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Cover of The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

The Ghost Bride

  • 490 pages · about 8 hours
  • First published 2013
  • 6 editions

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1 About this book

1893, Malaysia. Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances.

Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price. After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim's handsome new heir, Tian Bai.

Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits and monstrous bureaucracy -- including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit.

Good for readers who want: a coming-of-age story, fantasy, ghosts, and a long read.

  • Marriage
  • Coming of age
  • Fantasy, historical
  • Future life
  • Young women
  • Ghosts
  • Cultural heritage
  • Malaysia

2 About Yangsze Choo

 

Yangsze Choo (Chinese: 朱洋熹; pinyin: Zhū Yángxī) is a Malaysian writer of Chinese descent, whose novel The Night Tiger was selected as one of 70 works in the Big Jubilee Read, a campaign to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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