Linghun
WINNER OF THE NEBULA AND BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR BEST NOVELLA/LONG FICTION!
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."
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Community Reviews
This is a haunted house story unlike any I have ever read before.
This beautifully written novella immediately captured me with the mystery of Wenqi's family and this strange neighborhood they've given up everything to move to. It's called HOME and I soon learned this stood for Homecoming of Missing Entities. People would become homeless camping out on the lawns of homes in this neighborhood, waiting for one to become vacant so they could move in with the hopes of reconnecting with a lost loved one. (If they survived the purchasing process, that is)
Wenqi's family is hoping that they will be able to reunite with her older brother who died many years prior. The dynamic of her family is heartbreaking - the hope, the disillusionment, the complete disconnection from the rest of the world and how that affects them had me in its thrall. I ended up reading this novella in one sitting and highlighted over half the story because of how well written it is.
I was bewitched by the mystery of how it was this particular neighborhood was able to attract the spirits of the dead....actually, were they even the deceased family member? Could they have been something else? There was an elderly woman who had lived there for longer than anyone could remember and rumors abounded that perhaps this woman was the cause for the phenomena.
This was such a fascinating story from the creative side as well as what grief can drive a person to do. An excellent debut from Ai Jiang - I cannot wait to follow this author's budding career to see what new heights they're able to take my imagination to!
"Their stories are different, but what they seek is the same. They all want to find meaning, make meaning, see patterns where none exist. I wonder how long they've been trying to make sense of death."
This beautifully written novella immediately captured me with the mystery of Wenqi's family and this strange neighborhood they've given up everything to move to. It's called HOME and I soon learned this stood for Homecoming of Missing Entities. People would become homeless camping out on the lawns of homes in this neighborhood, waiting for one to become vacant so they could move in with the hopes of reconnecting with a lost loved one. (If they survived the purchasing process, that is)
Wenqi's family is hoping that they will be able to reunite with her older brother who died many years prior. The dynamic of her family is heartbreaking - the hope, the disillusionment, the complete disconnection from the rest of the world and how that affects them had me in its thrall. I ended up reading this novella in one sitting and highlighted over half the story because of how well written it is.
I was bewitched by the mystery of how it was this particular neighborhood was able to attract the spirits of the dead....actually, were they even the deceased family member? Could they have been something else? There was an elderly woman who had lived there for longer than anyone could remember and rumors abounded that perhaps this woman was the cause for the phenomena.
This was such a fascinating story from the creative side as well as what grief can drive a person to do. An excellent debut from Ai Jiang - I cannot wait to follow this author's budding career to see what new heights they're able to take my imagination to!
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