This was a fantastic book. I listened to the audiobook but once this releases to the public, I want to pick up a physical copy and do a reread.

I don’t always find myself enjoying books relating to Covid, I’m not really sure why but this one was didn’t fall into that category. I loved this book so much. It started strong, continued strong, and ended strong. I loved the balance between fictional horror and realistic horror. This book contains supernatural elements with ghosts, gore, and also tackles racism, prejudice, and bigotry.

This book very plainly laid out the effects of Covid specifically relating to Chinese people and the racism that openly cropped up because of it. The hate crimes, the cruel names, the mistreatment and stereotypes. Covid gave a lot of people the nerve and (in their minds), the excuse to be unapologetically and openly racist.

Cora is a crime scene cleaner and is no stranger to gore. But seeing her sister murdered at the start of the book by being shoved in front of a train, is much different. Cora starts seeing ghosts while investigating the murder of her sister and other Chinese people in her community.

Even though this book contained a lot of heaviness with very real struggles, it wasn’t too much to read. It was extremely well-done and balanced and I never felt overwhelmed while still being able to grasp the severity. I loved the plot, I loved the message, I loved the characters. The pacing was great. Everything was great. I can’t really say that I have anything to complain about in this book. I would definitely recommend this to everyone and I will be buying a physical copy once it is released.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to listen to this audiobook. All opinions are enthusiastically my own.