my apologies if it feels like a shallow take, but reading this shortly after a [b:Crying in H Mart|54814676|Crying in H Mart|Michelle Zauner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601937850l/54814676._SX50_.jpg|68668937] reread, Seeing Ghosts feels like a play cousin (to borrow phrasing from NPR Code Switch, where I first heard author [a:Kat Chow|17092696|Kat Chow|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1624470845p2/17092696.jpg]) because it's also a memoir about maternal grief by an East Asian diaspora author. They are distinctly different, though: Kat's mother died when she was 13, so much of Seeing Ghosts is her reflecting on the ever-present absence of her mother: how would she react to things, imagining conversations with her, and so on. Seeing Ghosts also serves as a biography of her father as he lives on, quietly yearning to resolve the generational trauma of a father he never knew who died overseas in Cuba. She also weighs the impact of her dead older baby brother on her family, and her mother's wishes to be reunited with him in death.

Chow's parents are also Cantonese/Taishanese like mine, so the romanized words really felt like I was reading from a relative (I might relisten to this as an audiobook too for the tones), with a yearning for knowing who our ancestors are. ( )

This is a very interesting, and moving, memoir of a family from Mainland China, who fled to Hong Kong & later immigrated to the U.S., where the author was born. It is very personal, but she is so thoughtful - while recognizing the nuances in all the family's personalities and reactions - that the book is very enlightening, sometimes surprising, always well done. ( )

nonfiction/memoir - lifelong grief/depression after losing mother at age 14.

I liked this, but have reservations. Probably 2 stars for readability, with extra star added for value of perspective on mental health issues.

thoughtful and lyrical - this is a book to read slowly over time (i.e., not a quick read). It stalled a bit (ok, a lot) in the middle, as mental health issues sometimes do, and I thought 346 pages might be too long if it's just going to continue with these conditions that don't ever seem to change, but then I took a break and it picked up towards the end by shifting focus towards the author's relationship with her father.

good to add another person's perspective on depression to the published record, especially with the "unspeakable" stigma that persists in every culture, though not sure I would recommend this book to just anyone, or even most people. ( )

This is a well-written and deeply personal account of the author’s memories from growing up. She grieves the loss of her mother, and has a difficult relationship with her father, who she doesn’t see eye to eye with. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get interested in this at all and found myself skimming through it.
Thank you to the author and publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ( )

In her debut memoir Kat Chow tries to put the missing pieces of her family’s life in place. Liver cancer killed Chow’s mother when Chow was 14 years old, and an incident early in childhood where her mother made a silly Dracula face and told 9-year-old Chow impacted Chow. “I want you to get me stuffed so I can sit in your apartment and watch you all the time.” And it seems that her mother does watch her. Chow has many conversations with her mother trying to put the pieces together. The mother seemed to be the heart of the family. After his wife’s death, Chow’s father seemed to let the three daughters steer the family. Near the end of the book, there are family trips to China and Cuba as she continues to flesh out the family stories she has heard. It is through storytelling that Chow is able to keep her mother alive in her mind. ( )