Maali of Sri Lanka finds himself in the in-between, having just died. Other spirits surround him. Importantly, there is a choice between trusting the institution in place to port souls back into the Buddhist reincarnation cycle—or to leave that behind, and believe a spirit who claims that people are being churned enough. They tell him he was murdered and if he wishes to know what happened to him, and most importantly, obtain some measure of retribution, then he must learn from those people who stay in the between place. Where they can whisper thoughts into ears and have the person think it is their own voice. Or turn into another kind of creature altogether, such a demon or ghoul. He has seven moons to decide to go to the light, or else lose his choice completely and dwell between.

While this does have some issues with middle book syndrome, and it does like to reiterate things really often, (one time it reiterated something only two pages back) overall I think the story is great and plotting serviceable. The world building, what is there of it, is really interesting, derived from beliefs in the culture. Where it lacks somewhat substantially is in, ironically, because Maali was a photographer, is painting a scene. It is primarily dialogue, with very sparse description that generally is not repeated or altered. For something taking place in ‘89 and in Sri Lanka, and how the protagonist would be processing the world, there’s really a lot left to the reader to project onto the fiction. That’s my number one gripe. Coupled with the slow pacing near the middle, especially when how Maali negotiates this between place as a ghost and what’s possible there, it does lag and could absolutely have been truncated. It is also told in 2nd person which raises some interesting questions immediately in the fiction, but might also put off some people. For me, it worked well and felt organic. No problem.

The mystery always kept me coming back, though. How did Maali die? Will he be able to communicate really important details to his lover, DD, and best friend and presentable girlfriend, Jacki. Maali being a queer man in a society completely intolerant of that, and not being a sad, self loathing queer was really great as well. But also dangerous, always adding to a subtext to interactions. Did it play a part in his death? Did his job, photographing atrocities for various factions, finally put him in the crosshairs of someone? Or perhaps his gambling debts? All of the characters were believable, interesting, and flawed. No more than Maali himself, who was very single serving it seems. Not exactly an anti-hero or dark horse. Just very human, in a way that worked and drove home the themes well.