After a brief visit to South Korea earlier this week, we’re heading across to Taiwan today for a look at another thriller. However, where my last read was all about the dark side of human nature and desires, this one takes a slightly different direction. As we move around the city and the mountains, there’s a focus on supernatural matters, with the reason for our troubles rooted in history, even if only a select few hear the call. Well, it is rather faint, and it’s not exactly heralding good news – let’s find out what it’s all about…
*****
In Chang Yu-ko’s Whisper (translated by Roddy Flagg, review copy courtesy of Honford Star), we make the acquaintance of Taipei taxi driver Wu Shih-sheng. To be honest, he’s not the most pleasant of protagonists, and even if part of his abrasiveness can be put down to losing his previous job in sales after an economic downturn, there’s little indication that he’s about to rise again. He spends his days cruising around in his taxi to earn just enough money to buy beer and cigarettes, only returning to his slum home to abuse his wife, Kuo Hsiang-ying, for imaginary transgressions.
It’s not long, though, before he’s regretting his behaviour, especially when Hsiang-ying starts to hear strange noises:
Crackle…hnnnn…mmmm…nee…
A bright moon…traveler, when will your troubles…
Your troubled heart…arriving at…
A Taiwanese song, softly sung, hung by her ears. The voice was unusual, though, not like the modern singers. Hsiang-ying gave her head a good shake and the song faded into whatever tune the department store speakers were playing. Yet, when she covered her ears, it came back again, very quiet but still clear. She straightened up and scanned the food court: no sign of anyone singing. So where was the song coming from?
p.13 (Honford Star, 2021)
Eventually, she goes to a hospital to be checked up, but when she’s forcibly admitted to a psychiatric ward, she’s later found dead, despite being strapped securely to a bed. Now, it’s Shih-sheng’s turn to panic. You see, he’s heard the song, too, which means he might be next…
Whisper is a dark thriller, with plenty of horror elements. It’s a novel blending history, folklore and modern life, taking us on a tour of parts of Taiwan most readers won’t know much about. Chang creates a tale that can be enthralling at times, and if it can plod along occasionally, there’s often a twist, or a scare, just around the corner.
At the core of the book is Shih-sheng, who’s definitely not your average protagonist. He’s a truly unlikeable man, brimming with constant anger, self-pitying and quick to lash out:
His father had hit a sensitive spot. He was right: Shih-sheng was just talking. He had no intention of changing anything, or tackling his own weaknesses. All he’d ever done was avoid doing so. His misfortunes, his family responsibilities, other’s opinions – all these, he avoided facing up to. (p.73)
Funnily enough, immediately after this spot of self-analysis, he decides the best way to cope with the revelation is to throw something at his dad, which doesn’t really bode well for future development.
The problem for Shih-sheng is that for once he has no choice but to face his (literal?) demons. Having started to hear the song, and notice shadowy figures in his taxi, unless he does something about it, he’ll be going the same way as his wife. The main focus of Whisper, then, is Shih-sheng’s quest to save himself. He gradually learns more about what’s going on as he pieces together details of a curse linked to a series of deaths in the 1930s. The secret to it all lies in the mountains, and leads to an impromptu hiking trip where our taxi driver must find the truth, or perish in the attempt
While the story is entertaining enough in parts, I’m afraid I wasn’t always taken with Whisper. Quite apart from being constructed around a protagonist I’d have been quite happy to see die in the woods (and kick-started by a clear case of fridging), it’s a book that throws together a whole bunch of ideas and hopes they’ll stick. Chang attempts to combine Taiwan’s fraught colonial history, native heritage and recent events such as financial disasters, but it never really seems to fit together comfortably, and it’s not helped by a whole lot of info dumping that makes the story drag somewhat.
Another issue here is a major strand of the novel that features Hsiang-ying’s sister, Chen-shan. A wealthy, lonely housewife, she starts to wonder why her husband isn’t calling and decides to investigate, with predictable results. The writer does provide a link back to the main strand later on, but to be honest the story would have been far better off without all this, not to mention much of the content involving a rather coarse priestess that pads out the story.
It’s a shame because Whisper can be both entertaining and intriguing in places (and, like most of Honford Star’s second generation of books, it’s also a beautiful physical item). The best part of the novel is undoubtedly Shih-sheng’s misguided attempt to penetrate the demon’s mountain hide-out to save himself. Stranded in the wilderness with nobody to rely on but himself, the drunken taxi driver is forced to take a good, hard look at himself – and unsurprisingly, he doesn’t like what he sees. It’s here that we also get some of the best horror scenes in the book, one of which caught me completely by surprise – readers of a sensitive nature can consider themselves warned.
In the end, Whisper wasn’t really my kind of book, but those with a liking for thrillers may enjoy it more. In truth, I suspect Chang’s novel would work better as a film, as it relies heavily on imagery and the creepy whispering song for effect. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see an adaptation pop up at some point. As someone who tends to avoid horror films, I’m not sure I’ll be watching, but with the scary season almost upon us, you may want to give the book a try, anyway 😉
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