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The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 3 Mar 26An eerie, spellbinding novel of grief, ghosts, apocalyptic rain, and slowly splintering reality, from an author who “writes with a pen as sharp and precise as a lancet.” —PEN/Hemingway Award judges’ citation
In the aftermath of her mother's death, Eleanor is unmoored. For years, her mother orchestrated every detail of her life—from meals, to laundry, to finances—as Eleanor focused on her career as an online therapist. Left to navigate the world on her own, Eleanor clings to her mother’s final directive: use her inheritance to buy a house.
Desperate to obey her mother one last time, Eleanor impulsively buys a model home in a valley-turned-construction site, a picturesque development steeped in a shadowy history. It feels like a fresh start, until the rain comes—an endless, torrential downpour. As water seeps in through the house’s cracks, the line between what is real and what is not begins to blur. Haunted by the stories of her clients, a stream of workmen and bureaucrats she can’t trust, and visions of ghosts from her past and present, Eleanor’s reality unravels, and she is forced to reckon with the secrets she’s buried and the choices she’s made.
In the aftermath of her mother's death, Eleanor is unmoored. For years, her mother orchestrated every detail of her life—from meals, to laundry, to finances—as Eleanor focused on her career as an online therapist. Left to navigate the world on her own, Eleanor clings to her mother’s final directive: use her inheritance to buy a house.
Desperate to obey her mother one last time, Eleanor impulsively buys a model home in a valley-turned-construction site, a picturesque development steeped in a shadowy history. It feels like a fresh start, until the rain comes—an endless, torrential downpour. As water seeps in through the house’s cracks, the line between what is real and what is not begins to blur. Haunted by the stories of her clients, a stream of workmen and bureaucrats she can’t trust, and visions of ghosts from her past and present, Eleanor’s reality unravels, and she is forced to reckon with the secrets she’s buried and the choices she’s made.
240 pages, Paperback
Expected publication March 3, 2026
12 people are currently reading
9641 people want to read
About the author
Kim Fu
10 books522 followersKim Fu is the author of two novels, a collection of poetry, and most recently, the story collection LESSER KNOWN MONSTERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY, winner of the Washington State Book Award, the Pacific Northwest Book Award, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, as well as a finalist for the Giller Prize, the Ignyte Awards, the Shirley Jackson Awards, and the Saroyan International Prize. Stories in this collection have been selected for Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and Best of the Net, featured on Levar Burton Reads and Selected Shorts, and optioned for television and film.
Their next novel, THE VALLEY OF VENGEFUL GHOSTS, is forthcoming from Tin House and HarperCollins Canada in March 2026.
Fu’s first novel, FOR TODAY I AM A BOY, won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and the Canadian Authors Association Emerging Writer Award. It was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and a Lambda Literary Award, as well as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Their second novel, THE LOST GIRLS OF CAMP FOREVERMORE, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. Fu has been longlisted for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize for mid-career authors. Their writing has appeared in the New York Times, Granta, the Atlantic, BOMB, Hazlitt, and the TLS.
Fu lives in Seattle, Washington.
Their next novel, THE VALLEY OF VENGEFUL GHOSTS, is forthcoming from Tin House and HarperCollins Canada in March 2026.
Fu’s first novel, FOR TODAY I AM A BOY, won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and the Canadian Authors Association Emerging Writer Award. It was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and a Lambda Literary Award, as well as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Their second novel, THE LOST GIRLS OF CAMP FOREVERMORE, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award. Fu has been longlisted for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize for mid-career authors. Their writing has appeared in the New York Times, Granta, the Atlantic, BOMB, Hazlitt, and the TLS.
Fu lives in Seattle, Washington.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
October 29, 2025
Brings a whole new meaning to the word "unsettling".
From the blurb, I expected a trippy haunted house story about grief and the environment, which isn’t an inaccurate way to describe this book, but The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is oh so much more than that.
First, I should say this might be the best story about the aftermath of COVID that I’ve ever read (so far). It’s not that this is a book specifically about the pandemic. It just gets mentioned in passing a number of times in a way that is extremely realistic and extremely intentional, treating the pandemic as a collective and ongoing trauma that nobody has fully managed to reckon with. We’ve all been expected to move on as if society as we know it hasn’t fundamentally changed forever, and that’s actually what this book is really about: reckoning—or not reckoning—with our fears and our traumas. The story deals with the trauma of the pandemic and the resulting isolation, as well as financial and work related trauma and the trauma of sexual violence and environmental violence. And, of course, there’s the trauma of losing a loved one, the story’s entire premise being that our protagonist, Eleanor, uses the meager inheritance she got from her recently deceased mother to make an ill advised purchase of a home that might look sturdy at first, but is actually falling apart and completely unlivable.
Though it’s about grief, it’s not a sad book, not exactly. You might get emotional in a scene or two, especially at the end, but the point of the book is to explore interesting questions—questions about grief and trauma and fear, yes, but also about the role of technology in shaping our fears, about what this technology can and can’t do for us, about how it connects us but also separates us, about the other things that separate us, about whether these divisions can sometimes keep us safe, about whether safety is more of an illusion than we think it is, about all the different ways we might be fooling ourselves into thinking everything is fine when it’s not, about how the world as a whole is falling apart and it sometimes feels like there’s nothing to do about it, about what collective and individual actions we can take and what actions we can’t, about growing up in this messed up world, and about growing up in general. It might seem overly ambitious, but it never feels that way. It just reads like a scary book about modern life, and modern life is *a lot*, so *a lot* of questions need to be addressed, and they are, all in a very thoughtful way. If the book is also heartbreaking and visceral and raw in the process of exploring these themes, that’s just a bonus.
All of these topics are handled by an author who is clearly very smart, who deeply understands when and why fear might cause a person’s thoughts to slide away from something important. Eleanor is a flawed character, but so so real. I totally bought that she wouldn’t be able to read bank statements without her brain stuttering, that she would barely blink twice when her mother starts haunting her, that she would think it’s reasonable to choose a very isolated and independent existence despite the fact that she’s never been independent before, that she would make every dumb decision that she makes over the course of the book even though she’s ostensibly a rather intelligent person. She has the energy of an overwhelmed woman who isn’t ready to be an adult, and I can empathize. The character work here is nothing short of brilliant.
I haven’t even gotten around to gushing about my favorite part of the book, which is the setting. Sometimes a ghost story will have a setting that feels so alive that it’s basically a character of its own. Kim Fu does the opposite. The atmosphere feels dead and stagnant, but deliberately so, making it all the more frightening. Imagine a valley that has been razed of all trees in order to construct an entire neighborhood. Now imagine that only two houses ever got built, both of them right next to each other, while the rest of the valley remains an unfinished, unbuilt wasteland, where nature might one day creep back in, but that process is only just starting. That’s where this story takes place. It’s stark and isolating and disorienting and liminal. It's unsettled and unsettling. The roads are unreliable. The neighbors are nonexistent. The rain hardly stops. The WiFi is spotty. The house where Eleanor lives, with the constant need for costly repairs, seems to come straight out of the average millennial’s stress dreams about the impossibility of home ownership.
It’s actually even weirder and more nightmarish than I’m making it out to be, but no description I give here can fully do it justice. Only Fu’s rhythmic and lyrical prose can truly capture this atmosphere. She writes in a way that is precise without losing the sense of expansive spectacle, efficient without being clipped or pedestrian, and vivid without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail. She keeps the pace moving and the page count low, but she also lingers in important moments, allowing you to take a second to slow down and appreciate how much mastery she has over the English language. There wasn’t a single chapter in this book when my jaw wasn’t fully on the floor at least once.
~Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a Digital ARC. All opinions are my own.~
From the blurb, I expected a trippy haunted house story about grief and the environment, which isn’t an inaccurate way to describe this book, but The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is oh so much more than that.
First, I should say this might be the best story about the aftermath of COVID that I’ve ever read (so far). It’s not that this is a book specifically about the pandemic. It just gets mentioned in passing a number of times in a way that is extremely realistic and extremely intentional, treating the pandemic as a collective and ongoing trauma that nobody has fully managed to reckon with. We’ve all been expected to move on as if society as we know it hasn’t fundamentally changed forever, and that’s actually what this book is really about: reckoning—or not reckoning—with our fears and our traumas. The story deals with the trauma of the pandemic and the resulting isolation, as well as financial and work related trauma and the trauma of sexual violence and environmental violence. And, of course, there’s the trauma of losing a loved one, the story’s entire premise being that our protagonist, Eleanor, uses the meager inheritance she got from her recently deceased mother to make an ill advised purchase of a home that might look sturdy at first, but is actually falling apart and completely unlivable.
Though it’s about grief, it’s not a sad book, not exactly. You might get emotional in a scene or two, especially at the end, but the point of the book is to explore interesting questions—questions about grief and trauma and fear, yes, but also about the role of technology in shaping our fears, about what this technology can and can’t do for us, about how it connects us but also separates us, about the other things that separate us, about whether these divisions can sometimes keep us safe, about whether safety is more of an illusion than we think it is, about all the different ways we might be fooling ourselves into thinking everything is fine when it’s not, about how the world as a whole is falling apart and it sometimes feels like there’s nothing to do about it, about what collective and individual actions we can take and what actions we can’t, about growing up in this messed up world, and about growing up in general. It might seem overly ambitious, but it never feels that way. It just reads like a scary book about modern life, and modern life is *a lot*, so *a lot* of questions need to be addressed, and they are, all in a very thoughtful way. If the book is also heartbreaking and visceral and raw in the process of exploring these themes, that’s just a bonus.
All of these topics are handled by an author who is clearly very smart, who deeply understands when and why fear might cause a person’s thoughts to slide away from something important. Eleanor is a flawed character, but so so real. I totally bought that she wouldn’t be able to read bank statements without her brain stuttering, that she would barely blink twice when her mother starts haunting her, that she would think it’s reasonable to choose a very isolated and independent existence despite the fact that she’s never been independent before, that she would make every dumb decision that she makes over the course of the book even though she’s ostensibly a rather intelligent person. She has the energy of an overwhelmed woman who isn’t ready to be an adult, and I can empathize. The character work here is nothing short of brilliant.
I haven’t even gotten around to gushing about my favorite part of the book, which is the setting. Sometimes a ghost story will have a setting that feels so alive that it’s basically a character of its own. Kim Fu does the opposite. The atmosphere feels dead and stagnant, but deliberately so, making it all the more frightening. Imagine a valley that has been razed of all trees in order to construct an entire neighborhood. Now imagine that only two houses ever got built, both of them right next to each other, while the rest of the valley remains an unfinished, unbuilt wasteland, where nature might one day creep back in, but that process is only just starting. That’s where this story takes place. It’s stark and isolating and disorienting and liminal. It's unsettled and unsettling. The roads are unreliable. The neighbors are nonexistent. The rain hardly stops. The WiFi is spotty. The house where Eleanor lives, with the constant need for costly repairs, seems to come straight out of the average millennial’s stress dreams about the impossibility of home ownership.
It’s actually even weirder and more nightmarish than I’m making it out to be, but no description I give here can fully do it justice. Only Fu’s rhythmic and lyrical prose can truly capture this atmosphere. She writes in a way that is precise without losing the sense of expansive spectacle, efficient without being clipped or pedestrian, and vivid without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail. She keeps the pace moving and the page count low, but she also lingers in important moments, allowing you to take a second to slow down and appreciate how much mastery she has over the English language. There wasn’t a single chapter in this book when my jaw wasn’t fully on the floor at least once.
~Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a Digital ARC. All opinions are my own.~
Read
January 7, 2026
Book Riot’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026:
I fell hard for Fu's writing through their short fiction in Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, so I was delighted to learn that we're getting a new novel from this award-winning author. I love a novel perched in the uncanny valley and this story about a woman unmoored by the death of her controlling mother, a woman who, ever-obedient, buys a house built on shadowy foundations with her inheritance, sounds right up my alley. Lesser-Known Monsters taught me that Fu is the writer to tell an immersive story grounded in earthly issues and haunted by ghosts. —S. Zainab Williams
I fell hard for Fu's writing through their short fiction in Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, so I was delighted to learn that we're getting a new novel from this award-winning author. I love a novel perched in the uncanny valley and this story about a woman unmoored by the death of her controlling mother, a woman who, ever-obedient, buys a house built on shadowy foundations with her inheritance, sounds right up my alley. Lesser-Known Monsters taught me that Fu is the writer to tell an immersive story grounded in earthly issues and haunted by ghosts. —S. Zainab Williams
did-not-finish
January 10, 2026DNF @ 36%
I thought this was going to be more horror, but it ended up being a lit fic/character study about grief and loneliness post-pandemic, featuring a therapist who seriously needs therapy herself because of her mommy issues.
Lit fic lovers will eat this up, but this isn't my thing at all.
Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley for this arc.
I thought this was going to be more horror, but it ended up being a lit fic/character study about grief and loneliness post-pandemic, featuring a therapist who seriously needs therapy herself because of her mommy issues.
Lit fic lovers will eat this up, but this isn't my thing at all.
Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley for this arc.
January 23, 2026
I enjoyed this book - well, enjoyed may not be quite the right word for such an emotionally tense story - but I can understand why it got such mixed reviews. It read very much like someone who is foremost a short story writer, beautiful sentences but a pace so slow that it became sluggish in parts. In the first third I felt like giving up a few times but I was so captivated by the plight of the titular character that I pressed on.
As it turned out, the pacing was also part of the style that contributed to the eerie atmosphere. The interminable nature of it led to an unsettling, disturbing atmosphere as you felt you were losing your mind right along with Eleanor. This is not a scary, in-your-face haunted house novel, nor is it quite a literary descent into madness while dealing with grief, but it is a mix of both of those. The dread is slow and creepy and almost too subtle, built into the monotony of the prose.
Eleanor is a new adult who just lost her controlling mother to cancer. Her mother did everything for her - paid her bills, cooked her meals, did her laundry. She wouldn't allow her to grow up. Free of her at last, Eleanor fulfills her last wish and buys a house, her first big-girl decision. Their complicated, loving, but at times abusive relationship was one of the most compelling parts of the story.
But helpless Eleanor bought a model home with a lot of problems under the surface in a development where the developer killed himself after going bankrupt. Lonely, naive Eleanor doesn't think to ask questions.
For work she's an online therapist, a profession that lent itself well to the creepy disembodiment of Eleanor's total isolation. If you've ever been sick of Teams meetings, these were video calls from hell.
Eleanor starts seeing her mother's ghost everywhere as the problems with the house add up. Underlying the house issues was an interesting commentary about housing inequities and capitalism.
Although Eleanor could be annoyingly helpless and needy, I emotionally connected to her and was rooting for her to break free of the child prison her mother had built for her. I wish the pace had been more gripping, but I also understood the choice. It focused the reader in on Eleanor's interiority and made us question her increasingly warped reality.
Overall I thought this was a powerful, beautiful story of grief and coming of age, but it certainly won't be for everyone. It was my kind of psychological horror though.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
As it turned out, the pacing was also part of the style that contributed to the eerie atmosphere. The interminable nature of it led to an unsettling, disturbing atmosphere as you felt you were losing your mind right along with Eleanor. This is not a scary, in-your-face haunted house novel, nor is it quite a literary descent into madness while dealing with grief, but it is a mix of both of those. The dread is slow and creepy and almost too subtle, built into the monotony of the prose.
Eleanor is a new adult who just lost her controlling mother to cancer. Her mother did everything for her - paid her bills, cooked her meals, did her laundry. She wouldn't allow her to grow up. Free of her at last, Eleanor fulfills her last wish and buys a house, her first big-girl decision. Their complicated, loving, but at times abusive relationship was one of the most compelling parts of the story.
But helpless Eleanor bought a model home with a lot of problems under the surface in a development where the developer killed himself after going bankrupt. Lonely, naive Eleanor doesn't think to ask questions.
For work she's an online therapist, a profession that lent itself well to the creepy disembodiment of Eleanor's total isolation. If you've ever been sick of Teams meetings, these were video calls from hell.
Eleanor starts seeing her mother's ghost everywhere as the problems with the house add up. Underlying the house issues was an interesting commentary about housing inequities and capitalism.
Although Eleanor could be annoyingly helpless and needy, I emotionally connected to her and was rooting for her to break free of the child prison her mother had built for her. I wish the pace had been more gripping, but I also understood the choice. It focused the reader in on Eleanor's interiority and made us question her increasingly warped reality.
Overall I thought this was a powerful, beautiful story of grief and coming of age, but it certainly won't be for everyone. It was my kind of psychological horror though.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
November 6, 2025
i went into this expecting a haunted house horror story — eerie woods, unsettling neighbours, a ghost of grief lingering in the corners. but what i got instead was a very slow, very metaphor-heavy exploration of grief and the unravelling of a woman’s interior world. which isn’t bad as a concept, but i think the pacing and tone just didn’t work for me personally.
the rain in this book is supposed to create atmosphere, but after a while, it just started to feel suffocating and monotonous, like i was getting mouldy along with the house. eleanor’s emotional spiral makes sense thematically, but the story moves so slowly that i often felt like the plot wasn’t going anywhere. i kept waiting for something to shift or escalate, and it never really did. the haunting isn’t horror but metaphor. and while i can appreciate what the author was trying to do with that, i just wasn’t the audience for it.
i can see how readers who enjoy quiet, introspective novels about grief will connect with this more deeply. however, for me, it was hard to stay invested. the idea is clever, and i respect the craft, but the reading experience felt dull and stagnant.
-------
to-read
i'm sensing something sinister at play...
*thank you to Tin House for the ARC*
the rain in this book is supposed to create atmosphere, but after a while, it just started to feel suffocating and monotonous, like i was getting mouldy along with the house. eleanor’s emotional spiral makes sense thematically, but the story moves so slowly that i often felt like the plot wasn’t going anywhere. i kept waiting for something to shift or escalate, and it never really did. the haunting isn’t horror but metaphor. and while i can appreciate what the author was trying to do with that, i just wasn’t the audience for it.
i can see how readers who enjoy quiet, introspective novels about grief will connect with this more deeply. however, for me, it was hard to stay invested. the idea is clever, and i respect the craft, but the reading experience felt dull and stagnant.
-------
to-read
i'm sensing something sinister at play...
*thank you to Tin House for the ARC*
January 28, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
"She understood outliving one's parents was the natural order of things, but deep down she had always expected to die young while Lele lived past a hundred, past two hundred, became the oldest woman ever to walk the earth."
This is a quiet, literary exploration of grief, dependency, mother-daughter relationships, and isolation. When Eleanor's mother passes away, she's forced to reckon with all the ways in which she was dependent on her ailing mother. In an attempt to follow her mother's final instructions for her, she purchases a house - one in an isolated, abandoned development. As relentless rain seeps in through the windows, the house falls into disrepair, and Eleanor with it. She's unable to separate her grief-fueled imagination from reality.
I loved this eerie, bleak atmosphere and sharp prose. I understand that some readers expected more of a horror/ghost story, but I don't think that's what the book is trying to do, so I was content with more of a metaphorical haunting. Fu examines the uncomfortable, ugly aspects of grief and dependency, and the environment takes that theme of isolation to a really satisfying level. I think anyone who likes literary fiction that is not very plot-centric should give this a try.
I think the ending is somewhat ambiguous and not very satisfying, but I'd still recommend if you're in the mood for great prose & an eerie setting!
"She understood outliving one's parents was the natural order of things, but deep down she had always expected to die young while Lele lived past a hundred, past two hundred, became the oldest woman ever to walk the earth."
This is a quiet, literary exploration of grief, dependency, mother-daughter relationships, and isolation. When Eleanor's mother passes away, she's forced to reckon with all the ways in which she was dependent on her ailing mother. In an attempt to follow her mother's final instructions for her, she purchases a house - one in an isolated, abandoned development. As relentless rain seeps in through the windows, the house falls into disrepair, and Eleanor with it. She's unable to separate her grief-fueled imagination from reality.
I loved this eerie, bleak atmosphere and sharp prose. I understand that some readers expected more of a horror/ghost story, but I don't think that's what the book is trying to do, so I was content with more of a metaphorical haunting. Fu examines the uncomfortable, ugly aspects of grief and dependency, and the environment takes that theme of isolation to a really satisfying level. I think anyone who likes literary fiction that is not very plot-centric should give this a try.
I think the ending is somewhat ambiguous and not very satisfying, but I'd still recommend if you're in the mood for great prose & an eerie setting!
January 24, 2026
Eleanor’s mother is battling cancer. Since her career and personal life are in crisis, she moves in. However, it is the mother who takes care of the daughter, just as she has been doing for twenty-nine years. You can safely say that Eleanor is the female version of a mama’s boy; there is nothing her mom wouldn’t do for her daughter. After she dies, Eleanor follows her mom’s last wish and hastily buys herself a house. Ill-prepared and grief stricken, this just might not be the best decision. And because this is a horror novel, we know that things will go very, very wrong for Eleanor.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is Grief Horror at its best, with the house epitomizing Eleanor’s fragility. The constant rain—and her job as an online therapist—isolate her. As the badly constructed house begins to crack and collapse, Eleanor begins drowning figuratively and literally.
There is much in common with Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House: an isolated young woman by the name of Eleanor with a complicated relationship with her mother who lets a sentient house get the better of her.
Kim Fu—a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award—has crafted a literary horror novel that builds the horror and dread slowly and viscerally. I highly recommend you check this one out.
I would like to thank Tin House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is Grief Horror at its best, with the house epitomizing Eleanor’s fragility. The constant rain—and her job as an online therapist—isolate her. As the badly constructed house begins to crack and collapse, Eleanor begins drowning figuratively and literally.
There is much in common with Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House: an isolated young woman by the name of Eleanor with a complicated relationship with her mother who lets a sentient house get the better of her.
Kim Fu—a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award—has crafted a literary horror novel that builds the horror and dread slowly and viscerally. I highly recommend you check this one out.
I would like to thank Tin House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.
December 2, 2025
Thank you to Zando Projects for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu is the story of a recently bereaved therapist named Eleanor who, with her inheritance, buys a house in an isolated and abandoned development. As she works on her grief and comes to grips with her situation, she becomes haunted with the ghosts of her past.
What if, the real horrors, were home repair estimates and contractors? While ghosts are omnipresent in this story, whether lurking at the periphery of scenes or whispering into the main character’s ear, a great deal of the tension in this story comes from the house, which only shackles Eleanor in place, feeling isolated and ill-equipped for life on her own. The author describes mouldering floors, flooding windows, and an oppressive sense of futility. The contracts, repair estimates, and unhelpful insurance agents add real work distaste and stress to a story otherwise told mostly internally.
Eleanor is an interesting character. While we have flashes in the past of a woman who was motivated in life and research, that character has essentially vanished. A combination of trauma and embarrassment coupled with a codependent relationship with her mother have effectively caused her to regress to a state of depressed childishness. I did like that this was a pretty unusual presentation. Rather than rage, or misery, she presents her grief as a feeling of helplessness and being lost.
While this story has an interesting concept, it has very large swaths of time between action point. The book ruminates internally, and the external action is just as slow. It feels like the book is very repetitive once the house is purchased, and doesn’t make much headway until the final scenes. To its credit, the book is deeply atmospheric and beautifully realistic, however, it is at points painfully slow.
I think that for some people, looking for a slow reflection on grief and difficult loss as the adult child of a parent, this might be a perfect selection. Personally, I thought despite some interesting characterization and very stunning settings, that the book seemed to constantly be treading water, inching the plot along. I’m giving this book 3/5, with the reservation that it may be better received by someone who really needs a subtle reflection on grief.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu is the story of a recently bereaved therapist named Eleanor who, with her inheritance, buys a house in an isolated and abandoned development. As she works on her grief and comes to grips with her situation, she becomes haunted with the ghosts of her past.
What if, the real horrors, were home repair estimates and contractors? While ghosts are omnipresent in this story, whether lurking at the periphery of scenes or whispering into the main character’s ear, a great deal of the tension in this story comes from the house, which only shackles Eleanor in place, feeling isolated and ill-equipped for life on her own. The author describes mouldering floors, flooding windows, and an oppressive sense of futility. The contracts, repair estimates, and unhelpful insurance agents add real work distaste and stress to a story otherwise told mostly internally.
Eleanor is an interesting character. While we have flashes in the past of a woman who was motivated in life and research, that character has essentially vanished. A combination of trauma and embarrassment coupled with a codependent relationship with her mother have effectively caused her to regress to a state of depressed childishness. I did like that this was a pretty unusual presentation. Rather than rage, or misery, she presents her grief as a feeling of helplessness and being lost.
While this story has an interesting concept, it has very large swaths of time between action point. The book ruminates internally, and the external action is just as slow. It feels like the book is very repetitive once the house is purchased, and doesn’t make much headway until the final scenes. To its credit, the book is deeply atmospheric and beautifully realistic, however, it is at points painfully slow.
I think that for some people, looking for a slow reflection on grief and difficult loss as the adult child of a parent, this might be a perfect selection. Personally, I thought despite some interesting characterization and very stunning settings, that the book seemed to constantly be treading water, inching the plot along. I’m giving this book 3/5, with the reservation that it may be better received by someone who really needs a subtle reflection on grief.
February 14, 2026
Haunting, unsettling, atmospheric horror about a woman who buys a house while she is grieving her mom. Really didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Wonderful writing. Thank you Zando for sending me an early copy of this!
Want to read
September 16, 2025gimme gimme gimme
December 2, 2025
I read this during a migraine episode where I laid in the dark for the entire day. It felt like I was slipping into insanity with the main character. Also on a rainy day night I add. I felt like the author didn’t do a great job of making me sympathize for our protagonist. I saw her as others did: a needy child who never grew up. I felt like not much happened and the story went on too long. I think the points it made on grief were important still. I just wish I could’ve connected to the story more. It was less scary and thrilling than it was sad.
Thank you Net Galley for the free copy.
Thank you Net Galley for the free copy.
October 26, 2025
I devoured this book in one day. The story was a powerful tale of grief and loss and loneliness and learning to cope. I do feel like there was definitely room to make it longer and ad more and I definitely would have loved to hear more about the MC past the written ending, but overall I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was done in such a way that I really felt like I was in Elenor’s head with her. I’m super glad I picked up this free ARC at my local indie bookstore.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Hurray! A new Kim Fu book! Thanks to Tin House/Zando for an early copy.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts follows Eleanor, a 30-something woman who uses the inheritance money left to her by her recently deceased mother to make the extremely ill-advised purchase of her first house: one of two model homes in an unfinished development, carved into a secluded, flood-prone valley in the Pacific Northwest. A work-from-home therapist, Eleanor spends her days helping grainy Zoom clients build skills to manage their tragedies and problems while her own mental health spirals and her shoddily built home collapses around her. She's visited by the ghost of her mother, Lele, (meaner than she ever was in real life) as well as the ghost of the real estate developer, who died by suicide after he ran out of money to pay his contractors. But these supernatural components function more like quiet amplifiers of the main conflict, which is Eleanor's struggle to build and maintain an idealized, adult independence after her mom's passing. The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is not a horror story; it's an uncanny exploration of the slow creep of psychological and financial ruin.
I generally don't love stories about grown-ups struggling to "adult," so it's a mark of Fu's talents as a writer that this book grabbed me as much as it did. There are so many layers to Eleanor's suffering, hinted at and then gradually pulled into the light as the book progresses. As in Fu's short stories, the supernatural elements end up feeling less outlandish than the behaviors of the real-life people around her. There's an incredible scene where Eleanor goes out to dinner with her mentor, a fellow therapist named Teddy, and his wife, who proceed to use Eleanor as a pawn in an ongoing argument; an earlier scene, involving a menacing encounter with a locksmith, is arguably the scariest part of the book.
But without question, the most compelling part of the novel is Fu's writing. She has a Lorrie Moore-esque way of compressing the most complex absurdities of human nature into just a sentence or two. It's a treat to be back in one of her worlds.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts follows Eleanor, a 30-something woman who uses the inheritance money left to her by her recently deceased mother to make the extremely ill-advised purchase of her first house: one of two model homes in an unfinished development, carved into a secluded, flood-prone valley in the Pacific Northwest. A work-from-home therapist, Eleanor spends her days helping grainy Zoom clients build skills to manage their tragedies and problems while her own mental health spirals and her shoddily built home collapses around her. She's visited by the ghost of her mother, Lele, (meaner than she ever was in real life) as well as the ghost of the real estate developer, who died by suicide after he ran out of money to pay his contractors. But these supernatural components function more like quiet amplifiers of the main conflict, which is Eleanor's struggle to build and maintain an idealized, adult independence after her mom's passing. The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is not a horror story; it's an uncanny exploration of the slow creep of psychological and financial ruin.
I generally don't love stories about grown-ups struggling to "adult," so it's a mark of Fu's talents as a writer that this book grabbed me as much as it did. There are so many layers to Eleanor's suffering, hinted at and then gradually pulled into the light as the book progresses. As in Fu's short stories, the supernatural elements end up feeling less outlandish than the behaviors of the real-life people around her. There's an incredible scene where Eleanor goes out to dinner with her mentor, a fellow therapist named Teddy, and his wife, who proceed to use Eleanor as a pawn in an ongoing argument; an earlier scene, involving a menacing encounter with a locksmith, is arguably the scariest part of the book.
But without question, the most compelling part of the novel is Fu's writing. She has a Lorrie Moore-esque way of compressing the most complex absurdities of human nature into just a sentence or two. It's a treat to be back in one of her worlds.
January 25, 2026
Determined to carry out her mother’s final instruction, Eleanor impulsively buys a house. It doesn’t take long for the cracks to begin to show.
As the story progressed, Eleanor’s character started to wear thin for me. It was frustrating watching someone so helpless continually fumble, especially while being in a position where she needed to help others.
This was a slow burn, but I really enjoyed the eerie and unsettling atmosphere as everything slowly went from bad to worse.
Thank you to NetGalley and Zando Projects for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
As the story progressed, Eleanor’s character started to wear thin for me. It was frustrating watching someone so helpless continually fumble, especially while being in a position where she needed to help others.
This was a slow burn, but I really enjoyed the eerie and unsettling atmosphere as everything slowly went from bad to worse.
Thank you to NetGalley and Zando Projects for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Read
January 4, 2026I’ve been venturing into alternative genres recently and Zando so graciously provided me with a physical copy of The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kimberly Fu!
TVoVG is a haunting tale with themes of inescapable, insurmountable grief, loneliness, and consequences. With expectations of horror, I was thoroughly surprised at how much of the story focused on the aforementioned emotions rather than horror elements. The writing was atmospheric, setting the stage for Eleanor’s mostly depressive narrative, following her along as she battles with the lows of losing her mother, the highs of buying a home, and the tragedies that befall inexperienced, sheltered adults who lack the capacity to make informed decisions without emotional interference. While it may seem to miss the mark for some, it actually does quite well in capturing the horrors of adulthood, especially when your source of guidance disappears and you have no one to turn to. TVoVG succinctly captures the loss of identity and self when it’s so wrapped up in someone else, along with the depression spiral, desperation, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that come from negative life experiences.
For readers who enjoy thought provoking fiction with darker themes, give The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts a try!
*Thank you to @zandoprojects and @tin_house for providing me with a free physical copy of this book. All opinions are my own!
TVoVG is a haunting tale with themes of inescapable, insurmountable grief, loneliness, and consequences. With expectations of horror, I was thoroughly surprised at how much of the story focused on the aforementioned emotions rather than horror elements. The writing was atmospheric, setting the stage for Eleanor’s mostly depressive narrative, following her along as she battles with the lows of losing her mother, the highs of buying a home, and the tragedies that befall inexperienced, sheltered adults who lack the capacity to make informed decisions without emotional interference. While it may seem to miss the mark for some, it actually does quite well in capturing the horrors of adulthood, especially when your source of guidance disappears and you have no one to turn to. TVoVG succinctly captures the loss of identity and self when it’s so wrapped up in someone else, along with the depression spiral, desperation, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that come from negative life experiences.
For readers who enjoy thought provoking fiction with darker themes, give The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts a try!
*Thank you to @zandoprojects and @tin_house for providing me with a free physical copy of this book. All opinions are my own!
January 29, 2026
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu follows Eleanor, a young woman grieving the death of her mother. Desperate to start living for herself for the first time, she buys a model home without going through the proper channels to make sure it is up to par and ends up with a house that is full of problems and begins to be haunted by ghosts.
I really enjoyed this book. I feel like Eleanor can be a very frustrating character at times but I couldn’t help but have a soft spot for her. Her life is turned completely upside down by the loss of her mother and she is barely treading water. She doesn’t know a lot about the world and is just trying to find her way while navigating her grief.
I found her therapy sessions to be especially insightful. She is a therapist trying to help people while going through the most difficult time in her life and I feel like this story really showed her declining mental state through how she interacted with her clients. One client in particular, David, felt very relatable to me and I highlighted almost every time he spoke in my e copy of this book.
I look forward to reading more from this author in the future! I just found her writing style to be compulsively readable and her characters to be flawed in ways that seemed realistic. Also the horror of buying a home only to watch it slowly fall apart had my stomach clenching through this book. That is true horror. I would rather have a haunted house than a house that is retaining rain water.
I really enjoyed this book. I feel like Eleanor can be a very frustrating character at times but I couldn’t help but have a soft spot for her. Her life is turned completely upside down by the loss of her mother and she is barely treading water. She doesn’t know a lot about the world and is just trying to find her way while navigating her grief.
I found her therapy sessions to be especially insightful. She is a therapist trying to help people while going through the most difficult time in her life and I feel like this story really showed her declining mental state through how she interacted with her clients. One client in particular, David, felt very relatable to me and I highlighted almost every time he spoke in my e copy of this book.
I look forward to reading more from this author in the future! I just found her writing style to be compulsively readable and her characters to be flawed in ways that seemed realistic. Also the horror of buying a home only to watch it slowly fall apart had my stomach clenching through this book. That is true horror. I would rather have a haunted house than a house that is retaining rain water.
November 24, 2025
The valley was flooding, the world was flooding, but someone would fix it. Mother, science, government, gods. Someone will save us.
This is so squarely a post-COVID narrative without being a "COVID" story. Eleanor deals with trauma and grief that extend before and after lockdowns, and they're the same that many of us faced during that time.
What do we do when the place that we live is falling apart around us, everyone is coping with unimaginable trauma, and everything is so damn expensive? I don't know if Kim Fu suggests an answer, but we are certainly left with a lot to think about.
I think we are shown in several ways what happens to us when we lack community. We see this with Eleanor, but also Wing-Yen and Antoni. I think an ending that really hammered home this point would have been more satisfying. It could be a matter of putting on our own oxygen mask before assisting others, but I'll be curious to see what other readers make of this.
Though I struggled with the pacing at some points and the subject matter could be heavy at times, I finished this book in about two sittings.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!
This is so squarely a post-COVID narrative without being a "COVID" story. Eleanor deals with trauma and grief that extend before and after lockdowns, and they're the same that many of us faced during that time.
What do we do when the place that we live is falling apart around us, everyone is coping with unimaginable trauma, and everything is so damn expensive? I don't know if Kim Fu suggests an answer, but we are certainly left with a lot to think about.
I think we are shown in several ways what happens to us when we lack community. We see this with Eleanor, but also Wing-Yen and Antoni. I think an ending that really hammered home this point would have been more satisfying. It could be a matter of putting on our own oxygen mask before assisting others, but I'll be curious to see what other readers make of this.
Though I struggled with the pacing at some points and the subject matter could be heavy at times, I finished this book in about two sittings.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
4.25 stars.
Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Eleanor's mother has recently passed away, a woman who looked after her daughter, cooking and cleaning for her well into her adult years. Eleanor, feeling lost, ends up buying a house on a whim, believing it was what her mother would have wanted. It becomes clear very quickly this was a bad decision when the water leaks start happening and the ghosts begin to appear.
This was a tense and at times stressful read. As Eleanor's house and mental state increasingly spiral out of control, she is constantly looking for someone to save her, as her mother used to. Although Eleanor is not the easiest character to like, I felt a certain protectiveness over her, which for me is a sign of great writing.
A book I read in a couple of days, this was very compelling.
Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Eleanor's mother has recently passed away, a woman who looked after her daughter, cooking and cleaning for her well into her adult years. Eleanor, feeling lost, ends up buying a house on a whim, believing it was what her mother would have wanted. It becomes clear very quickly this was a bad decision when the water leaks start happening and the ghosts begin to appear.
This was a tense and at times stressful read. As Eleanor's house and mental state increasingly spiral out of control, she is constantly looking for someone to save her, as her mother used to. Although Eleanor is not the easiest character to like, I felt a certain protectiveness over her, which for me is a sign of great writing.
A book I read in a couple of days, this was very compelling.
dnf
January 25, 2026DNF @ 38%.
I could not get into it. It felt like nothing was happening. I was expecting, based on the description, for this to be a gothic / horror / haunted house story. It’s definitely not - it’s literary fiction, a character study with discussions of grief after a parent’s passing. This book is definitely not for me.
Thank you to NetGalley, Kim Fu, and Tin House Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
I could not get into it. It felt like nothing was happening. I was expecting, based on the description, for this to be a gothic / horror / haunted house story. It’s definitely not - it’s literary fiction, a character study with discussions of grief after a parent’s passing. This book is definitely not for me.
Thank you to NetGalley, Kim Fu, and Tin House Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
November 8, 2025
An interesting one…. Female lead and a style of writing that I was really engaged with what was going on in the person’s head. I found the content a little miserable after a while. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
December 17, 2025
I actually really enjoyed how this book got off the ground. I thought the concept was interesting and had a lot of intrigue. Unfortunately that start faded away and the book just didn’t do a whole lot for me. It just sort of drug on for a while. Unfortunate because I think there was something there for the is to be good if not great.
Thank you to Kim Fu, NetGalley, and Tin House for providing me an advanced reading copy.
Thank you to Kim Fu, NetGalley, and Tin House for providing me an advanced reading copy.
December 14, 2025
i tried to love 'the valley of vengeful ghosts', but unfortunately it wasn't for me. i didn't expect it to be so eerie, and it felt like some of the story lines weren't hitting their points or were left unfinished.
as much as i enjoyed the writing, the story itself was a bit of a let-down for me.
thank you netgalley and zando for this arc.
as much as i enjoyed the writing, the story itself was a bit of a let-down for me.
thank you netgalley and zando for this arc.
November 28, 2025
Rating 2.75 Rounded up
What makes the book genuinely eerie is the MC herself, Eleanor. A therapist herself yet cannot recognize her own mental fractures. Fu portrays modern anxieties as horrors using actual issues such as housing instability, climate anxiety and social isolation to create a realistic sense of tension and dread that is absolutely relatable.
Where I feel it falters a bit is in its ambiguity. While the blurred line between reality and hallucination feels completely intentional it can become frustrating at times. Is it really Eleanor or is the house actively malevolent. We never really know. Other issues for me were the pacing felt sluggish and repetitive at times but Fu’s sentences are sensory and often unsettlingly vivid which made me want to push through.
Overall The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is a disquieting psychological horror novel that lingers. It just lingers too long sometimes and starts to feel a bit daunting to complete.
What makes the book genuinely eerie is the MC herself, Eleanor. A therapist herself yet cannot recognize her own mental fractures. Fu portrays modern anxieties as horrors using actual issues such as housing instability, climate anxiety and social isolation to create a realistic sense of tension and dread that is absolutely relatable.
Where I feel it falters a bit is in its ambiguity. While the blurred line between reality and hallucination feels completely intentional it can become frustrating at times. Is it really Eleanor or is the house actively malevolent. We never really know. Other issues for me were the pacing felt sluggish and repetitive at times but Fu’s sentences are sensory and often unsettlingly vivid which made me want to push through.
Overall The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is a disquieting psychological horror novel that lingers. It just lingers too long sometimes and starts to feel a bit daunting to complete.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu
3.85 rounded up to 4🔮🔮🔮🔮orbs
Pub. Date: March 3, 2026
Zando Projects/Tinhouse Publishing
Orb seeks therapy…. (Cue in, Can I Scream —The Refused 🎶)
💡 Orbs Prologue: Nervously, I await my first online therapy appointment. As the screen flashes and Eleanor enters the virtual room, her physical appearance is quite alarming. Her disheveled hair stands with greasy ends, and her eyes remain puffy and dark as if she just went ten rounds in a boxing ring. Dr. Eleanor introduces herself in a gravelly voice and asks what has brought me to therapy. With a long laundry list of issues, I begin to rattle off the banes of my existence, but in particular, I land on the most recent set of horrors. With a deep-felt sorrow, I explain that I have an addiction to buying books. Burning a hole through my wallet, this issue is causing a significant impact on my financial resources and subsequent well-being, I explain. Predictably, Eleanor asks, “So, how is your relationship with your parents?” As my eyes roll, I further expound on my book-buying weakness. “I have nightmares! These books mutate into some type of monsters waiting to eat me while I sleep. I have not slept decently in over two years! Doctor, please tell me I am not a wack-a-doodle!” Eleanor shifts in her chair and tells me she needs to use the restroom. While she is gone, I notice some strange, veiny marks on the walls of her room. Water damage? An expensive problem to fix. In the stillness, steady drips of water can be heard echoing throughout the room. Curiously, I study the screen. Are those deer antlers? Shockingly, one dark, brown eye of an enormous creature mean mugs me as it saunters by Eleanor’s camera, looking anxiously for a place to escape. What in the world is happening here…
🧐 A small glimpse: Eleanor has always leaned on her mother, Lele, for guidance on all matters of importance. Cancer has taken its toll, and Lele unfortunately passes away, leaving Eleanor to fend for herself in the scary adult world. Fulfilling Lele’s dying wish, Eleanor spends a nest egg of money on a house she can call her very own. Author Kim Fu dons a realtor cap and shows us a beautifully built home in an abandoned project development, tranquilly located in the remoteness of a valley. The house speaks to Eleanor, but for the price, time is of the essence. Forgoing inspection of the property, Eleanor signs the paperwork and receives the keys to her new abode. Oh, how problems arise! Torrential downpours saturate the valley, testing the limits of the craftsmanship of both houses currently residing here. Still working as an online therapist, Eleanor attempts to keep her business schedule despite an inferior wifi connection and an abundance of more “intense” issues, including the visions of strange apparitions that take center stage. This place has a morbid history, and as Eleanor delves deeper into its madness, a treacherous web spun of corrupted greed becomes ever apparent.
👍 Orbs Pros: The setting! There is something about living in the middle of nowhere, naked to the elements, that creeps me out. Kim Fu’s prose does a masterful job of creating a tense and believable landscape. More under the hood! After further examination, we realize the plight in which Eleanor finds herself. She needs others stronger than herself to survive, which is downright terrifying. A coming of age! Parts of Eleanor are written from a strong POV, yet time after time, she slips into this baby-like state, paralyzed by a mother who coddled her too much. The question remains, can she find her own voice and use her inner strength to conquer bizarre situations with help from no one else?
👎 Orbs Cons: If you dislike needy protagonists, then steer clear. I became confused on more than one occasion about what was real and what was "imaginary." This circling back caused the flow of the novel to read somewhat choppy at times. However, this may have been intentional by the author to exude a sense of schizophrenia that Eleanor seemed to be experiencing.
Recommended! I enjoyed this! It’s a quick little jaunt down into crazy town, or crazy valley, as it were. This book is the result of a loving mother, perhaps too involved, stunting the growth of her child. Was Eleanor doomed from the beginning? However, not to be outdone, the novel touches upon the evil that men do. That undying quest for sex, power, and money!
💡 Orbs Epilogue: Eleanor, out of breath, returns to the screen. A look of horror coats her face. A small tinge of blood drips down her right cheek, a small slash. “So, where were we?” she casually asks. Dumbfounded, I look at Eleanor. The Orb is not one to be shocked often, but indeed, dear readers, I am at a loss for words. “There is a deer in your house!” I exclaim. Her eyebrows furrow, and a look of blatant empathy overtakes her shoddy face. Changing the subject, Eleanor asks if I am currently taking any medication for my nightmares. The sheer thought of taking drugs scares the bejesus out of me, so I shake my head in defiance. As the session winds down, I seem more perplexed than when I began. I look up at the ceiling, and a large stain is starting to bulge from above Eleanor. Before I have the chance to warn her, gallons and gallons of water are unleashed with a river-like fury, sweeping her off camera. With sweat dripping down my forehead, I stand and yell at my monitor. Eleanor… Eleanor… Are you there? Eleanor! Are you alright?… The screen fades to black… and then a new page opens. Five faces stare at me, ranging from angry to overwhelmingly happy, asking me to rate my experience, followed by a PayPal link to submit my payment. Suddenly, my need to buy books seems rather paltry in comparison!
Many thanks to Zando Projects/Tinhouse Publishing for supplying the ARC through NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.
3.85 rounded up to 4🔮🔮🔮🔮orbs
Pub. Date: March 3, 2026
Zando Projects/Tinhouse Publishing
Orb seeks therapy…. (Cue in, Can I Scream —The Refused 🎶)
💡 Orbs Prologue: Nervously, I await my first online therapy appointment. As the screen flashes and Eleanor enters the virtual room, her physical appearance is quite alarming. Her disheveled hair stands with greasy ends, and her eyes remain puffy and dark as if she just went ten rounds in a boxing ring. Dr. Eleanor introduces herself in a gravelly voice and asks what has brought me to therapy. With a long laundry list of issues, I begin to rattle off the banes of my existence, but in particular, I land on the most recent set of horrors. With a deep-felt sorrow, I explain that I have an addiction to buying books. Burning a hole through my wallet, this issue is causing a significant impact on my financial resources and subsequent well-being, I explain. Predictably, Eleanor asks, “So, how is your relationship with your parents?” As my eyes roll, I further expound on my book-buying weakness. “I have nightmares! These books mutate into some type of monsters waiting to eat me while I sleep. I have not slept decently in over two years! Doctor, please tell me I am not a wack-a-doodle!” Eleanor shifts in her chair and tells me she needs to use the restroom. While she is gone, I notice some strange, veiny marks on the walls of her room. Water damage? An expensive problem to fix. In the stillness, steady drips of water can be heard echoing throughout the room. Curiously, I study the screen. Are those deer antlers? Shockingly, one dark, brown eye of an enormous creature mean mugs me as it saunters by Eleanor’s camera, looking anxiously for a place to escape. What in the world is happening here…
🧐 A small glimpse: Eleanor has always leaned on her mother, Lele, for guidance on all matters of importance. Cancer has taken its toll, and Lele unfortunately passes away, leaving Eleanor to fend for herself in the scary adult world. Fulfilling Lele’s dying wish, Eleanor spends a nest egg of money on a house she can call her very own. Author Kim Fu dons a realtor cap and shows us a beautifully built home in an abandoned project development, tranquilly located in the remoteness of a valley. The house speaks to Eleanor, but for the price, time is of the essence. Forgoing inspection of the property, Eleanor signs the paperwork and receives the keys to her new abode. Oh, how problems arise! Torrential downpours saturate the valley, testing the limits of the craftsmanship of both houses currently residing here. Still working as an online therapist, Eleanor attempts to keep her business schedule despite an inferior wifi connection and an abundance of more “intense” issues, including the visions of strange apparitions that take center stage. This place has a morbid history, and as Eleanor delves deeper into its madness, a treacherous web spun of corrupted greed becomes ever apparent.
👍 Orbs Pros: The setting! There is something about living in the middle of nowhere, naked to the elements, that creeps me out. Kim Fu’s prose does a masterful job of creating a tense and believable landscape. More under the hood! After further examination, we realize the plight in which Eleanor finds herself. She needs others stronger than herself to survive, which is downright terrifying. A coming of age! Parts of Eleanor are written from a strong POV, yet time after time, she slips into this baby-like state, paralyzed by a mother who coddled her too much. The question remains, can she find her own voice and use her inner strength to conquer bizarre situations with help from no one else?
👎 Orbs Cons: If you dislike needy protagonists, then steer clear. I became confused on more than one occasion about what was real and what was "imaginary." This circling back caused the flow of the novel to read somewhat choppy at times. However, this may have been intentional by the author to exude a sense of schizophrenia that Eleanor seemed to be experiencing.
Recommended! I enjoyed this! It’s a quick little jaunt down into crazy town, or crazy valley, as it were. This book is the result of a loving mother, perhaps too involved, stunting the growth of her child. Was Eleanor doomed from the beginning? However, not to be outdone, the novel touches upon the evil that men do. That undying quest for sex, power, and money!
💡 Orbs Epilogue: Eleanor, out of breath, returns to the screen. A look of horror coats her face. A small tinge of blood drips down her right cheek, a small slash. “So, where were we?” she casually asks. Dumbfounded, I look at Eleanor. The Orb is not one to be shocked often, but indeed, dear readers, I am at a loss for words. “There is a deer in your house!” I exclaim. Her eyebrows furrow, and a look of blatant empathy overtakes her shoddy face. Changing the subject, Eleanor asks if I am currently taking any medication for my nightmares. The sheer thought of taking drugs scares the bejesus out of me, so I shake my head in defiance. As the session winds down, I seem more perplexed than when I began. I look up at the ceiling, and a large stain is starting to bulge from above Eleanor. Before I have the chance to warn her, gallons and gallons of water are unleashed with a river-like fury, sweeping her off camera. With sweat dripping down my forehead, I stand and yell at my monitor. Eleanor… Eleanor… Are you there? Eleanor! Are you alright?… The screen fades to black… and then a new page opens. Five faces stare at me, ranging from angry to overwhelmingly happy, asking me to rate my experience, followed by a PayPal link to submit my payment. Suddenly, my need to buy books seems rather paltry in comparison!
Many thanks to Zando Projects/Tinhouse Publishing for supplying the ARC through NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Eleanor is an online therapist in her mid-thirties who suddenly finds herself alone in the world after the death of her mother Lele. Eleanor is woefully unprepared for dealing with life on her own after years spent relying on her mother for guidance and direction. Unfortunately, one of her first independent actions in the wake of Lele’s death is purchasing one of only two homes that have been constructed in a now-bankrupt planned development site in the mountains. With no neighbors, Eleanor is more isolated from society than ever, and when torrential rains arrive, she soon finds both her fragile mental state and her new home crumbling around her.
The Valley of the Vengeful Ghosts is clearly inspired by Shirley Jackson’s iconic The Haunting of Hill House, particularly in the person of the main characters. They not only share a name, both books open as the Eleanors take their first overdue and tentative steps into adulthood following the deaths of their domineering mothers. There is also the obvious correlation between their mental resilience and the architecture central to the stories, although the house in this novel is more of a mirror reflection of our protagonist, rather than the ideal turned adversary in Jackson’s book. There’s even a character called Theo in both. I did find this Eleanor less sympathetic. Yes, there are reasons for her mental fragility, but her desire to abdicate any responsibility for her own life does get tiresome.
On the positive side, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is easy to read, and the author’s writing is very smooth and carries the story along well. I would definitely read more from Kim Fu in the future. My enjoyment didn’t start to waiver until around the 60% point when I began to suspect that, like the main character herself, the story was going to continue circling the drain rather than moving forward. It could have been redeemed by introducing some actual horror elements, which is what I expected going in, but that sadly didn’t turn out to be the case.
Thank you to Tin House for sending me a digital arc fore review. The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is scheduled to be published on March 3, 2026.
The Valley of the Vengeful Ghosts is clearly inspired by Shirley Jackson’s iconic The Haunting of Hill House, particularly in the person of the main characters. They not only share a name, both books open as the Eleanors take their first overdue and tentative steps into adulthood following the deaths of their domineering mothers. There is also the obvious correlation between their mental resilience and the architecture central to the stories, although the house in this novel is more of a mirror reflection of our protagonist, rather than the ideal turned adversary in Jackson’s book. There’s even a character called Theo in both. I did find this Eleanor less sympathetic. Yes, there are reasons for her mental fragility, but her desire to abdicate any responsibility for her own life does get tiresome.
On the positive side, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is easy to read, and the author’s writing is very smooth and carries the story along well. I would definitely read more from Kim Fu in the future. My enjoyment didn’t start to waiver until around the 60% point when I began to suspect that, like the main character herself, the story was going to continue circling the drain rather than moving forward. It could have been redeemed by introducing some actual horror elements, which is what I expected going in, but that sadly didn’t turn out to be the case.
Thank you to Tin House for sending me a digital arc fore review. The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is scheduled to be published on March 3, 2026.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Never buy a house without knowing exactly what you’re getting yourself into. If The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts teaches you anything, let it be that. Unless you’ve seen The Money Pit, in which case, you should’ve learned that lesson ages ago.
Eleanor’s mother has just died, and with her last breath she makes Eleanor promise to use the money she's left her to finally buy a home. So Eleanor, who has lived under her mother’s watchful, overprotective eye her entire life and has never made a single adult decision on her own, is suddenly, naïvely tossed into the housing market.
Enter an aggressively enthusiastic real estate agent who all but shoves a pen into her hand. The house is a gorgeous model home, one of only two in a brand‑new development that won’t resume construction until next year. Eleanor falls instantly in love. She signs wherever she’s told, skips the fine print, waives the inspection, and agrees to buy it as is. And she’s about to learn exactly what 'as is' means as rain begins leaking through the windows, the walls (and the sweat runs down... oh gosh, sorry, wrong time and place lol), and inconveniently, the boundary between the living and the dead, where her mother starts dropping in for visits.
Think Julia Armfield’s Private Rights. Think Nicky Gonzalez’s Mayra. This isn’t quite horror, though it does have some eerie undertones. It’s cozy and tender until it suddenly isn’t, and you root for Eleanor to find her footing… until you’re not so sure you want her to.
At its core, this is a story about consequences — a “you get what you paid for” and “what goes around comes around” kind of tale, wrapped in ghosts, grief, and the price of wanting more than you’re ready to handle.
Eleanor’s mother has just died, and with her last breath she makes Eleanor promise to use the money she's left her to finally buy a home. So Eleanor, who has lived under her mother’s watchful, overprotective eye her entire life and has never made a single adult decision on her own, is suddenly, naïvely tossed into the housing market.
Enter an aggressively enthusiastic real estate agent who all but shoves a pen into her hand. The house is a gorgeous model home, one of only two in a brand‑new development that won’t resume construction until next year. Eleanor falls instantly in love. She signs wherever she’s told, skips the fine print, waives the inspection, and agrees to buy it as is. And she’s about to learn exactly what 'as is' means as rain begins leaking through the windows, the walls (and the sweat runs down... oh gosh, sorry, wrong time and place lol), and inconveniently, the boundary between the living and the dead, where her mother starts dropping in for visits.
Think Julia Armfield’s Private Rights. Think Nicky Gonzalez’s Mayra. This isn’t quite horror, though it does have some eerie undertones. It’s cozy and tender until it suddenly isn’t, and you root for Eleanor to find her footing… until you’re not so sure you want her to.
At its core, this is a story about consequences — a “you get what you paid for” and “what goes around comes around” kind of tale, wrapped in ghosts, grief, and the price of wanting more than you’re ready to handle.
February 13, 2026
Definitely a strange book where you get a front row seat to how grief and loneliness can cause complete disassociation of the psyche. It’s mostly psychological horror but this is one where the atmosphere and character dimension pull you in and fold you into the emotional spine of the book. There’s very little action and I’m guessing it’ll be a DNF for many due to the disjointed nature of the story, which is a shame because I vibed with the entire story and couldn’t put it down.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts follows Eleanor after her mother dies following a battle with cancer. She’s inherited enough for a down payment on a house and gets pushed into purchasing a model home from a construction project that went bankrupt. The setting is incredibly well done, this empty model home community that’s just two houses on a giant mostly empty acreage. There’s no one within range of Eleanor leading to complete isolation. Eleanor and her mother were bonded in a way that was suffocating at times which has led to her struggling with adulthood. She is a telehealth therapist and when her newly purchased home becomes more than she expected, everything seems to disintegrate, both literally and metaphorically. Side characters act bizarrely, her therapy sessions get increasingly more disturbing and Eleanor struggles to distinguish what is real.
Eleanor is an incredibly complex character and her peculiar behavior drives through the trauma and grief she endures. This is an ambiguous book and if you vibe with visceral grief horror then this is a great read. If you prefer books with more conventional action and plotting this likely won’t fit the bill. I’d definitely want to read more from Fu in the future.
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts follows Eleanor after her mother dies following a battle with cancer. She’s inherited enough for a down payment on a house and gets pushed into purchasing a model home from a construction project that went bankrupt. The setting is incredibly well done, this empty model home community that’s just two houses on a giant mostly empty acreage. There’s no one within range of Eleanor leading to complete isolation. Eleanor and her mother were bonded in a way that was suffocating at times which has led to her struggling with adulthood. She is a telehealth therapist and when her newly purchased home becomes more than she expected, everything seems to disintegrate, both literally and metaphorically. Side characters act bizarrely, her therapy sessions get increasingly more disturbing and Eleanor struggles to distinguish what is real.
Eleanor is an incredibly complex character and her peculiar behavior drives through the trauma and grief she endures. This is an ambiguous book and if you vibe with visceral grief horror then this is a great read. If you prefer books with more conventional action and plotting this likely won’t fit the bill. I’d definitely want to read more from Fu in the future.
January 26, 2026
If you ever wondered what it would be like to witness someone’s life fall apart tragically because they have been coddled all their life, wonder no more. This novel shows you exactly that.
This painful novel introduces us to Eleanor, a woman who, up until recently, was a caretaker for her mother. But before that, her mother took care of everything, never teaching Eleanor how to be an adult. What follows is her story of being thrown headfirst into adulthood, and trying desperately to figure out how to survive.
Her survival comes in the form of her impulsive house purchase, and the disaster that follows. Fu mimics Eleanor’s anxiety through the “weeping” of her brand new house, and how the failure to properly build the home shows cracks and destruction at a rapid rate.
Eleanor initially does what we have been taught to do when turmoil hits-pretend like everything is normal and carry on. But as the novel goes on, it becomes harder to ignore the flaws in the house, and in turn, with Eleanor herself. She is forced to wrestle with the fact that her mother’s love stunted her, and left her ill prepared for life and challenges. It’s up to the FMC to either give up and let pain take her down, or admit the truth to herself and learn to grow and change.
This “horror” novel is sad and a bit hard to read, but Fu gives us a challenge-either let the ghosts of our past be our truth, or allow them to show us the ways we must change. Which one will you choose? 4.5 stars
Thank you NetGalley, and Tin House, for my arc. My opinion is my own.
This painful novel introduces us to Eleanor, a woman who, up until recently, was a caretaker for her mother. But before that, her mother took care of everything, never teaching Eleanor how to be an adult. What follows is her story of being thrown headfirst into adulthood, and trying desperately to figure out how to survive.
Her survival comes in the form of her impulsive house purchase, and the disaster that follows. Fu mimics Eleanor’s anxiety through the “weeping” of her brand new house, and how the failure to properly build the home shows cracks and destruction at a rapid rate.
Eleanor initially does what we have been taught to do when turmoil hits-pretend like everything is normal and carry on. But as the novel goes on, it becomes harder to ignore the flaws in the house, and in turn, with Eleanor herself. She is forced to wrestle with the fact that her mother’s love stunted her, and left her ill prepared for life and challenges. It’s up to the FMC to either give up and let pain take her down, or admit the truth to herself and learn to grow and change.
This “horror” novel is sad and a bit hard to read, but Fu gives us a challenge-either let the ghosts of our past be our truth, or allow them to show us the ways we must change. Which one will you choose? 4.5 stars
Thank you NetGalley, and Tin House, for my arc. My opinion is my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
If you enjoy magical realism and literary fiction, then
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts
by Kim Fu may be the book you’ve been wanting to read.
Eleanor Fan feels lost as she suffers from grief following her mother’s death. Her mother, Lele, took care of Eleanor’s meals, laundry, finances, and more despite them living separately except for the last couple of months. This allowed Eleanor to focus on her career as an online therapist. One of her mother’s last requests was that Eleanor use her inheritance to buy a house. She buys a model home in a construction site, but pays little attention to the paperwork. As the story progresses, the lines between what is real and what is not is blurred. She also doesn’t understand how to take care of money. It bores and frightens her.
This book is full of grief, ghosts, atmosphere, and a world that is post-pandemic. The writing is very descriptive and felt overly verbose to me. Despite this, it is a chilling reading experience and a quick read.
Overall, this is an eerie, sad, and introspective novel that wasn’t quite what I was expecting when I read the synopsis. However, it has a great premise, wonderful atmosphere, and a main character that was interesting.
Zando Projects – Tin House and Kim Fu provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date is currently set for March 03, 2026.
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My 2.84 rounded to 3 stars review is coming soon.
Eleanor Fan feels lost as she suffers from grief following her mother’s death. Her mother, Lele, took care of Eleanor’s meals, laundry, finances, and more despite them living separately except for the last couple of months. This allowed Eleanor to focus on her career as an online therapist. One of her mother’s last requests was that Eleanor use her inheritance to buy a house. She buys a model home in a construction site, but pays little attention to the paperwork. As the story progresses, the lines between what is real and what is not is blurred. She also doesn’t understand how to take care of money. It bores and frightens her.
This book is full of grief, ghosts, atmosphere, and a world that is post-pandemic. The writing is very descriptive and felt overly verbose to me. Despite this, it is a chilling reading experience and a quick read.
Overall, this is an eerie, sad, and introspective novel that wasn’t quite what I was expecting when I read the synopsis. However, it has a great premise, wonderful atmosphere, and a main character that was interesting.
Zando Projects – Tin House and Kim Fu provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date is currently set for March 03, 2026.
-------------------
My 2.84 rounded to 3 stars review is coming soon.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
3.75 stars
Lingering grief, and heavy unlikeable main character, and a rainfall that makes you feel like you are drowning along with Eleanor.
This book is a heavy focus on Eleanor's grief after her mother had passed and her unequipped readiness (despite being an adult) to live on her own and handle real life responsibilities. This is the part that makes this character unsufferable, how pampered and sheltered she lived her life letting her mother handle everything and never taking charge to learn something, anything. At times you don't feel bad for her, and then at times you do. It was a whirlwind of emotions, none of them positive except for the smallest glimpse of hope at one point.
Subtly atmospheric and fever dream like, with the house and her life falling apart in shambles there are dream sequences we jump into almost quickly that you may not even realize it is one at first. She is blending her trauma, emotions, and her clients and having lifelike dreams.
The STRESS I felt in this book, severely high. Let me just say if you are in the process of buying a house I would not want to read this because it is a nightmare!
The way this book was able to bring you along with emotions and stay connected with an unlikeable character I truly did enjoy it. I found it similar to Eileen by Otesse Moshfegh or Death Valley by Melissa Broder with the same morose atmosphere just a bit more subtle on intensity.
Lingering grief, and heavy unlikeable main character, and a rainfall that makes you feel like you are drowning along with Eleanor.
This book is a heavy focus on Eleanor's grief after her mother had passed and her unequipped readiness (despite being an adult) to live on her own and handle real life responsibilities. This is the part that makes this character unsufferable, how pampered and sheltered she lived her life letting her mother handle everything and never taking charge to learn something, anything. At times you don't feel bad for her, and then at times you do. It was a whirlwind of emotions, none of them positive except for the smallest glimpse of hope at one point.
Subtly atmospheric and fever dream like, with the house and her life falling apart in shambles there are dream sequences we jump into almost quickly that you may not even realize it is one at first. She is blending her trauma, emotions, and her clients and having lifelike dreams.
The STRESS I felt in this book, severely high. Let me just say if you are in the process of buying a house I would not want to read this because it is a nightmare!
The way this book was able to bring you along with emotions and stay connected with an unlikeable character I truly did enjoy it. I found it similar to Eileen by Otesse Moshfegh or Death Valley by Melissa Broder with the same morose atmosphere just a bit more subtle on intensity.
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