HOWDO 22 December 2020

Page 18

Photo: Eddie Mol

Where the Wild Ladies Are Book Review by Rebekah Villon

All ghost stories are connected. I mean, every culture builds a ghost mythos that describes their undead in terms of who they are, what they want, and what they are capable of. All ghosts inhabit the in-between realm, moving between their world and ours, and every ghost story is just one glimpse into that larger, connected, continuous world. In Where the Wild Ladies Are, Aoko Matsuda unfolds

As you read further into the book, however, you

that world of ghosts, story after story. Each story

realize that this isn’t simply a series of short

begins with a brief paragraph explaining the

stories. Some characters make a new appearance

original Japanese ghost story, and then she writes

in a different context. Some places are revisited

a modern retelling, reflection, or elaboration of

by different people for different reasons. You

that myth, often reinventing the characters as

realize that Matsuda is telling a single overlapping,

modern men and women, living lives tinged with the

complex,

supernatural.

viewpoints and perspectives.

interconnected

story,

from

various


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