Kristine asked Yangsze Choo:

Your worlds, both paranormal and real, seem so vivid and complex :). I was wondering, how did you manage to blend them together so well?

Yangsze Choo Hi Kristine,

I'm so glad you enjoyed them! S.E. Asia is a very colorful, vivid place filled with strange tales and stories. When I was a child, I read and heard a lot of Chinese ghost stories, and you can still see many of these customs practiced in Singapore and Malaysia today. I remember being fascinated by the elaborate, brightly coloured paper mansions that people would burn for the dead to live in, that looked like dollhouses yet were absolutely taboo to play with. So this juxtaposition between what looked like paper folk art, or a toy, and what was forbidden has always interested me. When I was writing the novel, I imagined the Chinese Afterlife filled with all these paper servants, horses, food etc. and what it would be like, all the troubles and perks of having a world which was dependent on people burning effigies for you.

I also wrote large chunks of this book late at night when my kids were (hopefully) in bed, and the later it got, the more I spooked myself. Sometimes it took all my courage to wander down the hallway to make a peanut butter sandwich! ;)

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