Fu’s descriptions of both Eleanor’s crumbling environment and her deteriorating mental state are haunting ... Books about depression are often too unpleasant for me, having struggled with mental health issues throughout my life. But Fu captures that infinite, exhausting gray with so much honesty and compassion that it feels like being seen, rather than judged or punished. In doing so, Fu reveals the power of genre fiction to use the fantastical to capture the painfully real. And just like one of the novel’s ghosts, Eleanor will stay with readers for a long time.
Fu’s prose and writing are lethal and blunt arrows, always landing on the bull’s eye. Fu’s commentary on the topic of grief, her brief descriptions about the physicality of Eleanor’s world, or how Eleanor feels at certain moments, show how talented and masterful Fu is with her craft and storytelling ... The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts is a whirlwind of human experience; and a captivating account of the messiness of grief.
Riveting ... The book’s tension is coiled and increases ... Surreal and mundane elements spiral into buyer’s remorse and emotional rebirth in the gripping novel The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts.
The story moves, like a ghost, through multiple dimensions ... Real hauntings, like real life, are never simple. Fu captures that with memorable elegance ... Highbrow horror that’s still a page-turner.
Alluring if uneven ... Fu explores her protagonist’s difficulties in coping with grief via the tropes of psychological thrillers and horror novels. The narrative keeps a tight and sometimes claustrophobic focus on the increasingly disassociated Eleanor ... This offbeat tale has its moments.
