Knowing that Linghun would be focused on grief, I took far longer than I might have in getting around to reading it, but I'm so glad I finally did.

A haunting meditation, the novella Linghun is also a magical story which is as sweet as is it is horrific. For readers who've spent serious time wrapped in their own grief, there are moments where which will ring as true as any memory or moment in time, when you'll see each other in each of the characters and their flawed struggles, and too easily be able to imagine yourself ensnared in the simple traps laid out in the world Jiang builds here. Because what is so magical here--and so terrifying--is that the grief tearing at each character's fabric is just so connective that it makes each desperate situation understandable, even as different as the characters and their choices may be. As such, the novella is incredibly powerful, and with characters that will live with me for a long time yet. Even as I hated Jiang for making some of the eventual choices she made, I ended up loving the book all the more, and I suppose that goes to show the true craftsmanship here, even atop her gorgeous way with language.

The one caveat I have to give about this book: I actually went in thinking that Linghun was ONLY a novella. I didn't realize there were a few short stories included at the end of the book. The problem, simply, is that while those stories are incredible--wonderful feats of world-building and story-telling in and of themselves--they can't help paling after the depth and power encased in the fuller novella preceding them. I wish I'd known they were there and read them first, to be honest, or simply put the book down for a few weeks and then got back to them, and I think I would have appreciated them more. I'm not sure why the editors made the choice to include them after the novella, but personally, I'd suggest readers experience them seperately, either earlier or quite a bit after, so that they can receive their due attention/worth.

Either way, though, this small collection is wonderful. I'll read anything Jiang writes in the future. ( )

I read this novella as part of the Nebula finalist packet.

Linghun is about a town where people can, perhaps, reunite with their lost loved ones, and real estate is at a premium there because of that. Really, though, it is less about ghosts than it is about human psychology--how people who are alive can essentially be dead and haunting a place, and how that effects the living around them. The mood of the setting is brilliant, creepy, and subtle, but the end lost me. I didn't expect a happy ending--that wouldn't be right--but this felt abrupt, especially because I thought the higher page count meant there was more novella; instead, the end included other short works by the author. ( )

A revelation. What Jiang accomplishes in Linghun is nothing short of miraculous. Enough emotional heft to hollow out the soul with prose that cut your heart with clean, precise strokes.

Get a copy ASAP. You won't regret it. ( )