Ghosts and demons from all cultures are particularly fascinating to me. So when "Of Metal and Wishes" by Sarah Fine landed in my hands, I was excited to see that the legend of a ghost who could be either benevolent or vengeful was involved. Ghosts and phantoms who have that sort of awareness, who can respond to the living and the living world, possess a dynamic potential that I seldom find in ghosts that are static in their hauntings, so I was interested to see what the author had come up with.
The story itself is something of a cross between "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Jungle": Wen and her father live at the clinic in a slaughterhouse complex, where they work together to provide medical care for minor worker ailments as well as save victims of factory accidents. And with the sadistic, lecherous factory boss cutting corners wherever he can, those accidents could become more frequent. But who will care when most slaughterhouse labor is provided by the Noor, nearly dumb animals themselves, brought in on trains from the west to provide cheap labor? After one of them humiliates her in the cafeteria not even Wen cares what happens to them. Never one to believe in ghosts or the supernatural, Wen nonetheless visits the slaughterhouse ghost's altar and challenges him to prove his existence. To Wen's dismay, it's the Noor who humiliated her who bears the mark of that proof.
From there Wen throws herself into her medical duties, spending her time and money on the Noor and trying to make up for what she's done. But her closeness with them, and with one in particular, starts to raise eyebrows among her fellow middle-class workers. With her friends ready to turn their backs on her, the factory boss panting down her neck, and her father trapped by his debt to the factory, Wen seems on her own to defend herself in a society where a woman's fragility, innocence and modesty are prized. To protect herself, Wen will have to thwart all of those expectations.
But she hasn't totally been abandoned; the ghost who first avenged her still watches over her, although that can sometimes prove frightening as well as reassuring. As she discovers his secret, Wen finds herself even more torn between being protected and fighting for the people she loves. Either way, she knows that things cannot return to the way they were before, and her decision about her own future will come at a time when labor disputes and accidents have turned the whole factory into a powder keg ready to explode.
This is definitely a love story: romantic love, love of self, family love, and love of ideals are all present and all influence the story. There were for sure some stereotypical parts, like the scenario of a woman being torn between two male suitors, and a powerful character making unwanted advances from which the woman has to be saved. At least the romance was the instigator for the other major events to take place during the story, like her support for the Noor and their subsequent rebellion, or the accidents that the ghost causes while trying to protect Wen.
Still, I personally would have rather learned more about the world outside of the compound. I had a very difficult time gleaning anything about that from the text, even to the point of deciding whether or not this was historical fiction, alternate history, or pure fantasy. There was definitely an Eastern influence involved, from names and culture to social status, but after a bit of research I could still find no trace of the events or peoples referenced in the book in actual historical accounts. I found this frustrating, and that frustration was compounded by the technological inconsistencies that popped up in the book: medical tools and equipment were primitive, but the slaughterhouse mostly functioned through the use of machinery, and one character has a functioning clockwork prosthetic arm. And then you have the clockwork spiders, vicious security measures that can shred a person (or a cow) to ribbons and then vibrate themselves into self-destruction. It's all very confusing.
Along with the inconsistent technology I was extremely frustrated at the missed opportunity to allow Wen to become a more independent person. It seems like that was part of what the story was working towards, with all the decisions she had to make for the benefit of her father and the Noor, with the judgement she faced and the adversity that she encountered. But in the end she didn't take the leap, and instead stayed in that safe bubble to try and rebuild what had been destroyed, instead of following her own wishes (and a certain someone). She was still the same little girl who needed to be saved, instead of the bravery that she occasionally showed transforming her into someone who took charge of her own life. It was kind of a waste in my mind, and I was admittedly disappointed in the outcome of the whole things.
If you're looking for a well-developed but purely romantic read with few detailed or substantiated aspects beyond that, this is a good book for you. It's classified as a Young Adult read, and while romance is the central plot, there are no gratuitous sexual encounters so it's entirely safe for your teenage reader. "Of Metal and Wishes" by Sarah Fine came out in August of this year and is now available at your favorite independent bookstore.
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