#ai jiang

Linghun by Ai Jiang is a fantastically haunting novella about a housing development that’s impossible to get into called HOME, a place where the dead can haunt the living, where people scramble and claw to try and get a home and get the opportunity to see their dead again. Wenqi is a young girl whose parents are desperate to see their son, who she never really knew, again. Liam is the son of a boy whose family can’t get into a house but are willing to wait til death to do so.

In this print edition, there are also two superb short stories that also flirt with the ideas of death and time. All three stories dig into why and how we grieve, and how we can allow the past to haunt and grip us, to trap us, to kill us. The rawness of grief comes through in violence, in fury, in desperate horror. A short and impactful must-read.

Ai Jiang: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of the town where all the houses are haunted Barker: that rules King: yeah that sounds really cool Jiang: oh you would think Jiang: but in fact Jiang: it's actually kind of depressing

Ai Jiang: so my family just moved into a new house today Jiang: Movin' was hard but we got squared away Jiang: Bells started ringin' and chains rattled out Jiang: I knew we'd moved in a haunted house

Jiang: see, in this town Jiang: you move into a house Jiang: and BAM! it becomes haunted Jiang: guaranteed Brian Asman: where is this town? Asman: i need to know for reasons Jiang: oh you couldn't get a house there Jiang: it's very exclusive

Jiang: there's a really long waiting list to get a house there Jiang: cuz the ghost that you're assigned Jiang: will actually turn out to be the ghost of someone you loved King: oh! i mean, that sounds good right? Jiang: yeah yeah it's good Jiang: or is it??? King: oh no!

Jiang: just think about what it would be like if your departed loved ones just hung around King: Poe: Barker: Lovecraft: Koontz: Jiang: like all the time Jiang: it'd get old real fast, believe me

Jiang: the mom is obsessed with the ghost of her dead son Jiang: so she makes his favorite food Jiang: every goddamn day Jiang: youtiao Jiang: what are we supposed to do, live on youtiao? Jiang: give me a break! Jiang: living people need other nutrients Jiang: we need protein!

King: what's a youtiao? Jiang: it's like a donut King: oh really? King: i don't know, doesn't sound so bad King: i think i could live on donuts Jiang: oh yeah that's what they all say

Jiang: just imagine Jiang: eating nothing but donuts every day Jiang: i think the living would envy the dead King: but wait, aren't the dead also eating youtiao...? Jiang: you heard me

Jiang: if someone you loved just hung around after they died Jiang: like you'd never be able to move on Jiang: you'd be doomed to be forever stuck in the past Jiang: a shadow of what you could be Koontz: whoooaaaa Koontz: it'd be like Koontz: YOU were the ghost!