Whisper by Taiwanese author Chang Yu-ko is a ghost story with elements of indigenous folklore and Taiwan’s history with the Japanese.
Location: mainly Taipei and Mount Jade in Taiwan
Whisper synopsis
Victims all describe hearing a voice before they die gruesomely. Sometimes it’s singing an old Taiwanese song, sometimes it’s in Japanese, and sometimes it’s an anguished call for help from a loved one. Can Wu Shih-Sheng, a degenerate taxi driver in Taipei, hunt down the source of the voice that killed his wife before he becomes the next victim?
Whisper is a plot-driven, Taiwanese horror story. As well as being a chilling read, Chang Yu-Ko cleverly combines Taiwanese folklore, the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and the long-term mistreatment of the country’s aboriginal people into a story of how the past can still kill.
Book review
Whisper is about a working-class couple who live miserable lives as a result of an accident caused by one of them in the past. They both hear voices from different sources, such as a cassette player found in an abandoned cab. The right atmosphere is there from the beginning, with the sightings of young girls speaking in multiple languages making you wonder about the significance of the use of Japanese and Taiwanese words for the plot.
This is a ghost story that builds on native folklore, Taiwan’s history with the Japanese, and various interactions with mainland China.
Who lives to tell?
The four narrators all shed some light on the situation. The mystery would probably have been greater if you had only the taxi driver’s point of view, although he was not the right person to tell the whole story. Still, you get a pretty good idea of all the locations he visits as he takes you on his journey to unravel the mystery surrounding the ghost Minako. I do wonder if we really needed four narrators because the sister’s storyline could have been left out. She seems to have been there only as a vessel for some of the more gruesome scenes resulting from paths the taxi driver chose not to explore.
Who hears her voice?
I was intrigued by the abandoned taxi and the cassette recording and was a little disappointed when the creepiness didn’t center around these things. Instead, the taxi driver’s experience with the ghost was mostly indirect. At first.
In the first half of the book, the horror scenes are told in retrospect because he hears them second hand. The good thing about this is that the ghost isn’t just focused on him, which adds to the mystery, but this does reduce the tension that could have been there.
The build-up of Whisper from a mundane story to its haunting ending is well-paced. There is tension in the air every time the bad things you are expecting don’t happen. You also don’t yet know the motive of the ghost, nor do you – well, most of you – know enough about the folklore and history of the area to guess. What tradition, religion or historical aspect underlies it? It helps if you have read books from Taiwan before, so you understand some of the references. But if not, no worries, let this be your first step into the diversity of Taiwan.
Recommendation
The setting and cultural aspects of this ghost story will appeal to a foreign audience; they add to the creepy feeling because you don’t know what to expect. However, the ghost elements embedded in the story do not bring anything new to the genre. Chang Yu-ko also does not dive deep into the cultural and political themes of modern Taiwan, or provide much insight into historical events. Some other story elements could have been explored in greater depth as well. This makes Whisper interesting for those who only occasionally wander into the horror scene or are not familiar with Taiwanese literature. If that’s you, then I recommend this book to you.
I gave the book four stars because I enjoyed reading Whisper. I am very susceptible to ghost stories, especially when I read them alone at night. Not all books need to be genre-defying. Sometimes they just need to be entertaining. Whisper was such a book for me.
Interested?
Buy your copy of Whisper from Amazon.
Book details
Title: Whisper
Author: Chang Yu-ko
Translator (from Chinese): Roddy Flagg
Language: English
Publisher: Honford Star
Pages: 294
ISBN (13): 9781916277168
Publication date: 15 October 2021
About the author and translator
