Book Review: Linghun by Ai Jiang

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“There is only one reason anyone would trek through the guarding trees to get to HOME: not to seek new life, but to satisfy a longing for the dead.

“Houses in HOME sate the unending hunger of those most vulnerable, unsuspecting. They feed on our desires, our pain. So much pain. And to wallow in such pain. . . It is a hideous thing.

“Isn’t it strange? How everyone here desires their homes to be haunted?”

📚

Linghun (“soul” in Chinese) is a debut gothic novella that combines fantasy with supernatural horror to form a truly dark and harrowing modern ghost story. Primarily set in a strange and mysterious town called HOME (“Homecoming Of Missing Entities”), this beautifully written novella submerges readers within a spiritualistic, haunting-inclined community filled with bereaved families hoping to reconnect with lost loved ones. The premise is a reverse haunting, where the living refuse to let go of the dead.

With available residences in short supply, HOME is an eerie, past-rooted place frozen in time and full of empty promises, devastated hopes, and clear class distinctions. Overrun by desperate “lingerers” — homeless families who live on lawns waiting for houses to become available — the town disguises its soulless, cruel, and exploitative underbelly beneath a sparkling veneer. This facade is embodied by polished and remorseless real estate agent Tania Yemen, who lures grieving families to town, taunts them with empty promises, and dehumanizes them through brutal, bloody, and barbaric home auctions.

HOME may be a place where the living can reconnect with the dead, but it is foremost a place where residents lose touch with reality, squander the present, sacrifice ethics and morals, and risk ruination in their attempts to reach past the veil and secure basic human rights. In a society based on lies and manipulation and rooted in the belief that one can outsmart and make sense of death, can one ever really make friends, develop trust, maintain sanity, or form healthy relationships?

The narrative unfolds via three points of view, all set against a unique and uncanny, supremely gothic backdrop composed of haunted houses, outdated schools, cold-hearted residents, and estranged cultures. The POVs include Wenqi, whose parents finagled their way into HOME to reconnect with her deceased brother, and whose neglect clearly marks him as their “golden child”; Liam, whose equally neglectful lingerer family has lived on Wenqi’s lawn for more than three years in hopes of buying the house and seeing his dead sister; and Mrs., a longtime resident rumored to have arrived prior to spirits appearing and  — as she is one of the few with an unhaunted house — someone viewed as odd and likely insane.

These three intersecting storylines weave a harrowing, resonant, and universal story of loss, grief, and longing — one where mortality and sorrow level the playing field and haunt the past, present, and future. It’s a devastating and symbolic tale of hopes, rituals, and journeys where humans are “othered” as they mourn the loss of their cultures, relationships, connections, and futures. It’s a macabre, extraordinary, and singular novella unlike anything I have read previously, one that, though rooted in the fantastic, feels deeply relatable and almost tangible, as, above all, it’s a powerful and indelible homage to the one great equalizer that shadows us all.

❤Amanda

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