The Ghost Bride

Author: Yangsze Choo
Series: None
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Release Date: August 5, 2014

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

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

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.

It's been said before, but "The Ghost Bride" is basically "Spirited Away" if it were a novel and set in colonial Malaysia. Which is not a bad thing. It's been a while since I've done a review, so forgive my rustiness and the major spoilers ahead.

First, the bad. I found myself getting irritated with our main character Li Lan a lot. Whenever it's the right time, she always does the wrong thing, but whenever she does the right thing, it's always at the wrong time. For example, when she has a problem, she generally refrains from telling the people she loves but later on, she readily hands out information to people she knows she shouldn't trust.

When she discovered major revelations about certain characters, they felt very predictable, and I could easily spot them from a mile away. I couldn't help but shake my head at Li Lan for not realizing them any sooner herself. There were so many hints, girl. Should you really be surprised?

I did not appreciate how critical Li Lan was of appearances. If it was Tian Ban that haunted her dreams and not pudgy Liam Tim Ching, I swear Li Lan wouldn't mind. I am not justifying what the latter did—he was entirely spoiled and self-entitled—but really, the way Li Lan saw the whole situation...

Ahh, Er Lang. Er Lang! My darling, my love. The smooth dragon bastard that had me cracking up at every page. I did not expect for there to be a love triangle until Li Lan started ogling him way into the novel. Even then, I thought the romance between them wouldn't actually be serious. As much as I believed her love for Tian Bai was nothing more than a school girl crush, no matter how much she thought otherwise, I really thought Er Lang would amount to nothing more than a side character, forever mooning our heroine from the sidelines.

I loved Old Wong, Chendana, and even the Dutchman, Willem Ganesvoort. I enjoyed the richness of the setting, which has inspired me to do better in my own works. However, I wish we were able to explore more of the spirit world.

The ending, although for the most part, satisfying, was a tad disappointing. It was almost as if the author wanted to breeze through the last chapters and be done with it. I felt the whole plot with corruption in the underworld was wrapped up too neatly, and there were still questions that were left to be answered.

Why was the Second Wife sneaking around? If Li Lan would disappear without notice, wouldn't her father smoke himself into an opium haze while her Amah worried herself to death? I actually wanted Li Lan to spend a lifetime with Tian Bai before moving on to Er Lang, so that her family wouldn't have to experience having a missing daughter.

The School of Good and Evil

Author: Soman Chainani
Series: The School for Good and Evil, #1
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: May 14, 2013

The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.

This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…? The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

The School of Good and Evil was a rollercoaster, and it has been one helluva ride. One moment, I was hating the characters for their actions and in the next, loving every moment of it. And in some, I was just going, "Whaaaa..."

It had taken her whole life to make a single friend. And here these girls had become best friends in minutes as if making friends was the simplest thing in the world.

Agatha is your average heroine—the practical, kind of dark, just-jeans-for-me kind of gal. You've heard it before: All the girl wants is the ordinary, and she recoils at the thought of being special instead of reveling it. I could relate so strongly to her self-deprecation and loneliness, her struggle to "get with" other people, but I feel the author could have done a better job of bringing me closer to her. I know she's supposed to be the opposite of her best friend Sophie, but I'm at that point where I'm just tired of reading about these characters.

It’s this place, she thought. In Gavaldon, Sophie would forget about classes and castles and boys. In Gavaldon, they could find a happy ending together. Not here. I just need to get us home.

Agatha and Sophie are, as stated by the synopsis, kidnapped and placed in the twisted School of Good and Evil, where all manner of heroes are trained to be good and all manner of villains, evil. Except when it turns out they're... not?

“Sophie, we have the chance to save our village from a two-hundred-year-old curse, to rescue children from beatings and failings, to escape wolves, waves, gargoyles, and everything else in this awful school, and to end a story that will kill you. And you’re thinking about a boy?”

“I wanted my happy ending, Aggie,” Sophie said, tears sparkling.

Sophie is the perfect picture of a princess, with her perfect skin, perfect hair, and perfect manners, but behind lurks the face of a true villain. She has been delusioned by fairy tales, into believing a handsome prince on a white horse will make everything better. For her, the School for Good and Evil is a dream come true. Surprisingly, she ended up being my favorite character, although she did take dives into being the worst. While reading, I always looked forward to her appearances.

"Oh, Agatha, I’m a terrible friend. But I’ll have my whole life to make it up to you."

Tedros is the son of King Arthur. A bland little jock boy, who flaunts his privilege and family power. As you can see, I didn't care for the mysognistic, one track-minded brat. With him, I experienced the first time I ever hated a love-hate relationship, which is normally my favorite kind. Every time he came up, I wanted to skip on to the next scene.

The problem smashed Agatha in the face. The one that had plagued them all along. For as the two girls were pulled to their opposing towers, their opposing desires couldn’t have been clearer. Agatha wanted her only friend back. But a friend wasn’t enough for Sophie. Sophie had always wanted more.

Sophie wanted a prince.

The author seems to have a problem with building up to relationships and keeping them from becoming static, but Agatha and Sophie grew on me. I hated Tedros for being the character between the girls. I wanted them to just forget about princes and ride into the sunset.

Imagine my wonderful surprise when that's what the story ended with after all, with Agatha and Sophie exchanging "I love yous" and a kiss. Okay, so it might have just been a gesture of pure friendship, but that's still leagues further than Tedros has ever gone.

No wonder princesses were so impotent in fairy tales, she thought. If all they could do was smile, stand straight, and speak to squirrels, then what choice did they have but to wait for a boy to rescue them?

I actually finished this months ago, but pure laziness kept me from finishing my review or posting my status updates. I'm probably not going to read the next book, because I thought the ending was perfect. I wouldn't want to ruin the experience.

Some closing points, dipping in social justice area: Simpering, dependent misses are mocked, but not exactly. You can be a girly-girl yet still rock it out. Frowning at the word choice of "Arabian skin" and "exotic", but at least the character is still thought of as beautiful.

And which is it: the School for Good and Evil or the School of Good and Evil?