Anthony's Reviews > The Ghost Bride

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
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it was ok
bookshelves: fantasy, sf-group-2018, poc-authors

While this started promisingly and evocatively, it quickly devolved into an overly drawn-out, languorous, tepid fable, and I progressively ceased to care about any of its characters or about what would happen to them. The first-person voice is incredibly devoid of spark or personality, and while aspects of the settings (both 19th-century Malaya and the spirit world) are interesting, I need far more than trappings to compel me to care about what’s occurring in those settings.

I had high hopes for this, but am ending up quite disappointed by it.
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Reading Progress

May 17, 2020 – Shelved
May 17, 2020 – Shelved as: to-read
May 17, 2020 – Shelved as: fantasy
May 17, 2020 – Shelved as: sf-group-2018
May 17, 2020 – Shelved as: poc-authors
July 2, 2020 – Started Reading
July 3, 2020 –
17.0% "The pace is quite languorous. Hoping it picks up a bit. The setting is fascinating, but the pace, and the extremely dry, restrained first person voice, are making it feel like a bit of a trudge."
July 6, 2020 –
49.0% "Finished Part 2. I am making slow progress with this snail-paced, blandly-written, but still slightly interesting book. I certainly don’t actively dislike it, but I’m having such trouble feeling invested."
July 8, 2020 –
79.0% "Finished Part 3. While the pace has picked up, I am still having trouble investing emotionally in the characters and story. Everything feels at a remove."
July 8, 2020 – Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-12 of 12 (12 new)

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Pujashree I totally agree. Li Lan is SO bland as a personality. The audiobook narrator was good though, the only reason I finished the book.


message 2: by Jemppu (last edited Jul 09, 2020 12:44AM) (new)

Jemppu Aww, rats. So it goes. Better next read 🤞


Anthony I hope so! This was a drag.


Dawn F Yeah, I can definitely understand about Li Lan. My rating is basically for the description of the setting which was very interesting.

I tried watching an episode of the Netflix tv show. They’ve made it into a comedy/horror YA show which totally clashed with my reading experience so I couldn’t continue. Maybe others will like it better than me!


message 5: by Mareike (new) - added it

Mareike Oh no. -.- That sounds disappointing indeed.


message 6: by Anthony (last edited Jul 09, 2020 05:30PM) (new) - rated it 2 stars

Anthony It was, Mareike. It was. I must say that none of the recent SFFBC fantasy picks have really done it for me in quite some time. Granted, I haven’t read them all, but the last ones I really enjoyed — The Once and Future King and Witchmark — were voted onto the shelf a year ago, and the last one I loved — Among Others — was a selection from before I was a member, but which I read a couple of months ago.


message 7: by Jemppu (last edited Jul 09, 2020 06:09PM) (new)

Jemppu I must admit to a similar experience with the SFFBC monthly picks, but I've read even fewer of them, so have very little room to say.

Some are still awaiting on the TBR list (Witchmark being one), some I've been hesitant to add. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August I'm perhaps most hopeful for.

Among Others was great (Walton's My Real Children even more so), but I don't think I even realized it was on the group shelf until after.


Allison Hurd Can't win 'em all! I do think a few of my next collections will be a bit older books...2018 and 2019 fantasy seem to have a feel about them that I think we've explored pretty thoroughly. I also didn't love this one, and only finished it because I listened to it. She did an excellent job with audio, and I appreciated the performance much more than the story.


message 9: by Jemppu (last edited Jul 09, 2020 06:58PM) (new)

Jemppu Allison wrote: "Can't win 'em all!.."

Certainly! And as long as there are people happy with the picks (as there seems to be), all's great!

Forty Thousand in Gehenna was a group read just too, wasn't it? A great one!

Wolf in the Whale might've been my latest monthly picks surprise delight, which I wouldn't have known to pick up if it wasn't a group read.

As of this one: I've been curious to hit play on the audio, being as praised as it is


message 10: by Mareike (new) - added it

Mareike Anthony wrote: "It was, Mareike. It was. I must say that none of the recent SFFBC fantasy picks have really done it for me in quite some time. Granted, I haven’t read them all, but the last ones I really enjoyed —..."

Ah, that's a shame. :/
I just went to look at the bookshelf and realized that there's quite a few of the fantasy picks I haven't read (both from this and from last year; I hadn't realized it, but apparently I gravitate more towards sci-fi if I have to choose due to time constraints). With the ones for the last few months I definitely remember seeing mixed reviews in my TL.
The last one I really loved was Just City. And I thought The Hollow Kingdom was off to a promising start, but as I said the other day, I don't have the stamina or occasion for an audiobook right now. But I'll get back to it eventually.

Here's to hoping that Allison is right and some of the upcoming fantasy picks will work better!


Anthony I look forward to The Just City, but wanted a bit more distance between Among Others and it before reading it.


message 12: by Mareike (new) - added it

Mareike Understandable! But I look forward to your thoughts when you get to it.


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