Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over at #BookSquadGoals (www.booksquadgoals.com). She can be reached at emily.ecm@gmail.com.
We’re getting into the holiday season, which can be a difficult time for anyone, especially if you’ve lost a loved one. Ever since my brother died in November 2017, the holidays have just never felt the same for me. And Novembers are especially hard. Around this time of year, I find myself reaching for books that feel like a comfort to me as I deal with feelings of loss that never seem to fully go away. Sometimes that means a cheerful holiday rom-com. And sometimes that means a heart-wrenching horror novel that unpacks the intense feelings of grief in a way that says, “I understand you, and you are not alone in feeling this way.” The former is a friend giving you a warm hug, and the latter is a sympathetic voice that will cry along with you. If you’re in the mood for a book that will cry with you, you will love Linghun.
Linghun by Ai Jiang
The mysterious town of HOME is known for its ghosts. But these aren’t the kinds of ghosts that you’re used to reading about in scary stories. These ghosts don’t terrorize the living or remain where they are unwelcome. Instead, the ghosts that haunt the houses of HOME are very much wanted. In fact, people move to HOME specifically to be visited by the ghosts of their loved ones. It’s not the ghosts who cannot move on to the afterlife. It’s the living who love them and cannot let them go who keep them in this world.
Wenqi’s parents move to HOME in the hopes of reconnecting with their lost son, who died when he was just a boy. Wenqi respects her parents’ wishes, but her brother died when she was very young, so the way she grieves him is very different. She feels herself becoming more and more disconnected from her parents and their grief in HOME. When her brother appears to her, he is just a vague impression of a person, based on nearly forgotten memories of him when they were younger. Her parents see him vividly and refuse to let him go. Do they care more for their dead son than their relationship with their living daughter? Wenqi is almost certain the answer is yes.
Then there’s a woman who is just referred to as “Mrs.” She dreams of being haunted by her late husband, who, in his life, was in love with someone else. Even though she clings to his memory, she has a hard time finding his ghost in HOME because his heart belonged to another woman.
And hanging around outside the houses in HOME is Liam and his family. Their kind are called “lingerers,” people who camp out in people’s yards just waiting for them to move on so that they can become tenants in one of the highly coveted houses. Liam’s family wishes to be reconnected to their missing loved one, but the odds of landing a home for themselves seem bleak. Unless Liam is able to endear himself to Wenqi and her family… and somehow get his family to be the next in line.
If you’ve ever lost a loved one, then you’ll see the appeal of a place like HOME, a place where you never have to let go of the ones you’ve lost. Not until you’re ready. And if you’re never ready, there’s no one there to force you to move on. Grief is complicated and doesn’t just go away with time. And Linghun reminds us that the ones who have unfinished business after a death are never the ones who have died. It’s the ones who get left behind.
English (US) · 