Status Updates From Unquiet Spirits: Essays by ...

“Ghost Month in Taiwan” was good, but that ending though! So unsettling!

The essays in this book go from boring to intriguing/interesting/good and back to boring again. I really really wish I liked some of these essays better but some of them feel as though they don’t belong.

I don’t understand why “Holy Revelations” is included in this book as it’s about Christianity. It feels like it definitely does not belong in any capacity when compared to the other essays. I really enjoyed “Hungry Ghosts in America.” It is probably my second favorite essay in the book. “100 Livers” was also really good in that you can feel the sorrow and tragedy and want of the author to belong.

Didn’t like Becoming Ungovernable: Latah, Amok, and Disorder in Indonesia.

I think my favorite essay so far is ‘Lucky Numbers, Or Why 28 > 58’ by Eliza Chan. It is so simply and gorgeously written. I like it a lot because of the personal narrative interwoven with the numbers.

My least favorite essay/chapter so far has been “Thai Spirits & Longing to Belong.” It is genuinely not my place to be critical especially when I am not mixed or biracial. While I acknowledge the author’s own acknowledgement that she has missed out on her Thai heritage due to being half-white, it just falls so flat for me? Also, she only references herself and her own works?