The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts: A Novel

by Kim Fu

From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century comes The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts—an eerie, spellbinding novel of grief and guilt, with a razor-sharp eye for the absurdity and melancholy of the internet age.

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—so that Eleanor could focus on her career as a therapist. Left to navigate the world on her own, Eleanor clings to her mother’s final use her inheritance to buy a house.

Desperate to obey her mother one last time, but finding few options she can afford, 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 dark choices she’s made.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Grief, Adult

Kindle Edition

Expected publication March 3, 2026

About the author

Kim 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.

Reviews

[T Davidovsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.~

[Remi · Rating 2 out of 5]

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*

[Emily Poche · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

gimme gimme gimme

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Maddy Rane · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Brisa Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Krystelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

There’s been a recent spate of horror novels that are singularly focused on a sense of horror that is more amorphous than the traditional- that is to say, things like the housing market, financial instability, the deaths of parents, and other such things.

I completely comprehend that these sorts of books provide a really good indication of where the world is at. They’re a window in to what people feel is the most scary thing that exists at the time, and I think they have value in that sense.

‘The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts’ is one such novel. Focused on Eleanor and her struggle in the wake of immense grief, this book is quietly dour, and it makes for reading that’s fairly intense. It isn’t, however, a horror novel, and it very much fits into the literary fiction bucket for me.

I didn’t feel like I saw much growth for the main character or any of the satellite characters in this book. It felt like it was trying to be intentionally evasive with some of the themes, and I left with no real sense of horror or sense of purpose as to what the book wanted to achieve.

I do think that there was a certain atmosphere that carried well throughout, but it just wasn’t quite enough to keep the rest of the book moving for me. A bit of a disappointment, but I’d be excited to see the author tackle future subject material!

[Mariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grief is compounding and relentless – that is the message Kim Fu delivers with her narrative. Grief is inescapable but you find yourself infatuated it. It is the cousin you have to tolerate. Grief just is. An eerie existence in a liminal plane. Are the ghosts we meet just machinations of cope extended from grief’s hand?
The monotony of rain speaks to the way the narrative mimics the motions of grief. There is a strength to be held in the kind of writing that captures that mental process through setting alone. The narrator is hard to relate to but their thought process spirals towards an abyss of secrets. A vital read for anyone struggling with what it means to grieve.
The writing is vivid but the protagonist is difficult to like. A testament to the way grief is not linear and neither are the ghosts who may approach us. There is something especially interesting about the way ghosts are always haunting our memories. A downpour that never ends and the ghosts that never stop talking – that is only the eerie surface of the narrative. Thank you Netgalley and Tin House.
For more reviews, recommendations, and impressions, visit http://brujerialibrary.wordpress.com

[Kimberly Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I was expecting a ghostly, haunted house story. What I got was a story of deep grief, trauma, and regret. And rain.

Eleanor is a therapist who has just lost her mother to cancer. She is lost in an adult world that she is wholly unprepared for. Eleanor was completely dependent on her mother for everything, so when she attempted to fulfil her mother's dying wish of taking her inheritance and buying a house, she made all the mistakes. She purchased a totally isolated model home in a development that was never completed. As she faces the ghosts of her past, the house is falling apart around her.

This story is bleak. It moves between reality and fever dream-style hallucinations until I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. The author did a great job creating an eerie and depressed atmosphere, maybe too great of a job. I found myself not wanting to read this for too long as it would put me into a negative head space where I didn't really want to be. I would definitely suggest checking trigger warnings for end of life issues, caregiver grief, and SA.

Thank you to NetGalkey and Zando - Tin House for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and one-half Stars

Review of eBook

Eleanor Fan’s mother, Lele, has passed away, leaving Eleanor adrift. Lele had taken care of all the details of Eleanor’s life so that her daughter could focus on her work as a therapist; now the last instruction from Lele is for Eleanor to use her inheritance to buy a house.

So Eleanor is looking, but she’s been outbid four times. Will this time be different?

=========

In this meandering tale, there is much more trauma and anxiety [Eleanor’s] than there is anything to do with vengeance and haunted houses. Eleanor, conflicted and uncertain, takes an impulsive leap to buy the model house; later the rains come to flood the valley [and her house]. As the story unfolds, there are problems for both Eleanor and the house.

The adage “Physician, heal thyself” might be one Eleanor ought to consider adopting. Despite her training, she is apparently ignorant of all her mental concerns. But readers who enjoy tales of psychological issues may enjoy meeting Eleanor.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Zando Projects / Tin House and NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving this review.
#TheValleyofVengefulGhosts #NetGalley

[Sean Sandquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is a foreboding horror novel about grief, responsibility, and regret. The novel follows Eleanor, a woman who recently lost her mother Lele to cancer after taking care of her during her illness. Her mother’s dying wish was for Eleanor to take the money she inherits and purchase a house. Eleanor seemingly finds a good deal on a desolate model home, but supernatural and natural forces begin to rage and Eleanor is forced to face her past guilt and trauma.

This author does an exceptional job at establishing an eerie setting that slowly unfolds to reveal its sinister roots. At the same time it makes the reader question what is really happening to Eleanor, and whether it is more a haunting of her mind. I really enjoyed the sense of dread throughout the entire novel. It was well-written and was an interesting and introspective take on the haunted house horror.

My thanks to the publisher for sending me an Advance Reader Copy of this book. Everything stated in my review is my own opinion written in my own words.

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is a bleak but hauntingly beautiful exploration of grief in its most vulnerable form. This book was not quite what I expected, but it was a powerful, almost cathartic reading experience. One of my favorite things about reading fiction, especially horror-leaning fiction, is the way it allows readers to explore the dark from a place of safety; in The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts, the reader is plunged into the depths of what feels like very real, very raw grief and invited to explore it with the main character. This is the kind of book that you will probably need to switch it up and read something funny or more lighthearted after reading the last page; but I would say The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is more than worth reading, and that its story is very meaningful and important.

I would recommend The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts to readers who enjoy deeply emotional stories and horror that explores grief.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando Projects for the arc! All thoughts & opinions in the review are my own.

[Jensen McCorkel · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Kristie Kieffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is a beautifully crafted story that lingers long after the final page. Kim Fu weaves a haunting narrative filled with sorrow, memory, and the echoes of the past, creating a world that is both evocative and unsettling.

The characters are deeply human and vividly drawn, each carrying their own burdens, regrets, and desires. Fu’s writing captures the nuances of grief, trauma, and reconciliation with tenderness and honesty, giving the story an emotional resonance that hits hard.

The atmosphere is immersive and often eerie, perfectly complementing the story’s themes of vengeance, loss, and the supernatural. The pacing allows the tension to build steadily, keeping you engaged while also savoring the depth and beauty of the prose.

If you appreciate literary fiction that blends the haunting with the heartfelt, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is an unforgettable and moving read.

[Flutter By Night · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kim Fu writes extremely well. The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts embraces grief horror, manifested in external deterioration and decay. The carefully crafted devolution gave me serious anxiety. Eleanor’s codependency on her departed Mother, Lele, has infantilized her. Emotionally stunted, she also remains a child by choice, indecisive, unable to think for herself when it comes to practical matters or functioning, always searching for the adult in the room. She’s a difficult FMC to tolerate. The setting itself as a character is beautifully done, the atmosphere and tension thick, and immersive. I questioned many things throughout this story; some scenes and details intentionally ambiguous and slippery ; some reveals that just did not mesh with characterizations and left me puzzled and dubious. If you enjoy the supernatural, grief horror, crazy house stories, and fever dreams, check it out. You won’t miss with the prose. 4/5 stars

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is fever dreamy, psychological, slow burn horror about a young woman, Eleanor, who impulsively buys a house because her dying mother asked her to as one last wish. The house, located in a deep valley, begins to flood as the weather remains constantly rainy. Eleanor, an online therapist, is an unwell person, grieving her mother with whom she had a complicated, dependent relationship. The story itself is tense, with overtones of environmental anxiety, isolation, and economic instability looming over the narrative. This isn’t typical horror and someone going into this with the expectation of multiple scares will leave disappointed. This is a character study with extremely evocative language. Fu excels at sensory descriptions - of the house, of the weather, of character actions & descriptions. They write in a way that really enhances the fever dream nature of the story. I’ve not read anything else by them, but I look forward to reading more in the future.

[Sara Vogt · Rating 4 out of 5]

58/100
NG ARC
The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Began: 12/4/25. Finished: 12/6/25
I read 3/4 of this book in one sitting. I had forgotten what it was about and went off the title alone when I began reading it.

A lot of this book speaks to me in personal ways and I appreciate how the author explores the parent/child relationship in the context of childhood and adulthood.

Also so much metaphor is included in this book which will speak to readers in different ways.

Nothing really happens in this book on the surface but it’s all happening in the characters interior life. And in the landscape around it.

QUOTE: “She felt a painful longing - a kind of inverted nostalgia- to see what he would look like through the rest of his life, to see his face in old age, to be one of the few people who could connect all his selves together in a line.”

[Opal Edgar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I picked this book at the wrong time... and I wasn't in the mood, and it being the wet season at the moment, with buckets of rain falling over us day, after day, after day, was just too much.

The atmosphere of this book is brooding, heavy and hyper-realistic in this way you feel like you're wearing a horrible itchy jumper, and it managed to infuse a big sense of foreboding and gloom to reality. Which is, you'll agree quite some writing talent here, just not the most pleasant experience...

In fact, I found the experience too punitive, this is not what I look for when reading, so I stopped. But I'm sure fans of literature, particularly books like The Yellow Wall-Paper (the classic 1800s feminist horror), will love it.

[Ale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story really packs a punch. From the very start the atmosphere feels heavy, oppressive and tiring. I particularly liked the characters, they feel so real, and Eleanor's struggles are complex and well depicted. Every page stressed me out in the best way.
I really connected with both the story and the writing, and it perfectly depicted that feeling of time dragging while everything happens at the same time, while not relying on big twists this short book really manages to build pressure slowly, through atmosphere and detail, until you’re completely immersed. It’s a perfect little bite, leaving you both unsettled and strangely satisfied.
I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really neat story! Like it, don't love it. Eerie, impending doom vibes. Def NOT horror, at all, in any sense of the word.

This is a novel about grief and lack of identity.

Ultimately, I didn't know what to do with character by the end of the story. What is the resolution? What's the key takeaway? Is there a message, or is this just a fever dream emulating something like Nabokov or The Hole Oyomada?

Gifted from Tin House.

[Emrys Donaldson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. I really enjoyed the exploration of grief as a form of haunting and hauntedness throughout this book. The protagonist's exploration of her relationship with her deceased mother complicates her character. Fu's plotting leads to surprising reversals and twists of fortune. Throughout my reading experience, I felt a steady sense of dread: perfect for a horror novel. Highly recommend.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Kristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Rachel Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started more promising then it ended up being. I felt that the story had been building up to something that didn't follow through. I did however like the concept and many, many aspects including the slightly claustrophobic undertone...so atmosphere is bomb but the storyline and main character were not necessarily MY favorite

Thank you to the publisher for the early reading opportunity!

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc.
Having finished this on a day full of rain and sleet, I have to give props to the author for adeptly conveying the atmosphere created by persistent rain. I didn’t love the ending, but the road there was paved in palpable dread that kept me turning the (just one more) page.

[arielle]

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

RTC.

[Julianne]

Terrific premise and an extremely captivating first half.