An Yu's Ghost Music offers a delicate and meditative exploration of what it means to live a life on the edges—where past choices reverberate like notes in a forgotten melody. If you enjoy novels where the boundary between the real and the surreal is thin, this book will capture your imagination. It plays with the concept of "ghosts" both literally and metaphorically, as characters are haunted by memories, lost ambitions, and untold stories.

What makes Ghost Music so arresting is the lyricism of An Yu's writing. Much like her debut novel Braised Pork, An Yu excels in creating vivid imagery, such as the recurring symbol of mushrooms—fungi that thrive in darkness and isolation, much like the buried emotions of the characters. Music, too, is an important motif, representing both a creative outlet and a lost connection to Song Yan's sense of self. An Yu uses these elements to convey feelings of detachment and yearning, but also the potential for rediscovery and renewal.

The novel can be described as a slow, almost dreamlike unraveling of a life. Its appeal lies in the subtle, introspective nature of the narrative. It’s less about grand plot twists and more about Song Yan's internal transformation, how she navigates the silence and space between people, and what it means to truly listen—to others, to oneself, and to the past.

The best way to describe my thoughts on this book would be “confused and captivated “.

An Yu’s writing is ethereal, and poetic. Her ability to evoke emotions, particularly the darker ones, is almost unsettling. And yet the storyline was surreal and kept me off-balance. I was drawn in through the first third of the book, but started to lose the threads as the story progressed. This book deserves a slow, methodical, focused read to elicit its true nature.

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the gifted eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

The opening gripped me, the characters intrigued me, but the story just seemed to flop around and never amount to anything.

This was a short quick read, but it isn't a story that will stick with you.

Yu's writing style was beautiful, but it is a slow going story.

This book was ethereal, spooky, and gorgeously written. I also listened to it on audiobook, and the narrator was fabulous. Highly recommended!

I don't know quite what to make of this book. The writing flows perfectly, drawing you into a place that's oddly soothing even as it unsettles you. Ghost Music is the story of a married woman after her mother-in-law comes to live with her and her husband. Despite both women's desire for the couple to have a baby, the narrator's husband is resistant to the idea. As she learns more about her husband and witnesses the grief of others, the narrator is left pondering questions like "How well do you know the people you love" "Can you know them?" "Is it possible to find your purpose?". There is no resolution to those questions (or even to the story really)

The narrator seems to adapt to sense of acceptance, but it left me rolling those questions in my mind. This is a not a bad thing, of course, but it's hard to label it as good. Haunting, perhaps? I'd be interested to read other reviews because I have the distinct feeling others would interpret it differently than I did.

Appreciated the atmospheric vibes of this. Will try the author’s other books - looking forward to braised pork.

This book sat on my digital shelf for a very long time despite its short length, and though it was briefly whimsical and magical, I have already felt it pass me by. It's like a breeze. Lovely at the moment you're in it, but I'm not spending a ton of time reflecting upon it.

An Yu is a terrific writer. The lyrical prose and imagery makes this novel worthwhile in and of itself, but then comes the unforgettable story that touched my heart. Really loved this one.

So I was pretty annoyed with this book for the first two thirds. Even with the strangeness of Song Yan receiving random mushrooms and then playing piano with a recluse pianist, this book more or less just seemed like the story of a woman clinging desperately to the idealistic notions she has about the lackluster man she married. Like, making excuses for why he didn't tell her about major aspects of his life, ignoring all the signs of how he doesn't want to have kids with her - you know, those kind of tired, sad domestic affairs. It got to the point where I felt certain that the book would just end with her forgiving him for it all, but thankfully that wasn't the case.

The last third of the book turned MY notions on my head, and not in a crazy or far out way. (I mean...there are some talking mushroom scenes in here, but the bulk of the last portion of the book is based firmly in reality.) Yu really gets to the heart of things at the end, and in a way that was both satisfying in terms of the overarching story - and to my need to see this particular dysfunctional marriage come to an end.

That said, I don't know that the good ending was worth the chore of getting to it. I think readers more interested in the other themes here - thwarted ambition, feeling a sense of disconnect from the world - may get more out of it than I did, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to recommend it.

Ghost Music is a challenging piece to discuss because, in terms of delivery, it has very much literary fiction vibes all over it. Song Yan strives for freedom, for her voice, and for a future that is not shaped by or haunted by others. She is an intriguing character to follow, and has made reading more poignant to me. Magical realism can be difficult to follow, and sometimes things felt strange and too much to me. However, I greatly enjoyed this reading experience and am looking forward to An Yu's other books.

This is a quiet and curious book about a woman in Beijing who lives with her husband and mother-in-law. Her relationship with her husband is superficial, and they live adjacent lives without much communication or intimacy. The dynamic between the three characters was very intriguing, and I had no idea how the story would play out.

Although this book may not be for everyone, certain aspects of the story appeal to me in a particular way. The struggle for connection and feeling the need to constantly suppress strong emotions is very relatable to me as a person of Chinese descent. I possess a profound curiosity about the daily lives of people in present-day China - the similarities and contrasts between my life and theirs.

The tone of the book is wistful and yearning, much of which is expressed through music. It felt like the author was trying to convey a deeper meaning with the mushrooms and Bai Yu, but that meaning was lost on me, and the story as a whole felt disjointed and incomplete. I wish there had been an author's note with a clue about her intention in writing this book and the role the central themes were meant to play.

i loved this!! i loved how absolutely nothing about the weird talking mushrooms or the quite interesting, also weird people was explained to the reader. i know that thats something not a lot of people will enjoy but i personally know that its something i love to see in books and enjoyed in this one as well. its been quite a while since i read it so i dont remember all the details but i do remember that i enjoyed it a lot. i liked seeing a woman who was unhappy with where her life was going and how stuck she felt, trying to make everyone around her happy, at the expense of her own happiness. as i was writing this review, mostly going off of the notes i took while i was reading, i realised that i actually remember even less than i thought i did, and anything i do remember feels like a fever dream? i definitely want to do a reread of this soon along with reading an yu’s other works!

As much as I appreciated the otherworldly, dreamlike, poetic quality of the writing of Ghost Music, I don't think I fully understood it enough to appreciate it.

I completely felt for Song and her loss of identity, giving up her dreams to keep her husband happy only for her life to be turned on its head, but other than that I spent the whole book just wondering what on earth was happening and why.

I honestly didnt see the connection to the mushrooms, and the random appearance of the giant orange mushrooms actually took away for me from some otherwise truly poignant moment.
.I felt like I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen to make it all make sense, but without that moment coming. I usually enjoy character driven books rather than plot driven, but this felt all vibes and no substance and just missed the mark for me.

Three stars due to some beautiful writing but overall not for me.

I thought this was an interesting read, but it didn't Grab me. I was kind of confused about the mushrooms because they had such a big role/had a lot of screen time, but I just...why? I did like the story of a woman trying to find her passion again in something that she used to love. Please send some of that my way, LOL. In general, an inspiring story with a side of nagging mother-in-law. So glad I don't have one of those

A very beautifully written book. It quite stirs your emotions. Thank you NetGalley for this hauntingly emotional book. Highly recommend.

A domestic mystery with a tender, poetic vibe. I quite enjoyed An Yu's second novel and look forward to reading more of her work!

Ghost Music by An Yu is a dark, interesting novel about a piano teacher named Song Yan. She lives in Beijing with her husband Bowen and his mother. She is struggling because she wants a baby, but her husband does not. And then she finds out that her husband has hidden much of his past from her. As she tries to decide what she wants to do with her future, she visits Bai Yu, a famous pianist who has been missing for ten years. This story was weirdly haunting, but I found it compelling. "'The way I see it,' she said, 'he can't expect anyone to understand his pain just by knowing what he's been through. Nobody knows how another person handles pain. That's why we move our lips and tell each other how we feel. If he's pretended all his life that he's come out of the past unscathed, then he can't blame his mother for believing in a strength that he's only pretended to have.'" Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book was one of the most emotional beautiful stories I've read in a long time. It hurts but kept you in it. Loved every moment

Ghost Music is a detached, abstract title following a woman -- former piano prodigy, now married teacher. Her stilted relationship with her workaholic, distant husband becomes fraught when his mother moves in and she learns of all he has lost -- a sister, a previous wife -- and never discussed with her. She then becomes doubly haunted by mysterious packages of mushrooms that arrive on her doorstep and in her dreams; then tracing the mushroom deliveries to a disappeared piano hero of hers.
The magic realism and dreary reality are in stark contrast, as people try to make peace with how music is or isn't in their lives.