Beyond Reality discussion

Have you finished reading The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo? Let us know what you thought!

*spoilers allowed*

I really enjoyed this book. Choo managed to weave together elements of local culture into a completely new and believable fantasy world.

The ghost bride concept is an interesting one, though I had certainly not thought of it literally. I thought the depiction of the ghost world interesting, filled with servants and belongings that retained the character of their paper originals, even rustling like paper.

There were multiple plots to follow, from corruption to murders to romance. Er Lang himself was memorable and unusual and romantic in a Mr Darcy sort of way.

I definitely enjoyed this one!

I absolutely loved the world-building and all the cultural history in the book, but thought it fell short with the actual story, especially the protagonist. I wondered a bit if it was intentional that she was a passive player in her own story, as a cultural norm--and it seemed the narrative wanted to push against that a little bit, especially in the end when she kind of rejects the norm in her choice of love interest. (You could also make an argument for the ghost world being a pale shadow reflecting life but never able to mimic it completely because life is about the unexpected, pushing boundaries, but that's probably reading too much into it.) Anyway ultimately I think the story failed to realize that theme.

I really enjoyed this one, and to me the setting was the star -- I did not know much about colonial Malaya/Malaysia, and the author really did a wonderful job portraying her cultural heritage. I also found Li Lan to be somewhat annoyingly passive and naive, but I do think that was the cultural norm for girls at that particular time and place. At times I had difficulty keeping track of the threads of the mystery, and that was my biggest problem with the book - I remember putting it down for a moment after meeting and hearing the Third Concubine's story and trying to piece together all of the twisted relationships, then just giving up and reading on, hoping it would fall into place as I went.

I was fascinated by the mythology surrounding the afterlife and did love that hell was governed by bureaucrats!

I figured that Er Lang was a dragon as soon as he gave her what was clearly one of his scales, but I did not know what that meant in this particular cultural setting.

Anyway, it wasn't perfect, but I rated it 4 stars and would like to read more from this author.

I'm really glad you all liked it so much! I agree, Shel, the mythology of the afterlife and colonial setting were the highlights for me. Excellent world-building there, and I'd love to see more from her, even though this one didn't work so much for me, because the afterlife mythology was super interesting and had a lot of weird implications about what it means to be alive or dead, or almost-alive, or almost-dead. Lots of existential themes to dig into that you could work into other books!

I enjoyed the book a lot. I really liked Li Lan. I thought the book charming and exciting. I hope there is a sequel as it seemed there was a few ghostly threads left. I completely approve of her choice of 'man' at the end. Sigh. I'm happy.

I loved the book a lot. It was right up my alley with all of the genre meshing. I loved the characters and the world building. I loved Er Lang the most. And I totally agree with you aPriL about her choice at the end. I also thought Choo did a good job in writing this so that someone like me , who knew nothing about Chinese mythology (spirit world or afterlife), understood most things.
I saw the MC as someone who went through a major disruption and almost dying and was changed by it. She saw the world differently and I think more clearly, More authentically after what she went through. So at the end she had more information about the world and people in order to know herself better and know what was a more “authentic” choice for her. As touched on above, ironic that she should learn so much about her world in a very inauthentic one.

I'm late to the party.
Like everybody else here I totally loved the setting. The idea of a ghost bride and the worldbuilding of the afterlife with the burned offerings was terrific. I had so much fun hearing about all of this.
My problem was with the typical romance plot. I'm just no fan of that. Especially nearing the end it got too much emphasis for me and felt rather cliched.

But I enjoyed the prose, the idea and the beautiful voice of the author who narrates the audiobook herself. And I will definitely pick up her other book as well.

Looks like Netflix now has a series based on the book The Ghost Bride. Here's a link: https://www.netflix.com/title/80241234

Chris wrote: "Looks like Netflix now has a series based on the book The Ghost Bride. Here's a link: https://www.netflix.com/title/80241234"

Excellent!

Chris wrote: "Looks like Netflix now has a series based on the book The Ghost Bride. Here's a link: https://www.netflix.com/title/80241234"

The book & the TV series are quite different, but both are highly enjoyable!
comparison without plot spoilers: (view spoiler)[(I thought it was like someone put the plot elements from the book into a blender & mixed it up: you could definitely see bits from the book but often in different places.) (hide spoiler)]