Li Lan meets a series of characters, including a minor deity named Er Lang and the ghost of a long-dead young woman named Fan. Li Lan’s body is comatose, leaving her father and Amah (nanny/maid) worried sick, and her soul is left to wander the world, lost and trapped where she doesn’t belong. One fateful day, Li Lan’s spirit leaves her body and can’t get back in. How could she accept such a life?īut the restless spirit is stubborn, and Lim Tian Ching is haunting Li Lan. But Li Lan doesn’t want to marry a dead man and live with his unnerving family.

She’d be a ghost bride, meant to placate his restless spirit. The only catch is that her groom, Lim Tian Ching, is already dead. But one day she is presented with an opportunity to marry into a wealthy family. They are bankrupt, leaving Li Lan with little hope of a good marriage. Her mother passed away when she was young, and father has since developed an addiction to opium. The novel opens with Li Lan, a young woman from a once-prosperous family. One of my close friends from college is Malaysian, and upon gleaning where The Ghost Bride takes place, I was excited to get to know her country a little bit more. I loved reading Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy last summer, though, and was eager to explore more of the region.

I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t read many books about Asian characters or by Asian authors. The final selling point, for me, was its setting in Malaysia. Set in 1893, this novel seemed to fill two interests at once. I’m a big fan of horror films, and especially anything relating to ghosts conversely, I also love historical fiction and learning about past times and places. On first glance, I assumed The Ghost Bride would be something spooky and supernatural. This is what happened when I recently stumbled upon Yangsze Choo‘s debut novel, The Ghost Bride. There’s always something special about discovering a new book at the library or in the store, a book that instantly grabs your attention and demands to be read.

The ghost bride book review