Kyrie

This is a very soft and introspective book. Each of the many characters in the book are trying to figure out how to be happy in life, using various methods of trying to attain that happiness in a society that says, "If you just do this, this, and this, then you will be happy."

And most of them fail in spectacular ways. Every single person that is drawn to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop is broken and disillusioned with the world, and how they're told that things should be. But Yeongju and her bookshop (and well-intentioned book recommendations) give people the space and time to think about their lives, where things went wrong, and how they want to move forward.

The act of reading the book itself feels like the act of taking and exhaling a long, steady breath.

This was such an amazing book - Anaïs Mitchell also does the narration on the audiobook, complete with singing some of the original, cut sections. It also includes sections of some of the more vocally intense parts of various songs.

She has such a hauntingly beautiful voice - both in her actual speaking voice, as well as in her poetry.

For each song, you're given the lyrics and then a breakdown of the various iterations of the song through the various productions - Vermont, Off-Broadway, England, etc. There are a lot of lyrics and themes from the early days that I wish had made it through to the final, official musical...for instance, I really saw what she was going for with the Garden of Eden allegories.

It's an absolutely stunning musical though, just the way it is. I've never had the chance to actually see it, but every few months or so I'll listen to the entire Broadway Cast album on Spotify. All of it. In one sitting.

Also just wanted to say that I knew about Anaïs before her Hadestown days, thanks to a Weather segment on Night Vale featuring her song "Of a Friday Night" from The Brighter. Gotta have my music hipster moment. I don't have very many of them. 😂

An interesting divergence from the typical collection of ghost stories - all of the tales in this book are stories that could be backed up and proven by actual newspaper articles. Naturally, many of the stories are proven to be hoaxes, or caused by a simple thing, like lights reflecting in a neighboring window, or a loose board pushed about by wind.

I do have to say though - SO MANY of these are set in Ohio! Was it not enough to be Serial Killer Central, now Ohio's got to have a grip on ghost stories as well? :P