The Ghost Bride - discussion part 2

4. Why is Li Lan drawn to Tian Bai when they meet? How do her feelings for him change over the course of the novel, and why?
5. The ghost world Li Lan enters is a richly imagined place governed by complicated bureaucracy. How does the parallel city reflect the world of the living, and in what ways is it different?
6. When Li Lan thinks that she has found her mother ' a second wife in the ancestral Lim household ' she is shaken by how horrible she is. How does meeting her real mother, Auntie Three, help Li Lan understand her own family?
7. When Li Lan is a wandering spirit, able to observe from another perspective, what does she realize about herself and her world? Are there positive aspects to her time spent outside her body?
8. Li Lan thinks, "All who have seen ghosts and spirits are marked with a stain, and far more than Old Wong, I have trespassed where no living person ought have." How has Li Lan's time spent in the realm of the ghost world ' speaking with the dead, eating spirit offerings, seeing Er Lang's true identity ' changed her? Is it possible for her to go back to normal life?
9. When Er Lang proposes to Li Lan, he warns her, "I wouldn't underestimate the importance of family." Were you surprised by Li Lan's decision at the end of the novel? If you were in her shoes, do you think you would have chosen the same route, with its sacrifices?
10. Did you know anything about traditional Chinese folklore before reading The Ghost Bride? What did you find fascinating or strange about the mythology woven throughout the novel, and the Chinese notions of the afterlife?

(from HarperCollinsPublishers Reading Guide)

What did you think of the book?

Li Lan keeps rescuing people.  Is that good or just annoying?

Do you agree with Li Lan's assessment of Yan Hong in the end?

What do you think of Li Lan's decision?  Were you expecting it?

Please share your thoughts on the book below.

The Ghost Bride - discussion part 1

1. Perplexed by her father's absences and worried by finances and marriage negotiations, Li Lan wonders, "What was happening out in the world of men? . . . Despite the fact that my feet were not bound, I was confined to domestic quarters as though a rope tethered my ankle to our front door." How does Li Lan chafe against notions of femininity, and in what ways does she rebel?

2. Malacca is a city settled by various ethnic groups over the centuries, with a long colonial history as well. The Chinese in Malaya, like Li Lan's family, keep their own practices and dress, but don't follow tradition as rigidly as in China. How does Li Lan benefit from this blending of tradition?

3. After Li Lan gives in to Amah's superstition and visits a medium at the temple, she observes a Chinese cemetery that has been neglected due to fear of ghosts: "How different it was from the quiet Malay cemeteries, whose pawnshaped Islamic tombstones are shaded by the frangipani tree, which the Malays call the graveyard flower. Amah would never let me pluck the fragrant, creamy blossoms when I was a child. It seemed to me that in this confluence of cultures, we had acquired one another's superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts." What do you think the comforts of superstition are? As Li Lan interacts with the spirit world, does her perspective on superstition change?

(from HarperCollinsPublisher Reading Guide)

What do you think of the book so far?

What do you think of Amah and her father and most of all Li Lan?  How different is her life so far from a modern girl's life?  Is she in any real danger from refusing? What do you think of the Lim household? 

Please share your thoughts on this part of the book.

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Welcome to our book club!

 

Please use the comment section to add your thoughts.

The book club sessions will start on the days listed below but comments are not limited to the day or even the week.  Busy?  Feel free to join in anytime after the discussions are available.

 

How this works:

Please be respectful of other commenters, their ideas and their interpretations.  There will be no bullying.  Politics and religion are off limits.  Please limit your negativity.  This is supposed to fun for everyone.

 

Please join us for:

 

The Ghost Bride

by Yangsze Choo

 

 

 

The discussions for this book will be available:

*Part 1 & 2 on September 14th

*Part 3 to the end on September 21st

 

This is not a book about a bride that died but the bride of a dead person.  Set in Malaysia during the 19th Century, this book is an interesting mix of Romance, Adventure and Fantasy based on traditional Chinese folklore.  

Here are some reviews of this novel from Amazon.com:

"One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride..."

Part 19th century novel, part magical journey to the Chinese world of the dead, Yangsze Choo's debut novel The Ghost Bride is a startlingly original historical fantasy infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists. Reminiscent of Lisa See's Peony in Love and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, The Ghost Bride is a wondrous coming-of-age story from a remarkable new voice in fiction.

 

Oprah.com's  Book of the Week, Indie Next List pick, Good Housekeeping August Book Pick, Glamour Magazine Beach Read, The Bookseller Editor's Pick, Library Journal Barbara's Pick

 

"Choo's clear and charming style creates an alternate reality where the stakes are just as high as in the real world, combining grounded period storytelling with the supernatural."

 PublishersWeekly

 

"What makes all this work is the sumptuous world of Chinese émigré culture and the love story that flows under it all--the kind so full of longing, the pages practically sigh as you turn each one."

Oprah.com - Book of the Week

  

"'The Ghost Bride', an impressive first novel, takes readers on one of the wildest rides since Alice fell down the rabbit hole."

San Jose Mercury News

 

"Choo's remarkably strong and arresting first novel explores the concept of Chinese "spirit marriages" in late-nineteenth-century Malaya through the eyes of the highly relatable Li Lan...With its gripping tangles of plot and engaging characters, this truly compelling read is sure to garner much well deserved attention."

Booklist

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who 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 a terrible price.

After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim's handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits and monstrous bureaucracy--including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets--and the truth about her own family--before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.