The Ghost Bride

By Yangsze Choo,

Book cover of The Ghost Bride

Book description

A haunting, evocative and highly unusual romantic debut and now a Netflix Mandarin original drama premiering January 2020!

Seventeen-year-old Li Lan lives in 1890s Malaya with her quietly-ruined father, who returns one evening with a proposition - the fabulously wealthy Lim family want Li Lan to marry their son. The…

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Why read it?

3 authors picked The Ghost Bride as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I first read this book when I was ill in bed, on strong painkillers, so the setting had a heightened quality in my mind that can never be replicated. But I’ve now read it several times (and watched the Netflix TV series), and it remains a wonderful book with great settings and characters, romance, and danger. 

Before I read this book, I knew very little about Chinese Malaysian society in the late nineteenth century, and it was fascinating to learn. I also loved the Plains of the Dead, where ghosts live in houses and eat food that corresponds to the…

This unique setting (Malaysia in the late 1800s) was highlighted by the addition of fantastical elements—a spirit world layered over the “real” world, which is as real and corrupt as the one where our heroine, Li Lan, finds herself. Her struggles to find and fall in love, as well as her desire to save her home, created an unputdownable book. The romance is subtle, but sweet, and a perfect juxtaposition to some of the horrors Li Lan must endure on her spiritual journey.

This historical fantasy has some serious Spirited Away vibes working in its favor. I especially love Li Lan: her charming naivety, her compassion towards others, her stalwart convictions, and her daring to uncover secrets kept by both the living and the dead. Her would-be in-laws are all kinds of shady and her own family has skeletons in its closet, but as these truths unfold, she remains her considerate, hardworking self.

In its careful treatment of the afterlife, this story helps me contemplate my own ancestry, what honor I give to those who came before me, and what they might expect…

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