The Girl with Ghost Eyes is a Dizzying Debut Grounded in Human Emotion
M.H. Boroson’s debut novel The Girl with Ghost Eyes is a joy to read. Set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century Chinatown, Boroson’s tale blends fluid, kinetic martial arts sequences with grotesque creatures and enough dramatic tension and pathos to hook readers and keep them. He uses these elements to tell the story of a young woman discovering herslef, the cultural pressures closing in around her, and the ingrained prejudices that she must overcome to carve out a place for herself.
Xian Li-Lin is an exorcist minding her family’s temple in 19th century Chinatown. Burdened with “Yin Eyes,” a defect that allows her to see spirits in the physical realm, and stigmatized as a widow (and of a beloved local hero at that), she spends most of her time maintaining the building while her well-respected father defends Chinatown from spirits that wish the inhabitants harm—until a brutal attack by a dark sorcerer named Liu Qiang leaves him maimed and bed-ridden. With evidence of something bigger and nastier on the horizon, it falls to Li-Lin to investigate the terrible events and stop Liu Qiang before he tears Chinatown apart. Armed with her magic sword, paper talismans, extensive martial arts training, and a sardonic eyeball-spirit, she sets off on a quest to make her name and save her home.
While definitely an action-driven story, Boroson takes a cue from Asian cinema and makes it more about the characters and their relationships. My favorite moments often come not from what happens, but why it happens. We understand their backgrounds and relationships, turning what are awesome moments in their own right (duels between high-level sorcerers! Pit fighting! Gambling for the fate of Chinatown!) into glorious set pieces. The story also has stakes. Li-Lin and her sidekick Mr. Yanqiu are competent, but a little out of their depth, the villains they face a truly formidable threat—I love it when the heroes spend most of the climax getting the crap beaten out of them.
At its heart, this isn’t really the story of an exorcist trying to save her home from certain destruction; it’s the story of a young woman who has fallen out of the world she thought she belonged to and must find her own way. The deals she makes to stop Liu Qiang force her to set aside her prejudices and learn to live better among her neighbors, be they demons, spirits, monsters, gangsters, those from different regions within China, or even people whose faith goes against her own. The book interrogates Li-Lin’s ingrained “old-world” views and conspires to broaden her narrow outlook at every turn. By the time she reaches the final battle, she’s fully her own person, free from the restraints pushed upon her by others, and herself.
The Girl with Ghost Eyes is a dizzying, flashy debut that stays firmly grounded in human emotion, and I can only hope its author continues to deliver on its strengths.