THE HUNGRY GHOST

Newly arrived in Singapore from Denmark, a girl meets a hungry ghost who may be connected to her own family.

Twelve-year-old Freja’s mother hasn’t been well, so Freja moves in for a year with her father and stepmother in Singapore. Freja isn’t certain she wants to be a part of her father’s new family, complete with twin toddler brothers. Then she meets a strange girl wearing white who keeps disappearing into the nearby Chinese cemetery. Could the girl be a ghost? And if so, why is she attracted to Freja’s family? As Freja is drawn into a supernatural world of Singaporean ghosts and spirits, she uncovers deeply buried secrets in a narrative that explores family, trauma, and memory. Freja’s father is English, her mother is Danish, and her stepmother is English and Hong Kong Chinese. The friends she makes in school are also mostly mixed-race and third culture kids, with the exception of a Singaporean Chinese girl and a boy of Chinese and German ancestry, raised by his Singaporean grandmother, who serve as Chinese cultural informants for Freja. Freja’s struggles adjusting to her family’s changing dynamics and coping with her mother’s mental illness and her own past traumas are compelling. The ghost’s past, rooted in Singapore’s history, however, is not dealt with in as much depth, with some past and present power differentials left underexamined.

Explores lost family histories and expat life, with a taste of Singaporean myth and folk tradition.