Linghun by Ai Jiang Paints Grief and Humanity In Shadow
Linghun by Ai Jiang Paints Grief and Humanity In Shadow, as an innovative and striking literary ghost story full of suspense and horror.
The following Book Review of Ai Jiang’s Linghun will be *Spoiler-free, unless noted.
What a dark, dreamy, original, and poignant novella!
Jiang’s sharp and yet melodic prose is powerful.
In the book, a family moves to a frightening town called HOME where certain places allow the dead to return to their relatives.
For Wenqi there is a black pain.
She is the sibling of a brother who has passed and whose parents are consumed with grief but also obsessed – especially for her mother – with the prospect that they can be with their son again, even though he is a ghost.
The town is built upon the dealings with the dead, and Jiang gives us the perspective of some of these not-living, not fully-deceased ghosts that are forced to remain in Home, on earth, until all ties with blood relatives are broken.
The way Wenqi’s parents forfeit not just their previous lives but their still-living daughter’s as well – giving up everything they had to spend a fortune on a small house that may allow the dead to return – is heartbreaking.
Anyone who knows the term “golden child” well will feel strong sorrow for Wenqi.
This book is a ghost story of literary fiction where the living often horrify the reader more than the dead.
The ideas, the style, the suspense of each unfolding character chapter makes Linghun wholly its own genre or type of fiction.
At times, the reader is uncertain if the perspective is that of a ghost or a living being.
And Ai Jiang’s writes a scene at an auction house, where the precious few get to bid on a chance to buy a home where the dead have returned before, and it emanates the greatness of Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery.”
Linghun won the Bram Stoker Award for Long Fiction (2023), the Nebula Award for Novella (2023), and the Locus Award Nominee for Novella (2024).
Linghun by Ai Jiang is a must-read for those who love speculative fiction.
The Forgotten Fiction Grade: YEA (read it!)!
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“Linghun by Ai Jiang Paints Grief and Humanity In Shadow” Was Written By R.J. Huneke.
