Linghun Book Review

by Catalina Bonati

3.5/5 stars

Linghun by Ai Jiang (2023) is a short novella of light paranormal horror. Wenqi and her family have moved to the town of HOME, where the ghosts of dead family members may or may not appear in the town’s haunted houses. She feels estranged from her family as they dote on Tianqi, her dead older/younger brother whom she cannot communicate with. She becomes friends with Liam, a boy from school whose family lingers on the lawns of the houses of HOME hoping to get their chance at owning their own house. Together, they leave the town and their unsound family members behind and try to move into a life of their own, only to be called back to HOME by unexpected deaths.

The story’s plot is very intriguing and the worldbuilding is thoughtful and eerie. HOME stands for Homecoming of Missing Entities, and not every home invites ghosts. Ghosts are only visible to their family members. They are di fu ling, earthbound spirits, as Ai Jiang explains later in her essay “A Rambling on Di Fu Ling & Death.” Wenqi’s mother loses herself in her grief and does not bathe or brush her teeth, loses track of what she is cooking, and focuses solely on Tianqi and his appearances around the house. She does not pay attention to Wenqi and is in fact quite cruel to her living daughter. Wenqi’s mother is like living dead who in Chinese tradition, places her dead son’s needs before that of the daughter, who is second to him.

Wenqi and her family illustrate how there are many different forms of grief that can be at odds with each other. Here, grief is portrayed as a mental illness that takes over life itself and destroys relationships with other living humans. As a town, HOME  creates a cult-like atmosphere in which classes at school are dedicated to talking about the ghosts that they live with. As Liam puts it, “this town worships the dead, but it has no respect for the living.” The story is also violent in its portrayal of class differences; in this town, there are “lingerers,” the people who inhabit lawns and streets without a home of their own and who are in eternal wait for an unoccupied haunted house. Houses here mainly sell at auctions which are gory events which indulge in death and violence purely for the opportunity to bid.

The ending is a bit fantastical in the sense that it is far-fetched for a secondary character who barely had contact with Wenqi to have left her with such a gift. At times, the story seems too well-rounded and nothing is surprising, even occurrences that are meant to be startling, particularly near the end. The story is too manicured to be tragic. The ending itself is also rushed, strange, and does not seem to make much sense.

The novella is followed by the previously mentioned “A Rambling on Di Fu Ling & Death,” which is a sort of short creative essay on the Chinese perception of spirits and death. Ensuing this essay are two short stories on death, the last of which is quite original. This book is an atmospheric and eerie take on loss and death, haunting in its sketch of corrosion in family ties and the desperation to reconnect with someone who is gone. The story is evocative and original, but the plot is somewhat too pruned and meticulous to be completely organic. Linghun is recommended to readers of the paranormal, of thrillers, of generational fiction, and to lovers of bleak and gothic imagery.