Linghun: Book Review
Hello dearest reader! Back here with another book review, from another Canadian author!
Before we get to that, don’t forget that I am now co-hosting a podcast about the writing craft with my friend and fellow author, Carson Winter. The Dead Languages podcast explores the science, the art, the chaos of writing in the horror genre. New episodes every Wednesday, come visit us, we don’t bite (hard.)
The Author
The Queen of Adorable Pictures, Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian author whose short fiction has appeared in F&SF, The Dark, Uncanny, The Masters Review, Prairie Fire, among others. She is a Nebula Award finalist and a member of HWA, SFWA, and Codex. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop’s 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship and the author of Linghun and I AM AI.
Visit her website or check her out on Twitter.
The Book
Published April 2023 and with cover art by Mateus Roberts, Linghun is a literary horror novel exploring themes of grief, loss, and guilt. The novel centers on a family that moves to HOME in the hopes that their house can tempt a dead family member back to visit.
From acclaimed author Ai Jiang, follow Wenqi, Liam, and Mrs. to the mysterious town of HOME, a place where the dead live again as spirits, conjured by the grief-sick population that refuses to let go. This edition includes a foreword by Yi Izzy Yu, Translator of The Shadow Book of Ji Yun, the essay "A Ramble on Di Fu Ling & Death" by the author, and two bonus short stories from Jiang: "Yǒngshí" and "Teeter Totter." — Linghun Amazon page
The Review
In a way, Linghun is about hauntings but not in any sense I have ever seen before. Jiang’s prose is careful, deliberate, heartbreaking, and heavy with emotion.
The novel drips with pain. The family is hurting. The parents because they want to see their child again, Wenqi because she is a living ghost in her family. Other at HOME suffer as they hope to be able to get a house of their own. Does seeing your dead loved ones again actually help you move on or does it only trap you in a torturous limbo? Can love thrive in a neighbourhood haunted by the living and the dead? Jiang explores all this and more.
As a fellow writer, I really admired Jiang’s distinct voice in her writing. Her style is unique and poetic.
As a more literary tale, this novel doesn’t have horror in the traditional sense, instead it explores the horror of human failings and emotions. It’s really heavy stuff!
8/10
x PLM
