★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
A book of friendship, family and loneliness, The Girl and the Ghost may seem pretty normal, but it is special in its own way. A girl inherits an evil ghost from her dead grandmother, a relative she didn't even knew existed. Set in Malaysia, we get to read about a country that is not often used in books. It's close to home, so having the characters converse in Singlish was warming and relatable, though a little strange.
As a Chinese girl, it is common for us to be worried about whether or not our Malay friends are comfortable when it comes to us eating pork in front of them. One similar scene in this book was very close to my own experiences, and it caught me by surprise. But this is what we are about, living in harmony with different races and religion, even here in Singapore.
It was easy to get into the book at first, but the portion when Pink gets a little too jealous was difficult to read. It was... frustrating, to say the least, and very unpleasant. But once that hurdle is crossed, things got a lot better. The ending made me emotional, and it was enough for me to appreciate this book a lot more than I had.