The Ghost Bride Review

I was searching the Lake County Overdrive database looking for an audiobook to download to listen to as I drive. When I came across The Ghost Bride the idea of ghost marriages piqued my curiosity. Check out the Wikipedia ghost marriage page. I checked out and downloaded the audiobook and was not disappointed. Yangsze Choo's debut book is a spell-binding mix of Chinese folklore, the supernatural and romance woven together within a murder mystery. It has been the most enjoyable audiobooks I have listened to not just in 2015 but ever! Before I had even finished the book I was recommending it! Super glad the ending went the way it did. Sometimes a narrator can make ruin an audiobook, cannot say that here. The narrator was a perfect choice and for days I would catch myself saying Li Lan (the main Character's name) in imitation of the narrator. Not only have I loved this book but those whom I've recommended it too have thoroughly enjoyed it as well, no matter if they read or listened.

Yangsze Choo’s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists.
Li Lan, the daughter of a respectable Chinese family in colonial Malaysia, hopes for a favorable marriage, but her father has lost his fortune, and she has few suitors. Instead, the wealthy Lim family urges her to become a “ghost bride” for their son, who has 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 what price?

Night after night, Li Lan is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, where she must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family.

Reminiscent of Lisa See’s Peony in Love and Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Ghost Bride is a wondrous coming-of-age story and from a remarkable new voice in fiction. - Amazon Description


The book is available for checkout through the Lake County Library System.