m gonna be honest, this book was a lot less exciting than it sounded. I could say good things about how this was an interesting, internal sort of book about a woman who has completely given up on herself and her own future, but frankly I think there are plenty of books already doing a better job of this without the strange, uneven mushroom premise. 

This book was frustrating, saddening, but ultimately extremely boring. Maybe I’m just not living a life where I’ll ever understand or want to understand how deeply inactive and miserable Song Yan is. She has all the tools to fix her own life but lets herself get sucked into more misery by an apathetic husband and his shrewish mother anyway. I was boggled by how self-flagellating she was able to be. She’s so neurotic it borders on superhuman. 

Anyways, I bought this book expecting an interesting use of mushrooms and got something extremely halfbaked meant for people who like reading about miserable people. I’m sure others will love this book, and I wish them all the enjoyment. Just bordered too much on romanticized misery for me
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