Fortunately, the format of Pik-Shuen Fung's Ghost Forest made it easier for readers like me. The book is short, the chapters are short, and even the text on individual pages is broken down, arranged almost like poems at times. There wasn't enough time for my mind to grow bored. Of course, it also helped that I enjoyed the characters and plot.
The plot isn't exactly intricate (it's largely about a daughter's relationship with her father) but the circumstances were very unique and compelling to me. They're a modern family of Hong Kong immigrants to Canada, except the father stays behind to work. The family visits one another periodically and it's sometimes strained between father and daughter. At these times, the father attributes it largely due to the Canadian influence on his daughter's personality and values, but perhaps some is just a universal reality between generations, opposite gender parents, etc. I didn't particularly like the father and indeed she forgives him more readily than I probably would, but it nonetheless rings authentic.
I quite enjoyed this book.
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