The Ghost Bride

Wm. Morrow

The Ghost Bride
Yangsze Choo
2013

The Summary
"Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs.  And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

"Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects.  But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family.  They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances.  Rarely practiced, traditional ghost marriages are used to placate restless spirits.  Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

"After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lims' handsome new heir, Tian Bai.  Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits, and monstrous bureaucracy--including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit.  Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets--and the truth about her own family--before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever."

The Good
I originally picked up The Ghost Bride on a whim, because of a discussion thread I read on goodreads.com.  It was the perfect thing to fill out my qualifications for my Read Harder Challenge, and it certainly sounded interesting enough to me.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by Yangsze Choo's novel--and the more I read it, the more I loved it.

Detailed and intricate, The Ghost Bride was a fascinating and fantastical journey through Malaysian society of the late 19th century, a romp through the afterlife and funeral rites of the British colony.  I loved the history, the myths, the ceremonies and legends of Malaysia quietly woven into the story.  It was a beautiful narrative that crafted an eerie, but entirely unique afterlife, an intriguing story riddled with incredible imagery of a ghastly spirit world and strange, ghostly creatures.

It's a bit of a dark and creepy story, and you never know how it's going to end--will Li Lan escape her ghostly tormentor?  Will she be able to avoid the hungry ghosts, or will she fall into some malevolent spirit's clutches?  It's a story that kept me on the edge of my seat, but it also managed to give me chills.  When Li Lan encounters ghosts, you get a feeling for their ethereal qualities.  I found it lovely and brilliant, and I was constantly wanting to learn more of the strange and deadly underworld beneath the surface of Malay.

Speaking of Li Lan, I thought she made a lovely narrator.  She's a curiously free-spirited and progressive young woman, but she's also a reflection of her society's system of beliefs.  She's living in a time of transition, when Malay is a colony of Britain in the late 19th century, so there's a confluence of Malaysian tradition and British exploration and industry that gives the novel a unique flavor--that gives Li Lan a unique perspective.

She's also a wonderful storyteller.  She gives explanations about her culture, insights into her city and country without overwhelming the reader or, more importantly, losing the flavor of the novel.  It may offer many explanations, maybe even more than is strictly necessary, but it manages to give me a better image of the world which Li Lan inhabits.  It is a complex, fascinating story full of plot twists and family secrets and traditions that I don't usually encounter, so I appreciated Li Lan's ability to skillfully weave an intriguing tale and appropriately explain the things I didn't always understand.

I loved every minute of Ghost Bride.  The ending was a little unexpected, but, ultimately, I was pleased with the outcome--and, more importantly, Li Lan's decision.  It's a strange novel, but it's so wholly unique that I couldn't not find it completely fascinating.

The Bad
Ghost Bride can get a little confusing, yes, because it's not a set of myths or cultural expectations or beliefs with which I'm familiar; however, I didn't let it deter me.  I was rewarded with a scintillating story rich with Malaysian myth and culture.

The Ugly
Greedy, hungry ghosts.

Those were probably the most frightening things, except for Master Awyoung and Lim Tian Ching.  Both were terrifying, sickening individuals, but there was something about Master Awyoung that stirred an immediate revulsion in me.  I did not like him, and I did not enjoy Li Lan's brief encounters with him.