I want to give it 4 stars so bad but it just doesn't get there for me!

The setup and the themes are beautiful, the storytelling is straight to the point without seeming sharp or abrupt and I am a big fan of magical realism elements. However it feels unconnected and unfinished. I realize contemporary books don't owe us any answers, but I really want to see a more in-depth exploration of music, expectations and the modern way of living. I want to see the elements intertwine and form an abstract picture that you can't take your eyes off of.

I was so excited for this and to some extent, I'm happy with this read. I see so much more potential in it though.

It is beautiful and poetic.
I love Debussy and chanterelles. The book was interesting, I could relate to some characters but also it was a little bit, I don't know, lacking depth?
I understand that it is a contemporary fiction and it doesn't have to answer questions like whodunnit and what's going on. But if it doesn't lead anywhere it still have to feel finished, or have an aftertaste that there is something to think about. Here I couldn't understand Bai Yu character or dreams and then didn't even care about that. Dreams in novels could be very powerful but also very few really are.

Overall it is nice novel filled with music, taste of mushrooms and some thoughts about married life and mundanity of everyday life.

This may appeal to some fantasy fans even though it's not in that genre. The writing is strong, and the unusual story is well crafted. Good stuff even though it may not appeal to a mass audience.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

I'm in awe of this book🧡.I've read a lot of books with the same genre recently and so far,Ghost Music is my most favorite. I'm a huge fan of music though I don't create one nor play any instrument but I really felt connected to this book as a whole. There are a lot of unanswered questions in the end but the best part is, I don't feel like looking for the answers at all. It was a fast-paced read, very straight forward (and not) , thought-provoking and it lingers in me after I've finished it.

I read An Yu's book Braised Pork, and immediately knew I needed more of their work. They write books that are so magical and mysterious I feel pulled in right away. Ghost Music was no disappointment, as I devoured it in two days. Full of weird dream sequences and talking mushrooms, it explores the main character's self discovery and their exploration of grief. If you like contemporary books with a little bit of weirdness, this is the book for you!

ive read Braised Pork by this author and i remember feeling very discontented with it because the story was very 没头没尾 (i could make neither heads nor tails of it). however, the author seems to have improved a lot in Ghost Music. it really is so much better now and i would go so far as to say that it is the spiritual rewriting of Braised Pork.

some similarities - her protagonists are married women who are a little disconnected from reality and society, drifting back and forth between their unsatisfying present and their unhappy pasts. they are also married to useless husbands who appear normal (if distant) but are incapable of communicating, choosing instead to repress everything until it all bursts out. in Braised Pork, the husband kills himself in the bath, leaving his wife to deal with the aftermath. in Ghost Music, the wife finds out that her husband had a sister (given away) and an ex-wife he abandoned and never spoke of. she is having some kind of crisis re: her r/s with the piano, fraught because of her concert pianist father who pressurised her until she broke. at the same time her MIL is also being very paggro about wanting grandchildren.

what makes her stories stand out is the magical realism. in Ghost Music, she is haunted in her dreams by a talking orange mushroom. when her reality begins to break down, the mushroom shows up even in her waking hours, eventually leading her to a kind of personal epiphany. this is why i say that the author’s writing has improved — the protagonist changes significantly by the end of the novel and manages to forge a new life for herself, all without her husband dying too. i also liked the descriptions of the food. i love chinese food esp mushrooms and i could practically taste and feel the textures of the different mushrooms described. on the whole, a meditative and slow-paced read that will fill your head with images of mushrooms and the colour orange.

I really enjoyed this story. I have not read much magical realism and so this was very interesting for me. This was not a story that was grounded in plot, rather an exploration of our expectations for our lives and the way that these can sometimes not be met. I would have liked more sense of a conclusion.

Thanks to NetGalley and An Yu for this advanced copy of Ghost Music in exchange for an honest review. This book follows a married piano teacher who takes in her elderly mother-in-law which leads to some revelations and general word upending. It is weird, fairly slow, and somewhat unresolved…and I liked it all. Yu is an engaging writer who balances reality and the surreal evenly. The style reminded me a little of Murakami. I did feel like the book could have ended at a couple points before it did, so it did drag out a little which was my biggest issue with the book. Otherwise, I was compelled to read it and I enjoyed the main character’s dismantling of purpose, life choices, passion and all that.

The opening gripped me, the characters intrigued me, but the story just seemed to flop around and never amount to anything. I don't need a book to be grounded in a thesis or even a plot but I do need to have some assurance that the story isn't just drifting off as the wind blows, without an anchor. In the case of this novel, I didn't feel assured. Nothing concludes. Nothing feels essential. I enjoyed the drifty feeling but only to the extent that I enjoy eating air-popped popcorn sometimes, even if it is flavorless and has no reason to exist.

e-arc provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"we pour a bit of ourselves into everything we do, every note we play, and unwittingly, one fragment at a time, we leave ourselves in the past."

what an atmospheric, confusing, cathartic little book.

it makes complete sense i read this in transit, because this story demands your full attention. it's not something you can pick up on a whim to flip through the pages a bit; what starts off as a snapshot of domestic life with a fungal focus takes an almost thriller-like twist, and both the events and the prose demand your full attention. 'ghost music' portrays the claustrophobia of domestic tension perfectly, and song yan's psychological and emotional journey is handled with the right amount of care.

this book leaves you with questions and plenty of food for thought, eager for a second helping. i truly think another 100 pages wouldn't have hurt, though the way the plot wraps up is more snug than stifling. any extra chapters would only serve to give us a deeper, more detailed look into the main character's psyche, her relationships, and mouth-watering descriptions of food. not a necessity, but i wouldn't say no.

I love weird fiction, and I can draw comparisons from An Yu's work to many others who work within this vague genre - the prose is much more simple than Bae Suah's work, but the aimless wandering of it all reminds me of what I've read of Bae's. The ability to turn something real into something that feels surreal or vice versa reminds me of Samanta Schweblin, particularly Fever Dream. I don't even want to know whether or not the "orange dust" in Ghost Music is a reference to something real, as I'm content with the surreal tone it gives the novel. And, of course, there are going to be brushes of Murakami in most works of fiction with hints of surrealism or magical realism. I've actually only read Murakami's more realistic work, but I still see similarities in how An Yu depicts relationships and detachment of her main characters. I think I may have slightly preferred Braised Pork, her previous novel, over this, but that could very well change - I find that despite rating Bae Suah's A Greater Music lower than Untold Night and Day, part of me prefers the former, especially with time to let both steep in my mind. But I wouldn't change anything without proper re-reads. Regardless, Ghost Music is a nice little novel, and I feel that it has a very rich undercurrent of philosophy and ruminations on death and on our place in the living world. There's a lot to unravel regarding everything that happens in the novel, every symbol.

I received an electronic ARC of GHOST MUSIC from NetGalley for review purposes

It's a pretty short book, and I did blaze through it during one evening. If you are a fan of Kazuo Ishiguro, this will probably be a story you enjoy. It's a melancholy and surrealist exploration of grief, loneliness, and the existential pain of being human. It reminded me quite a bit of A VIEW OF PALE HILLS by Ishiguro (in both the way the story is rendered as well as some of the plot strokes and conflicts). The book is quiet, following simple scenes of domestic and family life described with little fanfare. Yu does a great job though of weaving in the smallest of details, ones that reveal much about the characters and the conflicts at play.

Because of that, if you are not a fan of "quieter" works in which not a lot appears to happen, GHOST MUSIC probably won't be for you. I found the gentle pace of the story enthralling, as we are pulled into the minute details of Song Yan's life and the heartache of those around her. After the last page, I found myself reveling in both heartbreak and eeriness of the story.

Song Yan's narration is also very minimal. As the reader, we very much spend almost the entirety of the story in her head. Little is provided to ground us in time or place before her thoughts and memories move elsewhere. It definitely magnifies the surrealist and dream-like quality of the narrative, but something to consider if you prefer a more concrete sense of setting and time.

On that note, this is also a story that doesn't necessarily provide a clear cut ending. The surrealist nature of the book means that you should suspend a great deal of belief during your read. Song Yan describes during the story a sense of loss, but one in which she doesn't understand exactly <i>what</i> it is she's lost. That feeling encapsulates the ending for me as well.

What does it mean to be alive, to be human? This story is beautifully written, it is thought-provoking but also simplistic in its writing. If you like Murakami I assure you that you will love this read.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for letting me have a free Arc for an honest review!
This book was beyond beautiful. I was left with a haunted,surreal and dream-like wonder when I finished this. Yu touches on very difficult topics such as death, loss of dreams, loss as a whole and tragedy in such a caring and beautiful way.
The character complexities and ethereal plot were too beautiful and enticing to pass up. I loved everything about it.
This book won’t be for everyone, but I will be recommending Yu’s work to everyone I come across.

thank you to netgalley and grove atlantic for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

ghost music follows song yan, a piano teacher in Beijing, who lives a seemingly mundane life. song yan wants children, even gave up a budding career as a concert pianist to raise a family, but her husband insists upon waiting. when song yan's mother-in-law moves in, the pressure on her and her husband to have kids is doubled. strange packages of mushrooms begin appearing at song yan's doorstep, and these packages lead her to the peculiar discovery of a long-missing concert pianist, named bai yu. combining elements of magical realism, complex familial dynamics, and many, many mushroom motifs (!!), ghost music is a moving story, albeit a very strange one!

i really enjoyed ghost music, for the most part! i loved the bits of surrealism, and the analysis of the complex relationship dynamics between song yan, her mother-in-law, and her husband, bowen. an yu's writing is unpretentious and simple, but her descriptions of Beijing (esp the food!) were really vivid and lovely to read! i also think the author handled song yan's journey to self-discovery throughout the novel in an excellent way! her character development was really rewarding to watch, and the way it occurred felt super natural and realistic.

with that being said, i do feel like all of the events of the novel were building up to a grander ending, and i was a liiittle unsatisfied with how the ending was written! i wish it was a bit more concrete, or that the whole mushroom thing was explained a little more skdkkdfjks

overall - 3.5 stars!

An Yu’s upcoming Ghost Music is a surreal, minimalist novel about a listless piano teacher, a secretive husband, a crumpled stepmother and a vanished piano virtuoso. These characters are drawn together by three things: mushrooms, music and ghosts— The cover and title say as much. With these three symbols, Ghost Music remembers and questions past lives, personal histories and memories while their lives are at a standstill. It peppers in enough lies, mysteries and intrigue to enjoy the book on denotation alone but as I took my time reading the book, I found that the book was more than the sum of its parts. More than just enjoying the book for its engaging story and hazy, mysterious atmosphere — I found that a second, rarer experience emerge.

The book’s fast movements are interspersed between slow, quiet movements like a piano concerto. Between learning of her husband’s first wife or an abandoned sister, the protagonist, Song Yan, sits down to teach her student to play the piano or fries mushrooms with her mother-in-law. During these interluding moments, the lull gives chance to drift into daydream and reminiscence. Nostalghia, memories, and the past are the book’s key interests and during these slice-of-life moments, the reader hears has time to consider these subjects personally.

Just as Song Yan remembers her father and learning to play the piano, I daydreamed about my piano lessons as a boy. The book’s minimalist detailing puts the onus on the reader to imagine the piano chairs or dining tables and unavoidably, the reader will draw from memory. The piano lessons become that same small room with a distracting, warm window over the piano or the apartment becomes the rental with a dusty concrete staircase.

The book uses conversations, mannerisms and body language to ground the story while inviting the reader to recall old stories along with the characters. As I read further in, the atmosphere was entrancing; My reminiscences and memories began to overlap and intertwine with the characters’ story and the magical effect of deep, empathic immersion developed. Rather than watching the story unfold passively, my mind was actively in dialogue with the characters. “You should tell her what Julia said,” or “Why doesn’t he text you more?” In a denser book, the book would telegraph these thoughts, rendering them almost facile. But in Ghost Music, the reader comes by them so innocently and naturally that no manipulation is felt. Impressively, the illusion is maintained throughout the book and by the end of the book, the patient, guiding hand of the author has walked you through their collected thoughts on personal histories and leaves the reader’s mind to linger on questions of the truth of their own memories.

P.S. I thought reading at night and listening to the book’s selections of classical music greatly enriched the atmosphere and recommend it. The book mentions Reverie by Debussy and Clara Schumann’s Variations on a Theme of Robert Schumann by name and I thought they perfectly embodied the book’s mood.

3.5 stars

I'm very on the fence about this book.

It was written very fluidly, even when there was a switch between two stories/times it was still easy to follow along. The description of the place and food was absolutely wonderful. At times I felt like I could smell it coming from the book. I also loved the connection with the mushrooms throughout this book.

The story was captivating enough for me not to lose interest in it, but the end felt abrupt. I have a feeling that this is what the author was going for as the book dives deep into questions about life and death, what it means to be human and what makes a person an existing entity.

Those themes are right up my alley which is why I would still recommend this book to those who love books that are thought-provoking.

Ghost Music by An Yu was a very challenging book for me.
I almost put it aside a couple of times but got to a point where I was- well I might as well finish it.

This book centers around Song Yan, a young woman who was training to be a concert pianist (like her father was) as a girl.
She left the concert stage behind and became a piano teacher -doing private lessons.

The story also touches on her husband, Bowen, and a very famous concert pianist named Bai Yu who mysteriously disappeared maybe 10 years ago.

Although the book is technically linear, there are many parts that are sort of dreamlike- where mushrooms are talking to her, and she is seeing/visiting with someone who we are not sure is really there. TBF the prose is lovely, but the story is all over the place, and there are numerous loose ends, and threads in the storyline that are never resolved.
In addition, I strongly disliked how passive and non-confrontational the MC was. She leaves her husband and apt without telling him why or even saying goodbye. Then out of the blue because it's her BD, she is like 100% OK with hanging out with her estranged husband??

This book was just too spacy and weird for me, and I cannot recommend it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press, I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

As a spooky guy who likes ghosts and finds mushrooms fascinating, the cover and title of this book was enough to draw me in.
Reading further into the summary of the book made me even more keen to read it. Ghost Music delivered.
Ghost Music shows us an exploration of love and purpose from the perspective of Song Yan as she learns more about the people in her life and how their choices and actions (or inaction) shaped who they have become.
The book is a little surreal and maybe a bit hard to follow but trust in An Yu to take you on a journey and deliver you safely back home. While you will not get every answer to every question that arises I think that is part of the charm. I definitely would recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with an ARC of Ghost Music in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing this title in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: 3 1/2

If you ask me what the plot is about, I will lie.

Because I'm not sure.

Ghost Music is one of those books where the plot is an excuse to get to the deeper questions about life, death, love, and everything in-between.

Don't get me wrong: the plot is what it says on the tin. Song Yan and her husband Bowen bring his recently widowed mother to live with them. Suddenly, deliveries of mushrooms nobody asked for begin to arrive, and cooking them is the only, fragil thing bonding the women together. Song Yan quit her career as a musical prodigy to devote herself to her family, but Bowen refuses to have a child. While he's away on a business trip, Song Yan learns things about herself, her mother-in-law and her husband that send the normalcy of her life spinning.

But it's one of those books where you have to be okay with not getting all of the answers.

Ultimately, it was a really evocative, surrealist story about choices, relationships, and the meaning of life. It was a quick read for me, as it really drew me in. I really enjoyed the imagery, the culture, the characters. It had some really beautiful quotes, and it was heart-breaking at times.

So why the three and a half stars?

I guess I'm not fully okay with not getting all of the answers. I think the matter of Bai Yu was something I would especially have liked to see more of - not see it explained, because that's the charm, but... I don't know. A little explanation would have been nice, especially considering the ending.

If you typically enjoy this kind of stories, though, I would really recommend it!