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Book Review: The Girl with Ghost Eyes

THE GIRL WITH GHOST EYES by M.H. Boroson
3 Stars
Verdict: Asian folklore, fierce battles, but something missing...


Li-lin is a widow and the daughter of a renowned Daoshi exorcist in San Francisco, Chinatown, 1898. Her gift of seeing the spirits bring shame to her father, and dooms her to a short, pained life. When her father is injured by a sorcerer, Lin-lin must stop an ancient evil from destroying Chinatown.

At first I was enthralled by the mythology-rich opening, strong female lead, and the head-first dive into conflict. I enjoyed the introduction of weird and wonderful spirits with added details of Chinese culture and mythology. Five stars were on my mind.

However, something felt missing. As the book raced onwards with fight after fight, I started to lose interest. I didn't want to, because I enjoyed the opening so much. But it seemed to focus on the wrong things. It kept introducing new concepts when I craved to learn how all the pieces we already had could fit together.

I can't quite work out what it was missing. I felt there could have been more foreshadowing, more character development and interactions, and more writing with flare rather than purpose. Towards the end of the book, the writing really let it down and the story became more about action than characters or conflict... I felt very distant from Li-Lin by the last few pages when I should have felt closer.

A good edit could probably sort this out and turn it into a fantastic book. It's not short on creativity, research, and plot, but I don't think I could read the whole series as it stands.

The book was recommended to me by a beta-reader of my own work in progress which I had been writing for over a year before finding this book. I was shocked by the similarities in the details, although thinking about it, that makes sense; we have both done our research. To me, it made it feel very authentic. That's probably my favourite thing about this book: the mythology and folklore.

Source: Bought it.

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Comments

  1. Unknown10 September 2019 at 18:38

    I enjoy when authors take the time to do research and make the story feel authentic. Thank you for the review.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amanda McGill10 September 2019 at 19:54

    Great review!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous10 September 2019 at 22:16

    Great review. I do find it fustrating when the story doesn't seem to move forward

    ReplyDelete
  4. Robin Loves Reading11 September 2019 at 08:24

    Nice that you were able to enjoy this recommended book.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whispering Stories11 September 2019 at 10:10

    Great review, not one for me but mythology is big in books at the moment

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yourwordsmyink11 September 2019 at 10:15

    This sounds amazing, I’m definitely going to check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Katiria11 September 2019 at 13:21

    Great honest review, this book looks and sounds really good I might check it out! Thank you so much for sharing your awesome post and for putting this book on my radar.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Isabelle (the Book Dutchesses)15 September 2019 at 11:55

    Great review! Mythology is always interesting!

    ReplyDelete

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