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A review by howlinglibraries
Bound Feet by Kelsea Yu
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Wow, this was incredible. I was sucked in from the very first page and could not put this novella down! I was so entranced by the setting and plot and characters that all I could do was enjoy the ride, and what a ride it was. This story is full of folklore and culture, but all of that takes a backseat to both the terror within these pages and the beautiful depictions of a mother's love and grief.
In Bound Feet, our narrator is facing down the first anniversary of her daughter's death, and she and her best friend have decided to revisit the Ghost Garden where the little girl drowned to give offerings to her spirit. What begins as a tragic and heartbreaking tale quickly becomes so much more when Jodi's wishes to see her daughter one more time come true, but not in a way she could ever have predicted or hoped for.
The setting of the Ghost Garden is incredible, and Kelsea does a tremendous job of transporting the reader there, but the characters are even better. Jodi is such a sympathetic narrator and it's so easy to feel her grief and loss that I wanted desperately for her to see little Ella again. I was shocked by the terrifying turn of events that took place, especially with the shocking ending that played out. I won't spoil it, but if you've read it, all I'll say is that I don't remember the last time I was so saddened and so pleased by an ending at the same time.
Child loss is my only trigger, but I'm very grateful that I've been able to overcome that trigger in recent months because I would have hated to have missed this wonderful story. Kelsea blew me away with every single page and I'm so beyond excited to read more work from her because this was genuinely one of my favorite horror stories I've read in 2022 and I'm going to be recommending it for a LONG time to come.
Buddy read with Ashley! 💖
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
✨ Representation: Jodi and Sarah are both Chinese-American and a substantial portion of the story revolves around Chinese ghost lore and culture
In Bound Feet, our narrator is facing down the first anniversary of her daughter's death, and she and her best friend have decided to revisit the Ghost Garden where the little girl drowned to give offerings to her spirit. What begins as a tragic and heartbreaking tale quickly becomes so much more when Jodi's wishes to see her daughter one more time come true, but not in a way she could ever have predicted or hoped for.
The setting of the Ghost Garden is incredible, and Kelsea does a tremendous job of transporting the reader there, but the characters are even better. Jodi is such a sympathetic narrator and it's so easy to feel her grief and loss that I wanted desperately for her to see little Ella again. I was shocked by the terrifying turn of events that took place, especially with the shocking ending that played out. I won't spoil it, but if you've read it, all I'll say is that I don't remember the last time I was so saddened and so pleased by an ending at the same time.
Child loss is my only trigger, but I'm very grateful that I've been able to overcome that trigger in recent months because I would have hated to have missed this wonderful story. Kelsea blew me away with every single page and I'm so beyond excited to read more work from her because this was genuinely one of my favorite horror stories I've read in 2022 and I'm going to be recommending it for a LONG time to come.
Buddy read with Ashley! 💖
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.
✨ Representation: Jodi and Sarah are both Chinese-American and a substantial portion of the story revolves around Chinese ghost lore and culture
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Violence, and Grief
Minor: Rape and Slavery